Santa Monica Police Arrest, Question Man in Slaying

Santa Monica police Saturday arrested a parole violator and were questioning him about the latest shooting death in the coastal city, which has been shaken by a string of slayings since October.

Terry Holt, 36, of Santa Monica, who may be a suspect in the shooting death of a man near Virginia Park, was being held without bail for violating parole, according to Lt. Gary Gallinot of the Santa Monica Police Department.

A police officer patrolling the park in the 2100 block of Virginia Avenue heard a gunshot, then saw a car speeding east on Virginia, Gallinot said.

The officer chased the vehicle and found it abandoned three blocks away, Gallinot said. About the same time the officer was pursuing the car, witnesses saw a man lying in the street in the 2000 block of Virginia Avenue and called authorities, he said.

Gallinot described the victim, who had no identification, as a Latino in his mid-30s. He had been shot once in the upper body and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Gallinot said the shooting “does not appear to be gang-related” or connected to other recent killings in the city.

Between Oct. 12 and Saturday, six people have been killed and three wounded in a city that saw one homicide in all of 1997. Four of the city’s recent murders have been blamed on a gang war, police said.

In the two other slayings, a German tourist was killed during a botched robbery attempt, and a transient apparently killed another transient on the beach.