Student Slain Outside Restaurant; Teen Arrested

An 18-year-old Chatsworth High School student was fatally shot outside a fast-food restaurant Tuesday afternoon and the suspected killer was arrested at an apartment nearby, police said.

The name of the victim--who suffered at least one bullet wound to the upper torso from a 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistol--was not immediately released pending notification of relatives, said Capt. Joseph Curreri of the LAPD’s Devonshire Station.

The teenager was pronounced dead at Northridge Hospital Medical Center just after 7 p.m.

The identify of the suspect--also about 18 and possibly a student at Chatsworth High--had not been released late Tuesday because he had not been officially charged with a crime, Curreri said.

“At this point, he is [only] a suspect but he does match the description,” Curreri said.

Police also took to the station as “witnesses” two women--in their late teens or early 20s--who were in the apartment unit where the suspect had taken refuge.

The shooting occurred just before 4 p.m. in the parking lot on the northwest corner of the Carl’s Jr. restaurant at De Soto Avenue and Lassen Street. The two young men were acquaintances who got into an argument outside the restaurant, Curreri said.

But one pulled out a semiautomatic pistol and fired at least seven shots--striking the victim and with at least one other shot flattening a tire on a car parked nearby, police said.

The assailant ran northwest across Lassen Street and into the alley behind the apartment complexes that face De Soto Avenue, police said. Meanwhile, the victim ran east and around the restaurant before collapsing in front of the entrance.

“They just went outside to talk but instead it looked like they were fighting,” said a 14-year-old girl who was inside the restaurant. “Then he started shooting. He did it about six times . . . then he turned around and shot again and ran.”

Police cordoned off the restaurant and the block to the west while officers with a police dog searched for the assailant.

Curreri said officers got a tip that the suspect might be in an apartment complex in the 9900 block of De Soto Avenue. At the apartment unit, Curreri said, the dog “got a scent of someone who was in fear.”

A young man and two women--at least one of them believed to be a resident of the apartment--were taken to the Devonshire Station for questioning about 7 p.m.

Residents of the apartment complex said they had seen the man who was detained in the shooting around the building in the past couple of weeks but did not know much about him.

“He said something about college in Lancaster,” said one man who had played the suspect in a game of dominoes recently. “He was just another guy.”

Times staff writer Martha Willman contributed to this story.

STORE SLAYINGS: Two are killed in Santa Monica shootout. B8

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Shooting at Fast-Food Restaurant

An 18 year-old man was shot during an argument in the parking lot of Carl’s Jr. restaurant in Chatsworth Tuesday. The suspect fled the scene but was caught around three hours later.

WHAT HAPPENED:

1. Victim is shot during an argument in the parking lot. Suspect flees toward apartment complex.

2. Victim runs to the front of restaurant and collapses.

3. Suspect is caught in the 9900 block of De Soto Ave.

Source: Staff reporting