Police Search Door to Door for Gunman

In scenes reminiscent of the North Hollywood bank shootout, scores of Los Angeles police officers conducted door-to-door searches here Tuesday as they hunted for the gunman who opened fire inside the North Valley Jewish Community Center, injuring four children and an adult.

The shooting triggered a massive show of force as more than 250 police officers converged on the San Fernando Valley. Many of the officers spent the day scouring a square-mile area of upper-middle-class homes northeast of the community center.

By Tuesday night, police had surrounded a Chatsworth motel where they believed the gunman had taken refuge. But police had not found the suspect as of late Tuesday, and police warned that he may still be at large--and should be considered armed and dangerous.

The uncertainty over the gunman’s whereabouts capped a day of terror and anxiety for area residents.

Hegine Abeshyan was walking with her 1-year-old daughter, Ananit, along Rinaldi Street, not far from the community center, when she heard the first sign of trouble: police helicopters moving in overhead.

“I knew something was wrong, so I grabbed my daughter and started to run,” Abeshyan said. “I felt so scared.”

Other residents felt the same way. They quickly sealed up their homes, locking doors, closing curtains and drawing blinds in an effort to give the impression no one was home.

But curiosity got the better of some who could be seen peeking out from behind their curtains and blinds in an attempt to catch a glimpse of the commotion outside.

Others walked out into the street to watch police methodically search neighborhoods as they had done in North Hollywood during the 1997 Bank of America holdup that ended with the deaths of two gunmen.

“It’s very easy to hide here. There are lots of trees and lots of doors,” said Jessica Baldomera, 48, a resident of Sylmar who was visiting family members in a Granada Hills neighborhood just north of Rinaldi Street.

Baldomera and other bystanders watched as police officers searched yards and knocked on doors. Officer Dave Wade of the LAPD’s canine unit explained that police dogs were checking for what is referred to as the “enhanced fear scent”--a combination of adrenaline and other human scents that agitated suspects are known to give off.

“About 50% of the neighbors appear to be home, and there doesn’t seem to be much concern,” Wade said.

The mood quickly changed, however, as soon as Wade and his counterparts left the neighborhood.

“We weren’t worried at all while they were here,” said resident Matt DeVore, 27, of Granada Hills. “But now that they’re gone, we’re getting a little nervous.

“It gives you an unsafe feeling,” he added. “Knowing that somebody did this, this close to you.”

Concern over the gunman’s whereabouts, meanwhile, prompted officials at public and private schools in the area to lock down their buildings or move students to safer locations. Children attending Camp Hillcrest at Hillcrest Christian School on Rinaldi Street, about three miles from the shooting scene, were evacuated to Shepherd of the Hills Church in Porter Ranch as a precaution.

And officials running a summer activity program at Knollwood Elementary School closed the school’s doors and kept everyone inside as soon as they saw helicopters converging on the area. School police and LAPD officers were on hand when parents arrived to pick up their youngsters.

As police canvassed the area, their search eventually led them to a North Hills neighborhood where an abandoned van carrying explosives was found and where a gunman carjacked a motorist. Police were investigating whether the two incidents were related to the Jewish community center shooting.

The search for the gunman in the Granada Hills area continued until about 4:30 p.m., when the manhunt was officially called off in the neighborhoods surrounding the crime scene. The search then shifted to the Chatsworth motel.

Detectives from the LAPD’s Detective Support Group, which is based at Parker Center and includes the well-known Robbery-Homicide unit, were to take over a multi-agency investigation. Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were already assisting local police.

With a half-dozen news and police helicopters hovering over the scene like noisy mechanical mosquitoes and the gunman still at large, it was virtually impossible for residents to carry on as normal Tuesday.

Dale Caine, 75, who lives on a cul-de-sac just south of the community center, found himself stuck in a traffic jam as he headed home after running an errand. Concern for his wife who was home alone mounted as the trip that usually takes five minutes dragged on for 45.

Police eventually directed Caine to park his car on Rinaldi Street and hike home. But before he could reach his front door, Caine was stopped and questioned by police.

“I was worried about my wife,” said Caine. “She has Alzheimer’s disease and it seemed like forever before I could get to her, but luckily I had locked the house up so well she couldn’t get out.”

Residents of one Gothic Avenue neighborhood that had been cordoned off while police searched the area began to emerge from their homes--which had turned into mini-prisons of sorts--after officers left the street shortly after 4 o’clock.

“I’ve been stuck inside my house for four hours,” said one resident as he pulled out of his garage. “I’ve got to get away from here.”

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Tamaki is a Times staff writer; O’Neil is a correspondent. Staff writers Solomon Moore and Karima Haynes also contributed to this story.