Police Seek Vehicle That Ran Down Valley Filmmaker

Documentary filmmaker Michael Craven spent the last months of his life videotaping his teenage son’s track meets in anticipation of a family reunion at the boy’s graduation, his friends and relatives said.

But instead of sharing happy moments and celebration, loved ones of the 44-year-old Canoga Park man will gather to mourn and remember a man whose life was cut short.

“He had so much to contribute and now won’t,” said his friend Scott Ross. “It’s beyond horrible.”

Craven was traveling on the Hollywood Freeway near Barham Boulevard late Saturday when youths in a sport utility vehicle threw eggs at his Jeep, Los Angeles police said.

In a move that would cost him his life, Craven cut in front of them and forced them to stop, police said. He got out and was walking toward the vehicle when the driver ran him down, authorities said. The youths sped away.

He was pronounced dead early Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

LAPD Det. Vince Bancroft said at a news conference Monday that police have no leads but are scouring dealerships across Los Angeles to find whoever recently purchased the black Chevy Suburban that had the dealer’s placard still attached.

They also are “trying to find somebody who may have encountered the youth throwing eggs at others to get a better description of the car or them,” Bancroft said.

Craven’s son, Jesse Barich, who attended the news conference, said, “I want to put the pieces [of the crime] together. Maybe it wasn’t malicious, but we want to hear their side of the story.”

Barich, who will graduate in June from San Marcos High School in Santa Barbara, said he would dedicate his last track meet to his father.

Friends and family said that Craven, a coin collector, had been working on a documentary for the last five years tracing the history of U.S. coinage and had begun to edit the project, which he hoped to release and distribute.

Craven’s son said he had worked on documentaries on Garth Brooks and edited the television shows “Real Television” and “Real Stories of the Highway Patrol.”

Craven worked on the PBS series “The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization,” said Malcolm McDonald, a spokesman for KCET-TV Channel 28 in Los Angeles.

Craven worked out of his Canoga Park apartment, to which he had recently moved from Burbank, former neighbors said.

“He always talked about how important it was for him to see his son graduate,” said Craven’s friend, Carl Bernard. “It’s a sad moment.”