Man found in river allegedly shot family

Jenna Bordelon

LOS ANGELES -- A man found floating face up in the Los Angeles River

Friday is suspected of shooting and killing his wife and daughter

Thursday night.

The body of Gabriel Ghazelian, 49, estranged husband of Zabel

Ghazelian and father of their three teenage daughters, was found about 2

p.m. Friday. Zabel Ghazelian and all three of her daughters were found

shot Thursday night in a minivan in the 1400 block of Victory Boulevard

near the Ventura (134) Freeway.

Zabel Ghazelian, 42, of Burbank, and one daughter, Garine Ghazelian,

died of gunshot wounds, police said. The other daughters were expected to

live.

Firefighters on Friday wrapped Gabriel Ghazelian’s body in plastic and

pulled it out of the shallow water under the Golden State (5) Freeway at

the junction of the Ventura (134) Freeway.

LAPD Sgt. Ron Lopez said Ghazelian jumped into the cement wash and was

killed.

“[Investigators are] saying the father is ... the suspect who shot his

wife and daughter,” Lopez said.

The other daughters, 14 and 16, were critically wounded and taken to

County-USC Medical Center, officials said. Their names were not released.

Detectives believe Ghazelian met his wife and daughters at their

Burbank home Thursday and asked them to drive him to his broken-down car.

Ghazelian pulled a handgun from his waistband and opened fire on the

mother and daughters, police said.

Police did not say how many times the gun was fired.

Coroner’s spokesman Erik Arbuthnot said the autopsies on Zabel and

Garine Ghazelian had not been performed as of Friday afternoon.

Shawn Gharibian, a witness, said he heard about the discovery of a

body in the river Friday while listening to his police scanner. He said

he saw the body under the freeway pylons and that the man found had dark

hair and was wearing a red shirt and a black jacket.

Zabel Ghazelian was a teacher at Rose and Alex Pilibos Armenian School

in Glendale, according to news reports.