Police identify victims in North Hollywood shooting

Armenian gangsters may have been responsible for the assassination-style gunfire brought against six people at a cafe in North Hollywood, killing four men and wounding two others, police said Sunday.

The suspect was believed to be a man of Armenian descent, about 30 years old, according to eyewitnesses who spoke with police.

Community leaders in the Valley Village area, which borders the section of North Hollywood, and Studio City worked today to get out their contention that the area "remains one of the safest in Los Angeles,'' in the words of the president of the neighborhood council.

The group said it has been told that Los Angeles police are working with officers in predominately-Armenian Glendale "to apprehend the suspects.'' But police were not saying if the bloodshed Saturday was linked to the gang- style killing of a woman in the Little Armenia section of Hollywood eight days earlier.

Saturday's mass shooting, with at least 17 bullets fired, occurred about 4:30 p.m. in the Hot Spot Cafe, 11651 Riverside Drive, a restaurant with dark, tinted windows that neighbors told the Daily News was often empty.

Police said the victims appeared to have been targeted and that the shooting may be related to Armenian gangs.

It was unclear how many people saw what happened at the Hot Spot Cafe, but the Los Angeles Times reported that the gunfire sent witnesses fleeing.

Three men died at the cafe, and a fourth died at a hospital. Two other victims were hospitalized, one of them reported in critical condition early today, police said.

The dead men were identified by Los Angeles police as Harut Baburyan, 28, Sarkis Karadjian, 26, Vardan Tofalyan, 31, and Hayk Yegnanyan, 25.

Police set up a mobile command post near the scene and closed a stretch of Riverside Drive overnight. About 3:30 a.m., a tow truck took away a late model Toyota sedan that had blood splattered across the rear, passenger-side quarter-panel.

The bodies of three men remained inside the restaurant overnight as detectives and coroner's investigators documented what they had. Detectives at the scene declined to go on record about the investigation. One told a City News Service reporter that the scene inside the restaurant was "a bloody massacre.''

One nearby resident who heard the gunfire told the Daily News he often saw men in suits smoking in front of the restaurant.

"The place is shady,'' Matt Edwards told the newspaper. "It opened five years ago and it's always closed and empty.''

Speaking at a news conference Saturday, LAPD Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese, who heads the Valley Bureau, said "a gunman or gunmen came in and we had a shooting with multiple victims dead.''

The case was handled by detectives from the Robbery-Homicide Division, which handles major crime scenes. Robbery-Homicide was also handling the investigation into last weekend's murder of Karyn Safaryan at her modest apartment in the Little Armenia section of Hollywood.

Karyn Safaryan was found shot to death, her throat slashed, in an apartment parking area about five miles across Cahuenga Pass from this weekend's apparent gang attack. Her slaying may have been a followup to
the murder of Safaryan's husband and daughter in Hollywood in 2008.

Police have not said that the Safrayan murders are related to this weekend's shootings at the Hot Spot Cafe, but police have said both investigations are in their early stages.

Police asked anyone with more information to call the LAPD's North Hollywood station at (818) 623-4016.