4 people arrested in Las Vegas in Northridge slayings
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Los Angeles police detectives have arrested four people in Las Vegas in connection with a quadruple homicide in Northridge, Chief Charlie Beck announced Tuesday.
The four people were taken into custody without incident at the Silverton Hotel and Casino, Beck said. The suspects were identified as Ka Pasasouk, 31, of Los Angeles; Howard Alcantara, 30, of Glendale; Donna Rabulan, 30, of Los Angeles; and Christina Neal, 33, of Los Angeles.
Pasasouk was arrested on suspicion of murder, Beck said. The three others faced charges of aiding a felon; Alcantara faced an additional charge of robbery.
PHOTOS: Four killed in shooting at Northridge home
All four suspects remained in Clark County jail and were expected to be extradited to Los Angeles in the coming days, Beck said. The FBI assisted with the arrests, along with Las Vegas and Henderson, Nev., police.
Citing the ongoing investigation, Beck declined to reveal additional details about the case, including a motive or information about the victims.
But sources familiar with the investigation said the killings appeared to have stemmed from a dispute over personal property, although they would not say what kind of items were involved. Officers responded to the home in the 17400 block of Devonshire Street about 4:25 a.m. Sunday after a 911 caller reported hearing yelling and shots fired, police said. Authorities found four people — two men and two women — shot dead outside.
Three of the victims — a man and two women — were shot on the walkway on the left side of the home, a source familiar with the case told The Times on Monday. They were all wearing hooded sweat shirts and were about two feet apart. All three had at least one bullet wound to the head. One victim was crumpled on her knees, the source said, her face buried in the palms of her hands, ‘almost like she was praying.’ The other two victims on the walkway were face down.
The fourth victim — a man — was farther away and appeared as if he was trying to run to the backyard when he was shot. He had at least one gunshot wound, according to the source.
‘It looked like a quick kill,’ said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing.
The names of the victims have not been released. Police said the women were in their mid-20s; one man was in his mid-30s and the other man in his late 40s.
Authorities said the home was an illegal boardinghouse, with up to 17 people living in conditions that City Councilman Mitchell Englander described as ‘deplorable.’ City inspectors red-tagged parts of the property Tuesday after finding ‘numerous code violations,’ said Department of Building and Safety spokesman David Lara.
The owner of the home, Yag Kapil, said he rented out rooms but denied he was running a boardinghouse. Kapil, 78, who lives at the home, said he was bedridden and was asleep at the time of the shootings. He said he didn’t hear anything and didn’t know the victims.
The slayings stunned the quiet Northridge street, which residents said was the kind where neighbors knew one another and walked to the grocery store or synagogue nearby.
‘It’s usually sleepy-time America,’ said Richard Rutherford, 58, who was awakened by the gunfire.
The violent-crime rate for Northridge falls in the middle of all Los Angeles neighborhoods, but homicide is rare in the community, according to LAPD data analyzed in The Times’ Crime L.A. database. In the previous six months, Northridge had one homicide out of the 89 violent crimes reported. Since 2007 and before Sunday’s quadruple homicide, Northridge had 11 homicides, 10 of them south of Nordhoff Street. The location of Sunday’s slayings is on the border with Granada Hills, which typically has a much lower violent-crime rate than Northridge.
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— Andrew Blankstein and Kate Mather
