‘Wrong Place at the Wrong Time’ : Businessman Shot to Death in Random Drive-By Attack

A businessman was fatally wounded Monday afternoon in an apparent random drive-by shooting in Southwest Los Angeles, police said.

Officers later arrested two teen-agers for investigation of murder.

The name of the victim was withheld pending notification of relatives. He lived in the area where he was shot near 27th Street and Halldale Avenue, police said.

The man was “a middle-aged man who was just walking home from work,” Detective Lt. Nick Bakay said. “Lord knows he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. But you’ve got these two ‘pukes’ just riding around shooting indiscriminately. They fired six to 10 shots and hit this man who had no connection whatsoever to any gangs, or criminal activity.”

The victim was carrying a rolled up copy of The Wall Street Journal and a brief case, Bakay said.

Witnesses provided a license number and a police helicopter spotted the assailants’ car running a traffic signal minutes after the shooting and informed ground units, who pursued the car through several intersections before the two suspects, ages 15 and 17, were arrested. Names were not released because of their ages.

No gun was found.

“They had about 20 blocks in which to get rid of it. . . ,” Bakay said. “We have numerous witnesses to the shooting. Many have already positively identified the car and the juveniles as the two people that were involved in the drive-by shooting,” Bakay said.

Investigators were trying to determine whether the suspects were involved in other unsolved shootings, he added.