4 Die in Sudden Outbreak of Violence in Usually Laid-Back Playa del Rey

The statistics of violence had caught up with quiet Playa del Rey on Tuesday. The night before, four people died of gunshot wounds in two incidents that occurred less than a mile apart and within the span of two hours.

As word of the bloodshed spread through the usually placid community near Los Angeles International Airport, some residents reacted as if their neighborhood had lost, at least for a moment, its blissful isolation from the crime that has come to characterize parts of Greater Los Angeles.

“It’s a shock,” said Laura Holtzman, a cook at The Shack, a restaurant and watering hole where one of the victims occasionally went for a beer.

Couple Shot to Death

In the first incident, a couple was shot to death in a car at the beach late Monday as they tried to flee from two men who apparently tried to rob them. In the second, a house painter killed himself after fatally shooting a man he suspected of having robbed him of a guitar and other possessions a few days earlier.

With the new killings, a police official said the number of homicides in the Pacific Division--including Playa del Rey, Venice, Palms and Westchester--jumped to 12 for the year. There were 14 slayings in the division through Aug. 31 of last year.

In the beach incident, a 25-year-old man and 24-year-old woman were sitting in a car in a corner of the parking lot at Dockweiler State Beach about 11:20 p.m. when they were confronted by two robbers, police said.

According to officers, the couple, both of Los Angeles, refused to hand over money or valuables. Instead, they rolled up the windows and tried to drive away. The robbers opened fire on the car, shattering the windows and fatally wounding the pair.

The woman was pronounced dead at the scene while the man was rushed to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, where he died about 2:30 a.m., detectives reported. The names of the victims were being withheld until relatives could be notified.

Lifeguards described Dockweiler as an “inner-city beach” at the foot of Imperial Highway that has occasional graffiti and crime problems, partly because it is one of the few beaches that allows bonfires and attracts crowds late into the evening.

But Los Angeles Police Capt. John R. Wilbanks, who commands police operations in the area, said crime problems at Dockweiler have been reduced by increasing beach patrols. He described the shooting Monday as “strictly an opportunist kind of thing.”

In the other incident, at an apartment on Pershing Drive, a 47-year-old man, described by friends as an Australian national, got into an argument with a 24-year-old man whom he believed had stolen his old Fender Telecaster guitar. He shot the man and then himself, police said.

Both men were pronounced dead at the scene. Officials also were holding release of the men’s names pending notification of relatives.

Friends of the 47-year-old described him as a happy-go-lucky man who so loved living the beach life at Playa del Rey that he recently complained about having to wear long pants instead of shorts at a party.

“He liked the life style, liked the beach,” said one acquaintance. “He didn’t deserve to die.”

Police described the four violent deaths as an aberration.

“It’s a fluke,” Wilbanks said.

And not everyone was surprised. “That type of news,” said Harold Arutunian, a 25-year resident, “doesn’t shock anyone anymore.”