Neighbors remember man shot at party

Esther Gordon said she’s devastated by the loss of a beloved Costa Mesa family’s son who grew up with her children.

Norman Schureman, 50, a professor at the Pasadena Art Center College of Design, was gunned down while at a Persian New Year celebration March 20. His funeral was Saturday, and he was memorialized Sunday.

“There’s nothing I can say other than the fact that it’s a sad, sad situation, such a loss, such an untimely death,” Gordon said. “I can only imagine the loss to his family.”

Schureman, whose family has been neighbors to the Gordons for more than 40 years, graduated from Estancia High School and went on to earn an art degree from the college at which he would later teach, said Esther Gordon’s husband, Jack.

Schureman’s father, Bob Schureman, taught art at Estancia.

“The whole family are wonderful people,” Jack Gordon said. “My daughter, Linda, was a classmate with Norman in high school.”

Both Schureman and his father taught at the art center, said his mother, Mary Schureman. In fact, despite his devastation, Bob Schureman went to teach his class Monday, she said.

Norman Schureman was allegedly shot in the upper torso by Steven Ronald Honma while at a Persian New Yar’s party gathering at his mother-in-law’s house in Westlake Village, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Schureman died early March 21 at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Westwood.

His parents, siblings, wife and sons never got to see him before passing away at the hospital, Mary Schureman said.

The night of the shooting, Honma apparently grew irritated after a perceived insult, fled to his house two doors down only to return back with a knife and two guns, according to the report in The Times. Though Honma is charged with murder, his defense attorney has said his client is not guilty of murder but possibly of a “lower-level homicide such as a manslaughter.”

“I’m kind of numb about (Honma), he ruined his family as well,” said Mary Schureman. “You know, there’s been a tremendous number of lives, families that have been destroyed, and what he did was a horrible thing. It’s unforgivable.”

Schureman lived in Altadena with his wife, Fati, and two sons, Milo, 11, and Kian, 9.

He was a respected design and drawing professor, who, as a hobby, helped build floats for the Rose Parade and had recently launched a line of eyewear.

The memorial service was at the Hillside Campus Sculpture Garden in Pasadena.

“We saw what an impact he had on many lives ... We got to see Norman through a lot of people’s eyes and that was very special,” Mary Schureman said.

As a child, Schureman tagged along with Bob Schureman, who, 40 years ago, began teaching at the college, according to the school.

“I can’t really think, realizing their loss,” Esther Gordon said. “It’s a loss to the community and to his students.”