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Mysterious Killing of Vartan Avatyan Still Haunts North Hollywood

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  • Mysterious Killing of Vartan Avatyan Still Haunts North Hollywood

    Mysterious Killing of Vartan Avatyan Still Haunts North Hollywood

    The teenager was shot in the back on Oct. 17, 2010.

    By Christina Penza

    May, 2011


    It is chilling to think that the man who shot young Vartan Avatyan in the
    back was apparently just looking for someone to kill.

    As police tell it, the 18-year-old victim went to see a film in North
    Hollywood last October, along with two friends. When the film ended, the
    group left the theatre on Coldwater Canyon and Victory Boulevard and headed
    for a Subway sandwich shop. They missed the shop's midnight closing by
    minutes. It was now 12:15 a.m., October 17, 2010. They headed for another
    Subway shop, but first stopped at a traffic light. There, on the corner of
    Sherman Way and Lankershim, they saw the El Michoacano taco stand and made a
    fateful decision. `Why not?' they thought. `Let's stop here instead.' They
    ordered and paid for their food at the stand's small window, then decided to
    eat in the back parking lot on the trunk of their car.

    As they were eating, one of the friends looked back and saw a man emerge
    from a four-door, dark, compact car. That man pulled a gun from his
    waistband. Avatyan's friend yelled `Gun!.' The three friends ran as bullets
    flew. The gun-wielding criminal shot Avatyan in the back. The teenager died
    at the scene.

    Ayatyan's friends did not know the killer. This was not a robbery. It might,
    police think, have been a gang initiation, a twisted `right of passage'
    where a potential gang member must take a life as proof of his dedication to
    the criminal group. Avatyan was not a gang member. He was a working class
    teenager with dreams of a becoming of chef, of starting a family, of living
    his life.

    Police say the three workers inside the taco stand heard the gunfire, shut
    off the lights and hit the floor. That was their routine. This wasn't the
    first time they'd heard gunfire around their small restaurant.

    The killer ran back to the car driven by another person. The two headed west
    on Sherman Way.

    Police provided the attached sketch you see here. The suspect is:

    A Hispanic man

    Age 18-22.

    5'7' to 5' 8 1/2

    Between 170 and 180 lbs.

    Police need someone to come forward with information. So does Vartan's
    family. Anyone who was in the area of Sherman Way and Lankershim, after
    midnight, October 17, 2010 can help by calling North Hollywood Detective
    Kevin Royce at (818) 623-4016. You can even give information anonymously at
    Crimestoppers, 800-222-8477.

    The city council is offering a $50,000 reward for anyone who gives
    information that leads to the arrest and conviction of Vartan's killer.

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