Couple Shot to Death in Granada Hills

GRANADA HILLS —  Los Angeles police on Monday were investigating the early morning shooting deaths of a man and woman on a quiet Granada Hills cul-de-sac as a possible murder-suicide.

The victims, whose names were being held pending notification of relatives, were discovered dead about 5:30 a.m. on the front lawn of the Granada Pines apartments on Blackhawk Street near Balboa Boulevard, LAPD Lt. Bob Normandy said.

According to statements made by witnesses, the unidentified man shot the woman twice in the head and then pointed the gun at his own head and pulled the trigger. Police declined to elaborate on a motive for the killing, whether the two knew each other or if a gun was recovered from the scene.

The apartment manager said the couple did not live in the neighborhood, and residents said they had never seen the man’s sport utility vehicle or the woman’s station wagon parked in the area before Monday.

A homeless man who was sleeping in the back of his pickup truck just across the street from the apartment complex said he was awakened early Monday morning by a man and a woman talking.

“I heard a man’s and woman’s voices and the next thing I heard was bam, bam, bam, bam, bam,” said the man, who asked not to be identified. “There was no hesitation in the shooting sound. . . . I thought it was a firecracker and fell back to sleep.”

The man said several police officers woke him up about 7:30 a.m. and told him that somebody had been murdered. He said it was the latest of several visits police had paid to the neighborhood over a 36-hour period. Before this weekend, the neighborhood, which sits opposite an earthquake ghost town, had been extremely quite.

But on Saturday, he said, an officer and two women approached him and asked if he had seen anybody suspicious hanging around the neighborhood. That night, he said, a police helicopter flew over the neighborhood and shined a floodlight on the street--about the same time that a patrol car showed up.

Police were unavailable to comment on whether those incidents were in any way related to Monday’s shooting, which is the third homicide committed in the northwest Valley in two weeks.

Last week, Richard and Donna Landau were found dead inside their home at 10354 Owensmouth Ave., a few miles west of Monday’s killings. No arrests have been made in connection with the shootings, which police suspect was committed during a robbery attempt.

The Landaus are survived by their sons, Jason and Jonathan, students at Chatsworth High School, who have been identified by police as witnesses in the ongoing murder investigation. Jonathan, who was present during the attack, suffered a gunshot wound to the thigh and was treated at a local hospital and released.