Man Shot to Death in Drive-by on Laurel Canyon in North Hollywood

A man riding a bicycle was shot to death on the 6800 block of Laurel Canyon Boulevard in North Hollywood around 1:37 a.m. Monday. Following the shooting, police were involved in a high-speed chase and massive air and K-9 search in Van Nuys, but the shooter and possible accomplices are still at large.

Det. Thomas Townsend of the Los Angeles Police Department North Hollywood Division said the victim was a male Hispanic and was believed to have been killed in a gang-related drive-by shooting. The victim was later identified as being 19 years old, but his name has not yet been released.

In the minutes after the homicide, it was broadcast over the North Hollywood Division's police scanner frequency that the LAPD was seeking a white '95 Astrovan last seen fleeing south on Laurel Canyon.

LAPD Detective Richard Wheeler said a sheriff's deputy who was in the area saw a van occupied by about six suspects speeding from the scene and tried to follow it, but it got away. The chase went down Vanowen from North Hollywood into Van Nuys. An officer was heard to say over the police scanner that they were in pursuit of a white van driven by a "187 suspect."

According to information overheard on the scanner, the van turned off Vanowen near Katherine Avenue and lost the officers in the residential neighborhoods. The van was later found abandoned about five miles away from the shooting near the corner of Sherman Way and Hazeltine Avenue. An LAPD helicopter was searching the area between 2 a.m. and 3:30 a.m. but then left. K-9 units were still searching the area after 5 a.m.

The victim was riding a bicycle, police said, and one was laying in the street on Laurel Canyon just a few feet from where the victim's body was covered with a sheet between two automobiles on the east side of Laurel Canyon. A member of the LAPD forensic team was also seen inspecting the bike.

The victim was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics, and his arm was visible, hanging out from under the sheet and draped onto the sidewalk, hours after the shooting.