Valley News: Teens Being Chased by Police Run Into Party Attended by Many Off-Duty LAPD Officers

Here are some of the top police and fire stories recently in the San Fernando Valley from areas not directly covered by Patch. Go to Calabasas Patch, Encino-Tarzana Patch, North Hollywood-Toluca Lake Patch, Northridge-Chatsworth Patch, Sherman Oaks Patch, Studio City Patch or Woodland Hills Patch for news in those areas.

Burbank

Two Burbank men were charged Feb. 13 with murdering a Glendale resident whose remains were discovered last month in the Angeles National Forest.

Erik Thomas Pearson, 21, and Donald Thurman, 26, were scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon in Pasadena Superior Court in connection with the Jan. 7 slaying of Nicholas Carter.

The murder charge includes the special circumstance allegations of murder during the commission of a robbery and lying in wait, which makes the defendants eligible for the death penalty if convicted.

Prosecutors will decide later whether to seek capital punishment for the pair, who allegedly beat the 25-year-old victim to death, dumped his body in the forest and stole his credit cards.

Carter's body was found Jan. 19 off Big Tujunga Canyon Road following a hiker's discovery 10 days earlier of what appeared to be a shallow grave. Sheriff's deputies found the man's body several hundred yards away from the site of the initial shallow grave.

Thurman was arrested Jan. 24 by Glendale police, while Pearson was taken into custody Feb. 8.

Sylmar

Three teenagers caught spraying graffiti on a water tower at Veterans Memorial Park in Sylmar were arrested by Los Angeles County Parks Bureau deputies, a deputy said Monday.

Deputies on horseback saw the three juvenile boys spray painting their monikers in nearly four-foot-tall letters on the water tower in the county park at Sayre Street and Shablow Avenue Saturday at 3:30 p.m., said Deputy Johnie Jones of the Parks Bureau.

"Two of the juveniles were detained immediately but a third suspect was able to successfully elude the deputies by running across a narrow trail with 100 foot drops on either side of it," Jones said.     

The deputies were contacted a short time later by Los Angeles police officers on patrol in Sylmar, he said.     

The officers told deputies they had a teenager who had run into a residence where an event was taking place, and told participants he was being chased by the "cops" and needed a ride.

"Unfortunately for him, the gathering was attended by many of the Los Angeles Police Department's finest who were off-duty, and they detained him," Jones said.

The two juvenile boys were 14 and 16, both residents of the San Fernando Valley, he said. Each had a backpack with multiple cans of spray paint and instructions on how a "graffiti artist" varies the width and type of graphic he is painting.

It was estimated each teenager caused $2,500 in damage, Jones said.

They were taken to the Crescenta Valley Sheriff's Station where they were booked for suspicion of criminal graffiti vandalism, issued citations and released to their parents, he said.

Arleta

Police nabbed five stolen car suspects after a foot chase in Arleta Monday, a series of events that also included a dog being shot dead by the pursuing officers, a police officer said.

The incident began when officers from the LAPD Mission Division began following a vehicle filled with five stolen car suspects about 3:10 p.m., said the police spokesman, Officer Cleon Joseph. Police were not immediately able to say if the car itself was stolen, he said.

"At some point the suspects stopped the car and ran from the vehicle into the neighborhood around the 13400 block of Branford Street," Joseph said.

"I don't have the details of what happened but the officers shot and killed a dog sometime during the pursuit," Joseph said.

Police eventually caught all five suspects after a foot chase, Joseph said.

The fatal shooting of the dog will be investigated as an officer- involved-shooting, just like any other police shooting case, Joseph said.