Los Angeles police detectives Tuesday arrested four people at a Las Vegas casino in connection with a quadruple homicide at a Northridge house over the weekend.
The four people were taken into custody without incident at the Silverton Hotel and Casino, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck announced at a news conference.
Beck declined to answer specific questions about the case, including any possible motive for the slayings.
But law enforcement sources told The Times the killings appeared to stem from a dispute over personal property, although they would not say what kind of items were involved. The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case was ongoing, said detectives were surprised that the dispute would have led to multiple deaths.
City Councilman Mitchell Englander said one of the suspects was believed to have lived at the Northridge home, which authorities said had been converted into an illegal boardinghouse. It's unclear whether any of the victims lived at the home.
LAPD officials identified the suspects as Ka Pasasouk, 31, of Los Angeles; Howard Alcantara, 30, of Glendale; Donna Rabulan, 30, of Los Angeles; and Christina Neal, 33, of Los Angeles.
Pasasouk was arrested on suspicion of murder, Beck said.
Court records show Pasasouk has an extensive criminal record and was on probation at the time of the killings. He has several convictions dating back to at least 2004. Pasasouk pleaded no contest to possession of methamphetamine in 2011. The year before that, he pleaded no contest to unlawful taking of a vehicle and was sentenced to state prison. In 2006, he pleaded guilty to second-degree robbery and assault likely to produce great bodily injury and sentenced to state prison. In 2004, he pleaded guilty and no contest in separate cases again involving unlawful taking of a vehicle.
The three others faced charges of aiding a felon; Alcantara faced an additional charge of robbery.
All four suspects remained in Clark County jail and were expected to be extradited to Los Angeles in the coming days, Beck said. The FBI assisted with the arrests, along with Las Vegas and Henderson, Nev., police.
Officers went to the home in the 17400 block of Devonshire Street about 4:25 a.m. Sunday after a 911 caller reported hearing yelling and shots fired, police said. Authorities found four people -- two men and two women -- shot dead outside.
Three of the victims -- a man and two women -- were shot on the walkway on the left side of the home, a source familiar with the case told The Times on Monday. They were wearing hooded sweat shirts and were about two feet apart. All three had at least one bullet wound to the head.
One victim was crumpled on her knees, the source said, her face buried in the palms of her hands, "almost like she was praying." The other two victims on the walkway were face down.
The fourth victim -- a man -- was farther away and appeared as if he was trying to run to the backyard when he was shot. He had at least one gunshot wound, according to the source.
"It looked like a quick kill," said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing.
The names of the victims have not been released. Police said the women were in their mid-20s; one man was in his mid-30s and the other man in his late 40s.
Authorities said that up to 17 people lived at the home, with conditions that Englander described as "deplorable." City inspectors red-tagged parts of the property Tuesday after finding "numerous code violations," said Department of Building and Safety spokesman David Lara.
The owner of the home, Yag Kapil, said he rented out rooms but denied he was running a boardinghouse. Kapil, 78, who lives at the home, said he was bedridden and was asleep at the time of the shootings. He said he didn't hear anything and didn't know the victims.
Copyright 2012 - Los Angeles Times
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
