Live Zoom call with witness who called 911 helps trace horrific murder after man stabbed 2 people to death in LA
ALTADENA, LOS ANGELES: A man and a woman were found stabbed to death on Monday, March 22 afternoon, in Altadena in an attack that was partially captured on Zoom, investigators said.
Deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department station in Altadena received a call during the afternoon at 2:45 p.m. of a possible kidnapping in progress. Bill Melugin, the person who had called 911, said he had witnessed an assailant kidnap the woman he was talking to while they were on a video call on Zoom.
Melugin heard a disturbance in the background of the Zoom call, which appeared to be the man, one of the victims, being dragged outside and being stabbed. The assailant then came inside the home and then tried to kidnap the woman before stabbing her to death too.
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Officers responded to the 3000 block of North Marengo Avenue and found a male body in a driveway and a female's body inside the home. Both victims were in their 60s and had been stabbed to death. Reports confirmed that they were not a couple. But how they were related to each other is not known yet. A knife, probably used in the crime, was collected from the scene as well.
About an hour after the police arrived, a man showed up at the house driving a Lexus SUV that belonged to one of the victims. The man was arrested on Monday, March 22 night, a few hours after the incident happened.
Detectives were not searching for any other suspects on Monday night. The police also haven't confirmed any motive behind the attack. The police stated that it wasn’t known if anything had been stolen from the home.
According to a report, "24 homicides and 68 shootings the city of Los Angeles saw in the first half of January (2021) were more than double the number from the same time last year. The 68 shootings marked “the highest year-to-date start in over 10 years."
"According to LAPD stats, homicides in L.A. shot up 38 percent last year, and the city’s year-end total of 349 homicide victims was its highest in over a decade. Then, as now, the L.A. neighborhoods hardest hit by the violent crime increase were predominantly poor, Black, and Latino."
The report also states: "Homicides and shootings (and car thefts) are up, while other crimes, such as rape and robbery, are down (25 percent and 17 percent, respectively), all of which has left analysts befuddled."