Following last night’s shooting deaths of four family members in North Hills – including two adults, a toddler and a newborn – the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is investigating the incident as a murder-suicide, said authorities.
Neighbors who spoke with the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol today expressed shock and sadness regarding the violent deaths so close to their own homes, describing the family members – who they said are Armenian – as reserved people, and their community as a “quiet” place.
LAPD officers from the Devonshire Division responded to a call about 7:50 p.m. on Wednesday night about gunshots being heard at a home on the 16200 block of Londelius Street. Upon arrival, they discovered the four victims with fatal gunshot wounds inside the house, said an LAPD spokesperson.
The LA County Medical Examiner released the identities of three of the victims: Khajag Basmajian, 31; 2-year-old Alec Basmajian; and Ella Basmajian, who was six days old. The fourth victim was a woman in her 30s, who is believed to be the mother of the children.
Initial reports about the fatal shootings had described the deceased children as one child between 5 and 7 years of age, and a 4-month-old infant.
The LAPD Robbery-Homicide Division is actively investigating the case as murder-suicide.
Birgit (who declined to state her last name) lives two houses away from the site of the shooting. She believes the deceased family was a husband and wife and their two children, who she said were residing with the parents of the husband – Khajag Basmajian – either in their home or in the back house on their property. She said Khajag Basmajian’s parents moved into their house about 10 years ago and were always quiet people.
“I’ve said ‘Hi’ to [Khajag Basmajian’s parents] a couple of times over the years, but that was it,” she said, adding that they seemed to be “nice” people, but said the whole family mostly kept to themselves.
Birgit, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1971, was home at the time of the shooting, but didn’t hear anything and didn’t even realize anything had happened until emergency vehicles started arriving and cordoned off the street soon after.
“They’re saying that the mother of the kids killed her husband and the children, and then herself. I can’t even imagine wanting to kill your own children, whether it’s postpartum depression or whatever it is,” she said. “How can you put a bullet into your own child? [It’s] so heartbreaking. I’m just so sad about everything. … I feel so bad for the parents [of Khajag Basmajian].”
Neighbor Andrea Morales shared similar thoughts.
“I never really knew them – I knew who they were, but we never spoke,” said Morales. “It’s just so tragic. But what hits me the hardest about all of this is that I’m a mother and a grandmother, and I don’t think what happened to those children could ever be justified. It’s just so unfair.
“If it’s true that the mother did it, I don’t know how someone could kill their own children,” she continued. “I’ll never understand that.”
Like Birgit, neighbor Boni Dizon said he would occasionally wave hello to Basmajian’s father – whose name is Jacob, he said – but that was the extent of their interactions.
“It’s just a tragedy,” said Dizon, noting that he saw Jacob on a news report, crying and distraught. “The whole situation is so sad and so shocking. This is normally a very peaceful and quiet neighborhood, with quiet families.”