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A man’s lifeless body was found inside a fountain at a Studio City shopping center on Ventura Boulevard this morning. A passerby called in a report of the body just after 7am, but the man was declared dead at the scene, according to the Los Angeles Times . more › More: Body Found Inside Fountain at Studio City Shopping Center
Century City is a 176-acre (712,000-m 2 ) commercial and residential district on the Westside of the City of Los Angeles . It is bounded by Westwood on the west, Rancho Park on the southwest, Cheviot Hills and Beverlywood on the southeast, and the city of Beverly Hills on the northeast. Its major thoroughfares are Santa Monica , Olympic , and Pico Boulevards (its northern boundary, central artery, and southern boundary, respectively), as well as Avenue of the Stars and Century Park East and West. Century City is an important business center, and many law firms and executives — particularly those with ties to the film, television, and music industries — have offices there. — Neighborhood of Los Angeles — Century City skyline from Santa Monica Boulevard Century City Location within Western Los Angeles Coordinates: 34°03′20″N 118°25′01″W / 34.05556°N 118.41694°W / 34.05556; -118.41694 Country United States State California County Los Angeles City Los Angeles Time zone PST ( UTC-8 ) PDT ( UTC-7 ) Skyscrapers and other important landmarks The high-rise buildings along Wilshire Boulevard in Westwood appear to blend in with those of Century City when seen at a distance, although they are separated by over three-quarters of a mile (1.2 km). Its gleaming high-rises stand in stark contrast to the small apartment buildings and single-family detached homes in the lower-density neighborhoods surrounding it, and were some of the first skyscrapers built in Los Angeles after the lifting of earthquake-related height restrictions in the early 1960s. For many years, it was home to the ABC Entertainment Center, which housed network operations for the ABC Television Network and the Shubert Theater, which hosted many famous Broadway musicals, such as Beauty and the Beast , Les Misérables , Cats , Annie , and Mamma Mia! . The Shubert was demolished in 2002 and became replaced by a modern glass building that houses the headquarters Creative Artists Agency affectionately known as the Death Star , which is part of the complex called Century Park . Some of the most recognized buildings in Century City include: The Century Towers Century Plaza Towers , commonly referred to as the “Twin Towers”. Fox Plaza , 20th Century Fox headquarters most well-known for being Nakatomi Plaza in the movie Die Hard . Constellation Place , (or the MGM Tower ) headquarters of the historic Hollywood studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer . Watt Plaza SunAmerica Center Century Plaza Hotel Century City News Aerial view of the Century City neighborhood; Fox Studios still occupies the lower left quadrant Century City Skyline as seen from Runyon Canyon Park . Feb. 19th, 2006 View of the Century City skyline from the Getty Center . Downtown Los Angeles ( Bunker Hill district) can faintly be seen to the east of Century City. Taken December 22, 2004. The Century Plaza Towers The Fox Plaza At the southern end of Century City, Fox Plaza towers over the nearby neighborhoods. History Once a backlot of 20th Century Fox , which still has its headquarters just to the southwest, the Fox studio commissioned a master-plan development from Welton Becket Associates, which was unveiled at a major press event on the “western” backlot in 1957 . In 1961, after Fox suffered a string of expensive flops, culminating in the box-office disaster Cleopatra , the film studio sold about 180 acres (0.73 km 2 ) to developer William Zeckendorf and Aluminum Co. of America, also known as Alcoa . The new owners conceived Century City as “a city within a city.” [1] In 1963 , the first building, Century City Gateway West, was complete, followed the next year by Minoru Yamasaki ‘s Century Plaza Hotel . It originally was planned to be served by the Beverly Hills Freeway (Santa Monica Boulevard to the north) and a rapid transit corridor. However, neither of these transportation improvements came to pass, and so Century City is a source of traffic irritation for the residents of Cheviot Hills to the south, since there is no direct freeway access to the center. It is likely that any westward extension of the Los Angeles MTA ‘s Metro Purple Line subway will include a stop at Century City. Much of the shopping center’s architecture and style is shown off in numerous sequences in the 1967 Fox film, A Guide for the Married Man , and can also be seen in a sequence in another Fox film of the same year, Caprice . The way the plaza looked in 1972 can be viewed in several scenes of still another Fox film, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes . Demographics In 2009, the Los Angeles Times ‘ s “Mapping L.A.” project supplied these Century City statistics: population: 5,513; median household income: $95,135. [2] Economy Northrop Grumman is headquartered in Century City, [3] [4] [5] but on January 4, 2010 announced plans to move to the Washington Metropolitan Area by 2011. [6] Companies with headquarters in Century City include Univision [7] [8] , Crystal Cruises [9] [10] , Creative Artists Agency , Moelis & Co , Canyon Capital Advisors , Ares Management , Imperial Capital, LLC , International Lease Finance Corporation and Korn/Ferry and Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger LLP . [ citation needed ] Government and infrastructure The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services SPA 5 West Area Health Office serves Century City. [11] Emergency services Fire service Los Angeles Fire Department Station 92 is the assigned fire station for the district. [12] Police service Los Angeles Police Department operates the West Los Angeles Community Police Station at 1663 Butler Avenue, 90025, serving the neighborhood. [13] Education The neighborhood is within the Los Angeles Unified School District . [14] Public schools serving it are Westwood Charter Elementary School , Ralph Waldo Emerson Middle School and Webster Middle School. Before fall 2007, students in grades 9 through 12 were assigned to Hamilton High School , but, in that term, LAUSD reassigned Century City’s 9th graders to University High School , and grades 10 through 12 were to be phased into the University High attendance area. [15]
SEAL BEACH, Calif. — The horror for most people in this quiet seaside town began to unfold with the staccato `pop, pop, pop’ of a handgun as a shooter opened fire in the beauty salon where his ex-wife worked. But for Michelle Fournier, family and friends say, the nightmare began much earlier. Fournier, a stylist at Salon Meritage, was engaged in a long and bitter custody struggle with ex-husband Scott Dekraai for custody of their 8-year-old son and Fournier had recently told friends and family and said in court documents that she feared for her safety as Dekraai became more and more unbalanced. Dekraai, 41, was being held without bail Friday on suspicion of murder after police alleged he barged into the upscale salon and opened fire, killing six women and two men and leaving another woman in critical condition. Police said Thursday that Fournier was among the dead. Fournier’s brother said he saw Salon Meritage on TV and immediately sensed what had happened. “The worst part about it was seeing the news and seeing the awning and knowing exactly what happened without even hearing a word,” Butch Fournier said. “That’s what killed me.” The quaint, sun-splashed town of Seal Beach, with its Main Street of vintage shops, restaurants and boutiques, has had only had one homicide in the previous four years – and this week’s bloodbath left residents reeling. Several hundred attended a prayer service at a church across from the salon on Thursday night and more than 1,500 showed up with candles at a vigil in the parking lot of the shopping center where the salon stands. About a half-dozen therapy dogs, wearing green vests embroidered with names like Anise and Riley, moved through the crowd providing comfort to mourners. “We’ve all heard the expression: Wrong place at the wrong time. But what if you are exactly where you are supposed to be? What if you are right where you had every right to be and to be safe and secure right where you were?” police Chaplain Donald Shoemaker told the crowd, as people wiped away tears. “They got up on Wednesday morning and went to earn an honest living or do something they enjoyed … No amount of planning or decision-making could prepare them and their friends and loved ones for what would unfold.” Dekraai suffered post-traumatic stress disorder from a 2007 tugboat accident that mangled his leg and left a colleague dead but his marriage to Fournier was falling apart even before that, and the court battle over their son was still raging Wednesday before the shooting. Fournier had indicated to friends and in court documents that she was afraid of her ex-husband. Her friend Sharyn White said that just weeks before the killings, Fournier told her that her ex-husband had stopped by and threatened to kill her and others there. White, who is also Dekraai’s step-aunt, said Fournier told her she took the threat seriously, though others in the salon laughed it off. She said Fournier also had told her that when they were still married Dekraai had once held a gun to her head. “She said `Sharyn, Scott has threatened to come in here and kill us,’” White said. There is no sign that Fournier sought a restraining order against her husband, though other friends agree she was afraid. “As recently as a month ago, she told me how scared she was and I offered to hire her bodyguards,” said Tim Terbush, a longtime friend. He said she turned him down because she feared that would only make Dekraai angrier. Police officers who arrived within minutes of reports of shots fired encountered a horrific scene, with bodies of victims scattered throughout the salon and a man bleeding in the parking lot outside. Ron Sesler, working the lunch rush at his restaurant next door, said he thought the rapid “pop, pop, pop” he heard was a jackhammer until a terrified woman ran through the restaurant and into the kitchen, screaming, “They’re shooting people!” Over the next nightmarish minutes, Sesler watched as hairstylists and customers from the next-door Salon Meritage streamed into his restaurant seeking refuge. Hysterical stylists still wearing their smocks with hair clips in the pockets and customers halfway through dye jobs and permanents piled inside Patty’s Place as Sesler locked the door and his wife frantically dialed 911. Police soon showed up and used the restaurant as a temporary base to interview witnesses. “The whole place was filled, it was whoever survived,” said Sesler, 68, still noticeably shaken on Thursday as he tried to resume business as usual. “We just locked the doors and waited for police. It seemed like a long time – minutes – but it was probably seconds.” He said David Caouette, the only victim killed outside the salon, was a regular at the restaurant who just happened to park next to the gunman as he was running back to his truck. “If he was late, the guy would have driven away. If he was early, he would have been in here,” Sesler said. Other victims were identified by police Thursday as Randy Fannin, Victoria Buzzo, Lucia Kondas, Laura Elody, Christy Wilson and Michelle Fast. Fannin was the salon’s owner, according to Sesler and other family and friends. The witnesses who gathered in Sesler’s restaurant, many of them longtime friends, said Dekraai first took aim at Fannin, and shot him once in the head and then turned to his own ex-wife, shooting her three times. Fannin’s wife, Sandy, escaped only because she was in the back, possibly mixing hair dye, Sesler said. A masseuse hid in the massage room with two others and locked the door. Two more hid in the bathroom, Sesler said, according to accounts from people who were interviewed by police inside his restaurant in the immediate aftermath. An elderly woman fled the salon after the shots broke out and seemed frozen on the sidewalk. Sesler’s wife, Patty, grabbed her through the restaurant’s side door and pulled her into the kitchen, Sesler said. The shooter had been staring directly at the woman but didn’t fire, he said. Just hours before the shooting, Sesler said, Michelle Fournier had stopped by the restaurant to ask about the lunch special and promised to come back. Throughout Seal Beach and the nearby city of Huntington Beach, where Dekraai lived, his bitter custody battle with Fournier was common knowledge among friends, and the couple attended what should have been a routine court hearing Tuesday in the matter. While court papers show the case was continued until December, Fournier’s boyfriend said the case had greater importance. He told The Associated Press the judge had pressed Dekraai to explain why he was continuing to push for more time with his boy. A report by a court-appointed psychologist found the current custody arrangement was working and should not be changed, said Michael Warzybok, who dated Fournier for a year. “The judge was like what are you going to come back for?” Warzybok said. “All of a sudden he didn’t get his way.” Dekraai had tried to meet Fournier for coffee the day of the shooting, but she refused. In court documents filed in February, Dekraai said he had 56 percent custody of his son and his wife had 44 percent. He wanted the court to grant him “final decision making authority” when it came to matters involving their son’s education and his medical and psychological treatment. In court documents filed in May, Fournier described her husband as “almost manic” when it came to controlling their son. She said Dekraai “is a diagnosed bipolar individual who has problems with his own medication and his reaction to same, and he certainly shouldn’t be allowed to have unilateral and unfettered control of any and all medical and psychological aspects of our son’s life.” She said then that giving Dekraai such authority would be akin to “a situation where the inmates are running the asylum.” Fournier also alleged that Dekraai had called 911 at least once and “advised that he was going to kill himself or someone else.” Board-certified psychiatrist Ronald Silverstein told the court that he had diagnosed Dekraai, a tugboat operator, with post-traumatic stress disorder that he determined was caused by the 2007 accident. Court records show a temporary restraining order was obtained by Dekraai’s stepfather in 2007 after the man said Dekraai attacked him, leaving him with cuts and bruises on his face and right arm. The order also said his young son had witnessed the attack. Growing up, Dekraai’s parents had a difficult time raising their son and had to take the door off his bedroom because he was having sex with girls when he was as young as 12, said White, his step-aunt and a friend of Fournier’s. Sometime later, they sent him to live with his grandparents. Dekraai said in court documents that his ex-wife had poor parenting skills and a drinking problem. She called him several times a day, Dekraai said, often screaming at him over the phone and in front of their son. He said she addressed him by an expletive instead of his name and made racist references to his current wife. At the strip mall where the shooting occurred, people streamed by a memorial to pay their respects Thursday. Susan Davenport, who was Dekraai’s neighbor and knew him since his teenage years, choked up as she spoke of Fournier. “She was a loving mom. She was a wonderful woman. She was kind. She was generous. She was all of those things,” she said. __ Taxin reported from Santa Ana and Garden Grove. Associated Press writers John Rogers and Thomas Watkins in Los Angeles and The Associated Press News Research Center contributed to this story. Read the original here: Death Threats Marked Divorce Proceedings
