Police Investigations

A second fire at a market in less than two weeks caused extensive damage early Friday morning and required firefighters from four cities to put it out. The Founder's Liquor Market and Deli at 330 N. Brea Blvd. looked "pretty well wiped out," said an employee of Shakey's Pizza, which is in the same building. The fire caused $150,000 in structural damage and $50,000 in damage to the store's contents, according to Battalion Chief Joel Shennum of the Brea Fire Department.

Two men suspected of fatally shooting a pair of street vendors in Walnut Park on Sunday remained at large as investigators gathered information for composite sketches, authorities said. The suspects are believed to be 18 to 20 years old, said Sgt. Noel Lanier, a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokesman. It is believed they walked up to the vendors, who were selling food from pushcarts near Firestone Boulevard and Hooper Avenue, and demanded cash.

An 8-month-old baby's death is under investigation but appears to be the result of a freak accident in a highchair, Police Lt. Ed McErlain said Monday. The child was identified by the Orange County coroner's office on Monday as Justin Booth. The baby died at 4:35 p.m. Sunday at Children's Hospital of Orange County in Orange, the coroner's office said. McErlain said the baby apparently became entangled in a safety strap in his highchair at his home on Mediterranean Drive on Saturday afternoon.

The manager of a border assembly plant was shot to death by unidentified assailants in Tijuana, police reported Tuesday. Police spokesman Lorenzo Garibay said it was unclear whether the shooting of executive Shiro Sasayama, 50, was the result of a botched robbery or kidnapping attempt. Sasayama was found dead in his car in an industrial section of Tijuana after two assailants reportedly shot him in the head with a .25-caliber pistol.

A dead man was discovered inside a car at about 12:30 p.m. Friday on Roscoe Boulevard near Wheatland Avenue, authorities said. Police are investigating the death as a homicide. The man was apparently shot to death, said Sgt. Ray Davies of the Los Angeles Police Department's North Hollywood Division. "We found the remains of a 29-year-old male in the rear seat area of a white compact sedan," said Brian Humphrey, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Police said they have several leads and are aggressively investigating a drive-by shooting that killed 18-year-old Luis Hernandez of Los Angeles and wounded a 13-year-old girl. The shooting occurred early Sunday morning as a group of people were standing on the corner of La Habra Boulevard and Idaho Street. Investigators "have lots of avenues and possibilities," said Sgt. Michael Moore. "There were a lot of people standing on that corner" who have to be interviewed.

Los Angeles police Tuesday were investigating whether the drivers of two vehicles involved in an accident at a Van Nuys intersection were under the influence of drugs or alcohol when their cars collided, injuring nine people. Blood tests scheduled to be completed next week will determine whether Jose Fernandez, 31, and Richard Condap, 41, both of Van Nuys, were intoxicated at the time of the Monday night crash, Detective Rick Talkington said.

Police are investigating the death of a man whose body was found in his car Saturday evening outside a mini-mall. Guy Waterson, 37, was discovered by his wife in the back seat of his car at Roscoe Boulevard and Pendleton Street in Sun Valley. "It looks like it was an apparent overdose," Detective Oscar Carballo. Carballo could not say how long Waterson had been dead before his body was found.

A picture of the late farm labor leader Cesar Chavez hanging on a UC Irvine bulletin board was reportedly defaced Wednesday in what campus police are investigating as a racial hate crime, officials said. UC Irvine spokeswoman Karen Newell Young said Thursday the incident took place on a bulletin board hanging in Verano Place campus housing. The picture of Chavez, who died on April 23, belonged to student Stephanie Lopez, 40, a doctoral candidate.

Los Angeles police are investigating two apparently unrelated stabbings that occurred in Mission Hills and Canoga Park over the weekend. A 16-year-old male was killed in the Mission Hills incident. Omar Neppumuceno of Panorama City was fatally stabbed during a dispute Saturday night in the 14600 block of San Fernando Mission Boulevard, the Los Angeles County coroner's office reported. Officer Eduardo Funes said police were called to the residence at 11:30 p.m.