Police

Results of an autopsy released Wednesday confirmed that an 18-year-old freshman at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo died of alcohol poisoning after a fraternity party. Carson Starkey of Austin, Texas, had alcohol levels between 0.39% and 0.45% in his blood and other bodily fluids when he died Dec. 2, according to San Luis Obispo police. That concentration is roughly five times the legal limit for presumed intoxication in California. Police said they believe Starkey's death resulted from a hazing by members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, which he was pledging.

An autopsy shows that a Los Alamitos woman died of "unnatural causes" before being burned in an apartment fire, police said Thursday. Emma Louise Hardwick-Street, 69, was found dead Monday after her apartment in the 3600 block of Farquhar Avenue caught fire. Police are looking for her grandson Joseph Elias George Ettima, 25, in connection with the case. Ettima, whose last listed address was in Culver City, is described as black, about 5 feet 11 and 155 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes, and he usually wears glasses.

The county coroner's office Thursday identified the man who was driving the wrong way on the 10 Freeway when he collided head-on with a Culver City police officer as Luis Arnoldo Vanegas Palma, 21, of Van Nuys. Sgt. Curtis Massey, 41, was driving east on his way to work about 5 a.m. Wednesday when he was struck by Palma's car just west of National Boulevard. Both men were pronounced dead at the scene. California Highway Patrol officials said they had not determined why Palma was headed west in the eastbound lanes.

Police say an upstate New York television executive who sought to improve the image of Muslims in the media beheaded his wife last week after she filed for divorce. Muzzammil Hassan, 44, is charged with murdering his wife, Aasiya Hassan, 37. Police say he had been kicked out of the house the couple shared in Orchard Park, near Buffalo. Hassan is accused of cutting off his wife's head at the TV station where he launched his Bridges TV network in 2004. Hassan later surrendered to police.

Teenagers stoned a 22-year-old man to death in southern Mexico because they believed he had stolen a cellphone and a bicycle from one of their friends, police said. Alejandro Lopez tried to flee when the teenagers approached, but he was cornered, police officer Jaime Sanchez said. Sanchez said the teenagers had fled by the time police found Lopez's body on the doorstep of a house. Police believe the teens, ages 14 to 16, belonged to a neighborhood gang in Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of Chiapas state.

A lawsuit brought by the family of a husband and wife who were fatally shot by police during a confrontation at a Laguna Beach resort two years ago has been dismissed, city officials said. Joni Park, 48, waved a gun at Laguna Beach police officers while staying at a luxury bungalow at the Montage Laguna Beach in April 2007, authorities said. She refused to drop the weapon when ordered and was wounded by police. Her husband Kevin Park, 49, picked up the gun, aimed it at officers and was shot, authorities said.

A baby girl abandoned at a mid-city Los Angeles hospital over the weekend was expected to be reunited with her mother, police said Sunday. The 6-month-old's grandparents contacted police after seeing TV news reports of her arrival at Olympia Medical Center, police said. The girl appeared clean and well-cared for, and police do not suspect that the mother abandoned her. They expected to reunite the girl and her mother late Sunday or early today. California's safe-surrender law allows parents to turn over newborn infants to hospitals and fire stations without legal jeopardy, but only if the child is 3 days old or younger.

Indian forces opened fire on hundreds of Muslims demonstrating against Indian rule in the divided region of Kashmir, killing one person and wounding 17 others, police and doctors said. Police used live ammunition and tear gas after the protesters chanted anti-India slogans and pelted the forces with rocks in Srinagar, the main city in the region, after Friday prayers. Nazir Ahmed, a doctor at the main hospital in Srinagar, said one man who was shot in the chest died in the hospital.

Oakland shootings: A photo caption in Thursday's Section A about Lovelle Mixon -- who was shot and killed by Oakland police after he killed four officers Saturday -- misspelled his first name as Lovell.

A 19-year-old USC student was killed early Sunday as she crossed Jefferson Boulevard on the edge of campus in a hit-and-run incident that also left a male companion critically injured, police said. The deceased was Adrianna Bachan, a freshman from Santa Barbara. Injured was Marcus Garfinkle, a student from Scottsdale, Ariz., USC spokesman James Grant said. The two victims were walking in the crosswalk at Hoover Street about 3 a.m. when a man driving a dark-colored vehicle east on Jefferson Boulevard struck them, said Los Angeles police spokeswoman Rosario Herrera.