Van Nuys Ca

On the evening of Feb. 24, 1986, LAPD homicide detectives found Sherri Rae Rasmussen's badly beaten body on the living room floor of her Van Nuys town house with wounds from three .38-caliber bullets to her chest. Weeks later, Stephanie Lazarus, a young Los Angeles police officer, called the Santa Monica Police Department to report that someone had broken into her car on 2nd Street, blocks from the pier. A gym bag had been stolen, she said.

The Los Angeles City Council voted 10 to 1 Friday to approve mandatory sterilization of most dogs and cats at the age of 4 months or older, and city officials pledged low-key enforcement driven by complaints. The ordinance must get a second reading in a week, but it is expected to pass. The measure, initiated by Councilman Richard Alarcon, offers exemptions for animals of licensed breeders, show animals and service animals.

A Los Angeles police officer shot and killed a man carrying an object later identified as a microphone stand after a traffic stop and chase Wednesday night in Van Nuys. Capt. Kris Pitcher of the Los Angeles Police Department's Force Investigation Division said Thursday that it was "far too early" to make any judgments about the incident that left Byron San Jose, 25, dead at the scene. Pitcher declined to say whether the officer thought the stand and its tripod were a weapon.

A Van Nuys jury Wednesday ordered the death penalty for a handyman convicted of sexually assaulting three women, including a grandmother whom he killed and whose body he dumped in a desolate area of Palm Springs. The decision comes less than a week after Paul Wesley Baker, 47, disrupted the death penalty portion of his trial when he smeared his feces over his face and had to be temporarily removed from the courtroom, authorities said. Deputy Dist. Atty.

Nothing, it seems, gets between David Grigorian and his marmoset monkey. On Wednesday, the 43-year-old Van Nuys resident found himself in court once again for harboring an undocumented primate. Grigorian has told authorities that he considers Cheeta to be a member of his family, but state Department of Fish and Game officials say the animal has got to go. In January, police arrested Grigorian for allegedly shouting criminal threats in front of a house in Van Nuys.

The identities of two pilots killed in a fiery plane crash near Van Nuys Airport will not be determined and released before the middle of the week, a county coroner's official said Saturday. Lt. Joe Bale said investigators were awaiting dental records to confirm that the two bodies recovered from the wreckage Friday are those of the veteran pilots scheduled to be aboard the Cessna Citation. The ill-fated plane crashed about a half mile from the airport after taking off just before 11 a.m.

With myriad blue-and-white Israeli flags tucked into strollers, strung across tents and hitched to the backs of skydivers, about 35,000 people celebrated the 59th year of Israel's independence Sunday in the San Fernando Valley. The Israel Independence Day Festival served as a moment of solidarity and reflection in a difficult year when Israeli soldiers were kidnapped and another war started with Lebanon, said Ehud Danoch, the consul general of Israel for the southwestern U.S.

Police found a Mercedes-Benz on Saturday believed to be involved in a fatal hit-and-run incident in Glendale. Pedestrian Elizabeth Sandoval, 24, of Glendale was struck by the vehicle Wednesday, Glendale police said. The car was found near a Van Nuys body shop with its front and passenger side repaired and its license plates removed. Ara Grigoryan, 20, of Glendale is wanted for questioning in connection with the incident, officials said.

A North Hollywood man has been arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and sexually assaulting an 8-year-old boy at gunpoint, police said. The suspect, identified as Amilcar Duran, 26, was arrested Saturday. He was being held on $1-million bail. The victim was pulled into a car June 13 as he walked home from Erwin Street Elementary School in Van Nuys, said Mike Lopez, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department.

Two gang members were arrested Friday in connection with a shooting earlier this week near Birmingham High School in Van Nuys, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Walter Oswaldo Guerra, 18, of Van Nuys and Sanderson Montes, 18, of North Hollywood were being interviewed Friday night and are expected to be booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon or possibly attempted murder, authorities said. Both are affiliated with the Mara Salvatrucha street gang, police said.