Beverly Hills: Man, 39, shot in head

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Scott Ruffalo, a 39-year-old white man, died Monday Dec. 8, 2008, a week after he was shot once in the head in his apartment in the 400 block of North Palm Avenue in Beverly Hills, authorities said.

Ruffalo, a hairdresser, was the brother of actor Mark Ruffalo.

Beverly Hills police questioned Shaha Mishaal Adham, 26, and her boyfriend, Brian Scofield, about the incident after the couple turned themselves in a week after the shooting. Adham was booked on suspicion of attempted murder and initially held without bail.

She was released late the next day after her attorney, Ronald Richards, said he was able to convince police Adham was present but not responsible for the shooting.

‘There’s still an ongoing, active criminal investigation, so we do not have a statement at this time,’ said Beverly Hills Police Lt. Tony Lee shortly after Adham’s release.

Richards said his client and another man in the apartment found the hairdresser on the couch bleeding from the left side of his head, the gun in his left hand, and left the apartment.

Beverly Hills paramedics arrived and took a critically injured Ruffalo to the hospital. Police arrived 20 minutes after the shooting to find no one at the crime scene, Richards said.

According to Adham’s account, she was at Ruffalo’s apartment to pick up the keys to her Range Rover when Ruffalo mentioned something about ‘Russian roulette.’ Then she heard a gunshot.

--Andrew Blankstein