Local News in Brief : Man Fetching Purse Shot by Robbers

Divorce lawyer Marv Gross, 60, was in stable condition at UCLA Medical Center on Monday after he was shot in the chest during a confrontation with two armed robbers outside his Bel-Air home, police reported.

Gross said the men attacked him outside his five-story home Sunday night when he went to fetch his wife’s purse from their car. Joy Gross, 60, told officers that she had forgotten the small cosmetics purse when she and her husband returned with their daughter and a family friend from dinner at a Westside restaurant.

Police said Gross may have been saved by trying to slam a door to the house on his attackers as they approached him in the carport. Police were told that one of the men fired a handgun at Gross just before the door shut. The gunman opened the door and grabbed the purse, then fled with his companion, police said.

Mrs. Gross said her family was frightened by “how easy it was for these men to almost get into the house.” But, she added: “All they got was my lipstick. Won’t they be surprised?”