Video Store Owner Killed

NORTHRIDGE — A woman was killed in broad daylight Saturday in a small, family-owned video store in the 19600 block of Parthenia Street, her body discovered behind the checkout counter by a customer trying to rent a video, police said.

Police identified the victim as Sonia Nassar, 36, a co-owner of the Video Super Shop, which is in the same shopping center as Brent’s Delicatessen. Property and business records gave the last name as Nassir.

Police said they believed Nassar may have been killed during a robbery between noon and 1:30 p.m., but gave few details, not even the cause of death.

Several witnesses were being questioned Saturday evening. Los Angeles Police Lt. Anthony Alba said additional witnesses made anonymous calls to authorities from pay phones but had not identified themselves to police.

Alba said there were leads on possible suspects, but no descriptions were released.

Local residents, many of them regulars at the video store, described Sonia Nassar as a friendly person whose kind touch led them away from larger chains.

“I brought a film back late--I owed like $100 on it--and she didn’t charge me,” said Josephine Tellez, 21. “She told me, ‘Next time just let me know when you’re going to keep it that long.’ ”

Rick Heller, 40, said he was shocked at the death and had recently discussed with Nassar her strategy for dealing with robbers. He rented videos from the store on a daily basis and was on his way to return a rental Saturday afternoon when he found the store swarming with police.

“She told me that if she ever got robbed she would give them whatever they wanted,” he said.

“ ‘Nothing’s worth getting killed over,’ ” he remembered her saying. Heller described the owner as a charitable woman who would give his children free video rentals on their birthdays.

Andie Squires, 30, and her husband, Christopher Bruinsslot, 26, who said they had been regular customers since they bought their home about a year ago, were stunned to hear of a killing in their neighborhood.

“This is a really safe neighborhood. A lot of our neighbors have been here for 25 years and raised their kids here and everything,” said Squires. “I can’t believe this would happen here. . . . She was a really nice person.”

Michael and Charlene Tracy came to the store to rent videos as they have every Friday and Saturday for two years, but found it taped off and surrounded by police.

“We’ve rented everything in the store, but we still kept coming back,” said Charlene. She described the owner and her husband and teenage daughter as a “nice, hard-working family.”

“Everyone liked her,” she said.