Gunman Kills Man, Seriously Wounds Girlfriend

WEST HILLS —  A man was dead and a woman hospitalized in serious condition Thursday after being gunned down in the driveway of an Ingomar Street home, the victims of an apparently targeted attack, police said.

The woman, whom police described as in her 20s, indicated to investigators that the assailant was a lone gunman, and offered a motive in the shooting. But detectives declined to provide details, citing an ongoing investigation.

“At this point we don’t believe it was a robbery or a gang drive-by or anything random,” said Det. Rick Swanston of the Los Angeles Police Department’s West Valley station.

James Navaroli, 36, was killed in the attack about 10:45 p.m. Wednesday. The woman, his live-in girlfriend of five years, was in serious condition at an undisclosed hospital. Her identity is being withheld for her protection.

Swanston said the pair were shot multiple times as they got out of their pickup truck in the driveway of the home on the corner of Ingomar and Woodlake Avenue.

Navaroli, hit in the head and upper torso, died at the scene. The woman, hit in the upper torso, is expected to survive.

Swanston said the woman was unable to speak, but responded to a few questions about the attack with head gestures.

The gunman, Swanston said, “probably thought he killed her.”

Swanston said detectives were probing the possibility that the attack was drug-related, but that there was no immediate indication that it was.

Elmo Navaroli, the dead man’s father, said his son had been living in the house for less than a month. He said James made a living by doing occasional welding jobs and installing car alarms.

He said that although James “had done his own thing” for many years, he had become more responsible since he began dating his current girlfriend, with whom he has two children.

Navaroli said he and his wife spoke to James several days ago and that nothing seemed amiss.

“I have no idea why this would have happened,” he said.

The shooting is the second in less than a week in normally quiet West Hills.

On Halloween, a man was shot four times in the chest after opening the door to a man wearing a ghost mask. The victim in that shooting is expected to recover.

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Times staff writer Solomon Moore contributed to this story.