Suspect in Fatal Campus Shooting Turns Self In

GLENDALE —  A month after he allegedly shot to death a Hoover High School student near campus, a 17-year-old boy surrendered to police Friday morning.

The suspect, Artiom Badalyan, was being held without bail at Eastlake Juvenile Hall on suspicion of murder.

Badalyan allegedly shot Avetis “Avo” Demirchyan, a Hoover High junior, after a Sept. 10 fistfight between two groups of Armenian youths in the faculty parking lot. Mortally wounded by a gunshot in the stomach, Demirchyan died Sept. 12 of multiple organ failure after undergoing surgery and three blood transfusions at Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center.

After a month in hiding, Badalyan and his lawyer walked into the Glendale police station Friday. Police declined to discuss Badalyan’s statements after his arrest.

His lawyer did not return calls Friday.

Glendale police initially thought the shooting was linked to an Armenian gang rivalry, but later learned it arose from a lunchtime insult. Several students began fighting after school near the campus tennis courts. When other students attempted to break up the melee, Badalyan allegedly ran to a minivan, pulled out a gun and fired at Demirchyan.

Badalyan fled, but two of his friends were arrested the following day. Babken Santrosyan, 18, has been charged with accessory to the murder and a 15-year-old boy was released pending further investigation, according to Sgt. Rick Young.

Police voiced frustration over the silence of some of Badalyan’s friends and family members during the investigation. Young said anyone who helped Badalyan avoid police could be charged with harboring a fugitive.

“The young people know a lot,” Young said, “ . . . but for whatever reason, they’re not handing that information over to police.”

Young noted that a few Hoover High students eventually provided police with important leads. Five days after the shooting, several youths led police to a gun hidden in the bushes around Brand Park.

“The gun that we found was determined to be the gun used in the murder,” Young said.

Badalyan, a student at Allan Continuation school in Glendale, had no history of violent offenses, Young said.

Although Glendale remains one of Southern California’s safest communities, Hoover High School had recently joined a growing number of Los Angeles County campuses employing metal detectors and random locker searches to check youth violence. The shooting occurred a week after fall classes started and a day after students attended a lengthy orientation on school rules and regulations ranging from campus drug and alcohol bans to gun prohibitions.

Authorities said the shooting was the city’s nearest to a school.