Police have arrested and charged a man suspected of shooting a
patron of Habibi Café in Westwood Village early Christmas
Day.
Twenty-year-old Rafael Martirosyan was arrested at his apartment
in Los Angeles on Dec. 28, 2005, West Los Angeles Police detective
Ron Phillips said. Martirosyan was charged with attempted murder
and pled not guilty to the charges during a court hearing on Dec.
30, 2005. His bail is set at $1 million.
The incident occurred at 1:43 a.m. on Dec. 25, 2005, when a
single bullet crashed through the front window of the cafe,
striking 36-year-old Fouad Salik in the head, according to an LAPD
press release.
Salik was transported to the UCLA Medical Center, where he
remains in critical condition, Medical Center officials said Friday
morning.
In the complaint filed by Deputy District Attorney Joseph
Markus, Martirosyan was outside the cafe when he allegedly fired a
handgun, striking Salik in the head, according to a press release
by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. The
case has not yet been assigned to a prosecutor.
If convicted, Martirosyan could receive life in prison.
The incident took place following a fight between two men inside
the restaurant, according to the LAPD press release.
Cafe security guards broke up the scuffle and removed the
fighting patrons from the establishment.
Martirosyan, one of the men involved in the altercation, left
the cafe with a group of friends and later returned in a vehicle,
according to the press release.
While in the car, Martirosyan then allegedly leaned out of the
passenger window and fired one shot at a man standing outside the
cafe who was involved in the earlier argument, according to the
release.
The bullet missed the man and went through the cafe’s
front window, striking Salik in the head, Phillips said.
Habibi Café owner Saad Fathi visited Salik in the hospital
to express his condolences.
Fathi said no one expected the men to return with a gun,
especially since he said the suspect was seemingly in good spirits
upon leaving, citing the large tip the men left.
“I don’t know what happened to their heads,”
Fathi said.
The investigation was handled by the LAPD and not the university
police, since the incident occurred off campus, university police
officials said.
The shooting brought up memories of an incident in 1988 when a
Long Beach woman was killed by gunfire during a gang-related
shooting in the Village. Many have said the 1988 incident has
caused a loss of business within the area.
Police do not believe the Dec. 25, 2005, incident was
gang-related, nor are the parties involved in the incident UCLA
students, Phillips said.
Habibi Café is located at 900 Broxton Ave. in Westwood
Village, across from Diddy Riese Cookies.
Police urge anyone with information about the incident to
call LAPD’s homicide division at (310) 444-1519.