UPDATE | A man connected to a New Year’s Day pursuit and shooting in Long Beach, as well as a wrong-way chase that led to his arrest pleaded not guilty Tuesday to murder and other charges.
Artyom Gasparyan, 32, was charged with the fatal shooting of Adan Correa, a 37-year-old father of two, in Panorama City on December 30. Prosecutors have not decided whether to pursue the death penalty for the defendant, who faces a special circumstance allegation of an intentional shooting from a vehicle.
Gasparyan is also charged with 11 counts of attempted murder, seven counts of second-degree robbery, two counts each of carjacking and fleeing police while driving recklessly and one count each of hit-and-run driving resulting in injury, assault with a firearm and possession of a firearm by a felon involving alleged crimes between December 6 and January 4.
He is charged separately with one count each of attempted murder and assault involving alleged crimes last August 5.
In January, Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck alleged that Gasparyan committed a string of crimes stretching from Burbank to Long Beach to West Hollywood to Carson and Panorama City.
Gasparyan is also tied to a New Year’s Day police pursuit that began near the Harbor Gateway area and ended when his alleged accomplice, Daniel Ramirez, shot himself in the head at a Long Beach home on the 3300 block of Daisy Avenue after shooting two men and stabbing another. Ramirez died from his injuries and the other men survived.
City News Service contributed to this report.
PREVIOUSLY: Man Linked to New Year’s Day Pursuit and Long Beach Shooting Facing March 16 Arraignment
3/1/16 at 3:03PM | The suspect linked to a New Year’s Day pursuit and shooting in Long Beach, as well as the wrong-way chase that led to his arrest has been released from the hospital and was originally scheduled to be charged today, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. While in a wheelchair in a Los Angeles courtroom today, however, the suspect’s arraignment was postponed until March 16.
Artyom Gasparyan, 32, who was hospitalized following the shooting in Long Beach in January, is currently out of the hospital, awaiting arraignment on more than a dozen charges, including capital murder. The charges follow his leading police on a wrong-way chase on Monday, January 4, on the northbound Golden State (5) Freeway in Sunland that ended with officers shooting him when he jumped out of his car and tried to run.
Gasparyan is currently in custody without bail.
“He’s been involved in several carjackings, several armed robberies, at least one homicide, at least four attempted homicides and is a very, very dangerous individual,” said the LAPD chief at the time. “I have had well over a hundred detectives and several hundred line officers assigned specifically to capture him over the past week.”
He is being arraigned sometime after 1:30PM today in Department 30 at the Foltz Criminal Justice Center in case BA442550.
Prior to his arrest and hospitalization in critical condition, the suspect—also known as Artur Melkonian—was already facing two counts of attempted murder and one count each of assault with a semiautomatic firearm and assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly shooting Dimitriy Li on December 13 and trying to kill Emily Jimenez with a knife last August 5.
Gasparyan is also suspected of taking part in a crime spree reaching across Los Angeles County, from Burbank to Long Beach and West Hollywood to Panorama City that began last August.
He is being arraigned in regard to two cases: one charging him with attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon for the alleged August 5 crimes.
The second case, with a warrant filed December 29, charges Gasparyan with one count each of attempted murder and assault with a firearm for a December 13, 2015 shooting.
Additional charges will be filed today in an amended complaint for crimes Gasparyan allegedly committed between December 6, 2015 and January 4, 2016. In that time frame, he is suspected at minimum of killing a 37-year-old man, wounding a 67-year-old man and 33-year-old gardener, and wounding three people in a Panorama City shooting. These charges include one count of murder with a special circumstance of intentional shooting from a motor vehicle. Prosecutors will decide later whether to seek the death penalty, the District Attorney’s Office stated.
Gasparyan is also being charged with 10 counts of attempted murder, seven counts of second-degree robbery, two counts of carjacking, two counts of fleeing police while driving recklessly and one count of hit and run driving resulting in injury, in addition to one count of possession of a firearm by a felon.
The Los Angeles Police Department is continuing its investigation, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
City News Service contributed to this report.
This story was updated at 3:20PM with details regarding the postponement of Gasparyan’s arraignment.