LAPD launches ‘deep dive’ probes into officers’ 911 responses after two Valley killings go undiscovered

The Los Angeles Police Department has launched internal investigations into officers’ responses at two San Fernando Valley homes where they investigated reports of violent assaults but did not find the victims because they did not go inside.

In both incidents, callers reported hearing or witnessing a violent, active assault to 911 dispatchers, and later a body was found at each location.

On Tuesday, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell addressed the two incidents during a meeting of the city’s civilian police commission, the department’s oversight board. McDonnell acknowledged officers did not immediately enter either home and said he’s opened administrative investigations in connection with their responses.

Menashe Hidra’s body was found April 26 inside his fifth-floor Valley Village apartment after an assailant broke into a neighboring unit, jumped from the balcony to his and attacked him.

Three days before, neighbors called authorities to say they heard screaming, then a man yelling, “I am going to die. I am going to die,” according to law enforcement sources. Officers responded to those calls, knocked on the door and left without finding anything.

The same day that Hidra’s body was discovered, so was the body of Aleksandre Modebadze, who was beaten to death inside his Woodland Hills home. In that case, a woman inside the home called 911 and reported the assault, but officers who arrived knocked and left. Only upon returning later did they find Modebadze, mortally injured.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Commissioner Rasha Gerges Shields asked the chief how the department determines whether a call is a possible fake call, often known as a “swatting” call, meant to trigger a large police response to the victim’s address, or legitimately one where “someone who may need your help” is inside the premises.

It’s difficult, the chief said. When officers arrive and no one responds to them, 911 operators will try to call back the original caller to get more information and look at previous incidents at the same address to help officers decide. Officers will also try speaking with neighbors before entering a location, McDonnell said.

“There’s a sensitivity to not kick in a door and go into a place,” he said. “So we’re doing a pretty deep dive on that.”

Currently, the two homicides don’t appear related, the chief added.

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Though the suspects in the Woodland Hills homicide have been arrested, the man seen on Ring door camera footage stalking the halls of the Valley Village apartment complex where Hidra was killed remains outstanding. The chief said investigators believe they have identified the assailant, who has a history of violent offenses.

Hidra’s body was discovered inside his top-floor apartment at the Ashton Sherman Village complex about 2:30 p.m., by Van Nuys division officers doing a welfare check after a friend became concerned. He was pronounced dead at the scene. He had a puncture wound to the head, and there was blood next to him on the floor, according to sources familiar with the police report.

The bloodstained wall between Menashe Hidra’s apartment and a neighboring vacant one.

(Richard Winton / Los Angeles Times)

Officers had been called to the apartment three days earlier by neighbors.

In a recording of a police dispatch call before 4 a.m. April 23, a dispatcher is heard reporting the call to officers in the field: “Van Nuys units, possible ADW [assault with a deadly weapon] in progress ... caller hears two males fighting and wrestling, banging and yelling.” Multiple law enforcement sources say police officers responded to the scene but never entered the apartment.

A day before Hidra’s body was discovered, LAPD officers investigated a burglary at the vacant apartment next door. Inside, officers found a shattered skylight and dried blood, according to two sources not authorized to discuss the investigation.

Investigators suspect the killer may have broken into the vacant apartment neighboring Hidra’s through a skylight, then moved from the unit’s balcony to his.

Bloody handprints and marks were visible on the wall between Hidra’s balcony and the vacant apartment in the aftermath when a reporter visited with residents last week. Blood was also visible on the door handle of a stairwell exit, where the assailant is seen fleeing the building in a video released by police.

Blood was left on a stairwell door handle at the Valley Village apartment complex where Menashe Hidra was killed.

(Richard Winton / Los Angeles Times)

The suspect was seen wearing a dark hooded jacket, a white shirt and blue jeans on the day of the killing.

The same day Hidra’s body was discovered, across the valley in Woodland Hills, Modebadze, 47, suffered a fatal head injury. Three assailants broke in during the early hours of Saturday, Los Angeles police said.

A woman called LAPD about 12:30 a.m. and reported three people had broken into her home and were beating her partner before the call suddenly cut out, according to law enforcement sources. The 911 operator tried to call back multiple times without success. Shortly before 1 a.m., officers arrived at the home but no one answered the door, there was no noise coming from inside the home and the blinds were down, the sources told The Times.

Modebadze was later found by officers badly beaten with a traumatic head injury and eventually died from his injuries.

According to law enforcement sources, the woman filed a complaint with the LAPD against its officers for their response.

LAPD Marshal’s Taskforce officers, with the assistance of the FBI, located suspects in Modebadze’s killing within hours and took them into custody.