A 19-year-old Beverly Hills resident could face a murder charge following a bloody confrontation in an alleyway Sunday night that left a man dead and has neighbors trying to make sense of the death.
Conoray Lawantara was arrested Monday on suspicion of murder, according to the Beverly Hills Police Department. A case against him has been presented to the L.A. County district attorney’s office for filing consideration and is currently under review, office spokesperson Zara Lockshin said Wednesday.
The incident unfolded shortly before midnight Sunday when Beverly Hills Police responded to reports of an altercation in the alleyway behind the 400 block of North Palm Drive, a residential area east of the city’s Golden Triangle business and shopping district.
There, police found a man bleeding from neck wounds, police said. He was transported to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. Police have not identified the victim.
Officers also found Lawantara suffering from injuries and he was transported to a hospital for treatment.
A neighbor who did not wish to be identified told KTLA that Lawantara lives in a nearby apartment building and became upset by a homeless man who was going through trash in the alleyway, leading to a confrontation where Lawantara allegedly stabbed the man.
“What’s wrong with a man picking trash?” another neighbor, resident Brigette Barbie, who filmed the police response, told the station. “The whole stabbing was not making sense to me… why not just leave, turn around, call the police? Why was the knife so necessary?”
In a graphic video obtained by the California Post, Lawantara can be heard telling police that he was acting in self defense, while the other man lies on the ground surrounded by a pool of blood.
“I didn’t reach for him first, he reached for me, his hand went to my leg,” Lawantara says in the video. “And at that time I produced my CCW, it’s a 3.9 inch knife.”
CCW stands for concealed carry weapon.
When an officer asks Lawantara where the weapon was, he says it was “on the ground right there.” Lawantara says in the video that the man continued going after him after he pulled out the knife.
The Beverly Hills Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the victim was homeless or provide any other details on the circumstances surrounding the fight.
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