19-Year-Old Claims Self-Defense In Fatal Beverly Hills Stabbing

BEVERLY HILLS, CA — A 19-year-old man from Beverly Hills who was charged with murder in a fatal stabbing was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday.

Conoray Lawantara was arrested for allegedly stabbing a man Sunday night in an alley in the 400 block of North Palm Drive, near Beverly Boulevard, according to the Beverly Hills Police Department.

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Officers found a man, later identified by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office as Vanik Voskanyan, 40, suffering from a neck wound on Sunday night and rendered aid before he was taken to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead, police said.

Lawantara was charged with murder in connection with the fatal assault by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office Wednesday. His arraignment was scheduled for Thursday at the Airport Branch of the Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Lawantara was also taken to a hospital, released Wednesday and booked at the Beverly Hills Police Department, police said. Bail was set at $2 million.

Brigette Barbie, who witnessed the aftermath of the incident, told the Los Angeles Times she believed the victim was homeless.

In a video recorded by Barbie and published by the Los Angeles Times, Lawantara sits with bloody hands handcuffed behind his back as officers perform CPR on another man who is on the ground in a pool of blood.

Lawantara told police that he acted in self-defense.

"I didn't reach for him first, he reached for me, his hand went to my leg," Lawantara said in the video.

Lawantara also said in the video that the man continued going after him after he pulled out the knife and that he was suffering from a stab wound and a bitten finger. Lawantara can also be heard in the video telling officers that he produced a 3.9-inch knife, and that the knife was lying on the ground.

Police said the incident is believed to have been isolated and no one else was involved.

Anyone with information about the stabbing was urged to call Beverly Hills Police Department detectives at 310-285-2125.

City News Service