My inbox Wednesday held an email from someone otherwise unidentified save for the “silverlakenews” in the sender’s address. The message within included a link to an April 4 story on cbs2.com headlined “Man Shot And Killed After Opening Front Door.”

The sum of the short article is as follows:

(CBS) SILVER LAKE, Calif. A man was fatally shot when he opened the front door of his home in the Silver Lake area after hearing noises in his yard, police said Tuesday.

The man died at a hospital of a gunshot wound he suffered about 8:20 Monday night in the 3900 block of West Marathon Street, the Los Angeles Police Department reported.

Authorities withheld the man’s name, pending notification of his relatives.

According to police, the victim was sitting in his living room when he heard noises outside. When he opened his front door to investigate, he was shot once in the face.

Detectives were unsure of a motive for the crime, which apparently involved two male suspects. No arrests were reported.

Since a hospital transport was involved, I immediately clicked over to the indispensable LAFD News & Information blog to see if LAFD Spokesman Brian Humphrey, its equally indispensable primary contributor, had posted anything about it… but found nothing there. So I emailed him directly and received a speedy reply back saying he was out of the office and would look into it as soon as he returned. So in the meantime, I detoured from my plan of poachin’ more ‘quats and took a walk over there yesterday to see what I could see.

Continue reading Murder On Marathon →

While I mini-mourn the passing of the Prasadam eatery up the street, let me give a shout out to the newest kid on the Sunset Junction block: Lovecraft Biofuels, which opened up recently in that long-vacant corner on Sanborn across from the El Polo Loco and the Circus of Books.

At first glance a few weeks ago, I saw the platoon of Mercedes sedans occupying the lot and was a bit crestfallen at what I figured was just another auto mechanic — or worse: used car lot. Especially when considering that the neighboring and now-gone Silver Lake Guitar Shop is now a T-Mobile outlet… pfffft.

But driving by this afternoon, the previously nondescript and unadorned place is now sporting signage, although not nearly as much as in the above photoshopped image borrowed from their website, which also explains the bevy of Benz’s:

“Lovecraft Biofuels can convert your diesel powered vehicle to run on 100% vegetable oil (new or waste), biodiesel, and/or regular diesel, in any combination. We specialize in Mercedes Benz, but can also convert Ford, Cummins and other diesels. Don’t have a diesel? We keep an inventory of Mercedes diesels for sale, already converted, and ready to go.”

Now that’s the kind of business I like to see in the Junction.