West Hollywood, California (Thursday, March 13, 2008) - A West Hollywood man laid bleeding for an hour before help was summoned after what authorities suggest was a robbery gone awry Sunday night. 
Mr. Katan Khaimov, age 70, died of wounds apparently inflicted during an aborted robbery. He called for help for an hour before police were called, the neighbors saying they thought he was a drunk transient. |
Mr. Katan Khaimov, age 70, died of his wounds at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center another hour later, at midnight, according to Los Angeles Police Department spokes person Det. Wendy Berndt.
“It is a tragedy,” she said, “and we won’t know until after the autopsy whether or not he would have lived had the call come in immediately.”
Police reported that his family and neighbors knew him for his nightly walks along the same route, which took him from his West Hollywood home into Los Angeles and back again at the corner of Vista and Romaine.
Mr. Khaimov had, by all observations, made quite a few friends of his age living in the several senior living facilities on the corner of Martel (just east of the assault) and Romaine.
Mr. Khaimov would lie here just off the sidewalk under the tree for an hour before a passerby called for help. Photo by Ryan Gierach. |
It was near there, across the street from 7418 Romaine and in front of an office building belonging to AIDS Healthcare Foundation that takes up the entire block, that the popular Wehoan senior was apparently knifed and left to bleed by his assailant, who left without taking any of Mr. Khaimov’s possessions.
The West Hollywood border runs behind the lot on which the office building stands, making the sidewalk in front LAPD jurisdictional territory.
Det. Berndt, the supervisor for the Detective Table in Hollywood Station, told WeHoNews that detectives reported to her that neighbors heard Mr. Khaimov’s moans and pleas, but discounted them as coming from an intoxicated transient.
A congregation of transients make an encampment well into the night a block away at the baseball diamond of Los Angeles’s Willoughby Park.
This senior care facility stands at the corner; another around to the left from where Mr. Khaimov was discovered Sunday night. Photo by Ryan Gierach. |
A neighbor of Mr. Khaimov’s, a gentleman who asked not to be quoted because of his closeness to the family, otherwise provided much detail on background.
WeHoNews saw the man greeted warmly, time and again by seniors who came out from the facilities to the south and east of the crime scene to shake his hand and say a few words.
Earlier he explained that Mr. Khaimov was a good man, well-regarded by those who knew him. He said that the family was taking it hard.
He explained that he, too, had been mugged in the area near his home during the holidays.
Mr. Khaimov was married and had five children. He had been blessed with a grandson, as well.
“We know for a fact,” Det. Berndt said, “that [Mr. Khaimov] was stabbed at around ten, because we have people who reported hearing him beginning then.
“We have discounted any family or financial trouble or trouble with anyone else,” she said, “so it appears to be a crime of opportunity.”
An evidence tag left over from the crime scene the night before. Photo by Ryan Gierach. |
“Police were called at 11:10 and were there almost immediately,” said Det. Berndt, “along with emergency responders, which took him to a nearby hospital.
“He was pronounced dead at 12:04 am, Monday.”
His daughter, Olga, told KNBC News that she urged people to come forward more quickly when they hear someone in distress.
“If you have any ideas or clues,” she said about the assault, “you should come forward now.”
Det. Berndt acknowledged not knowing a thing about the assailant.
“We don’t know a thing because no one has come forward,” she said.
A view of the block from the northeast, or Martel and Romaine. Photo by Ryan Gierach. |
“It could have been many things,” she said, “including a failed robbery, but it might also be a ‘for kicks’ attack, or a mentally deranged individual or many other things.”
She said that police detectives canvassed the area in a three block radius, but upon checking with the detectives on the case she reported that they had not yet checked with the transient gathering at the nearby park.
“We’ll get someone over there to look into that,” she promised.
Neighbor Sandra Zamminck told WeHoNews that she had come home from a trip during the investigation, and so couldn’t add much, except that nothing akin to this had happened in her six years on the street.
She did urge caution, though. “It shows you that you need to be aware; everyone’s got to be aware of everything, everywhere,” she said. “It doesn’t matter, upscale neighborhoods or downscale, it doesn’t matter.”
Anyone with information on the case was urged to call Hollywood homicide detectives at 213-972-2910, or the 24-hour hot line 877-LAWFULL.
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