The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 649

B10 THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, I992 VC LOS ANGELES TIMES LOS ANGELES COUNTY County BRIEFS SYLMAR Police Investigating Poisoning of 7 Dogs Los Angeles police and animal regulation officers are investigating the poisoning of as many as seven dogs, four of which died, this week in a Sylmar neighborhood. The dogs died or became sick apparently after eating hamburger meat laced with white pellets that had been thrown into their yards Monday evening, police and pet owners said. The pellets are being analyzed to determine if they contain poison, officials said. Michael Burns, assistant general manager of the Department of Animal Regulation, said that two of the dead dogs have been examined and he was "positive" they had been poisoned. He said there was no apparent tie between the Sylmar cases and a spate of animal poisonings in the past month in a neighborhood near Silver Lake Reservoir.

PASADENA 'Education Summit' Focuses on Funds Concerned about dwindling government monies for public schools, the Pasadena Educational Foundation on Wednesday launched a drive to raise $1.5 million for city schools and urged residents to attend an "Educational Summit" this evening to discuss how the system might be improved. Former California Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp will be chairman of the drive. The districtwide summit tonight will bring together school officials, civic leaders, parents and teachers for a two-hour teleconference on the future of the school system.

Vera Vignes, superintendent of the Pasadena Unified School District, will address audiences at 11 sites in Pasadena, Altadena and Sierra Madre via, television hookups. VAN NUYS Reward of $50,000 Offered in Slaying A combined $50,000 reward was posted Wednesday for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the men who held up a grocery store in Van Nuys a robbery that led to the death of a worker. Robert Joseph Ward, 28, was shot and killed during the holdup at the Ralphs at Sherman Way and Woodman Avenue, said Los Angeles homicide Detective Steve Fisk. Ward, a Coca-Cola employee, was using a pay phone in the store and talking to his fiancee when one of the bandits told him to hang up, Fisk said. When he didn't, the robber shot him.

Ward "didn't realize there was a robbery going on," Fisk said. "They probably thought he was calling the police." Homicide detectives are looking for Jose Santillan, 19, and Louie Velarde, 21, both of Pacoima, and a third suspect. WALNUT PARK Man Pointing Gun Slain by Deputies Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies shot and killed a man after he pointed a gun at them and ignored their repeated commands to drop the weapon. Deputy Bill Martin said deputies were called to the Walnut Park home of Margarita Salazar, 39, shortly after 8 p.m. Tuesday.

Salazar, who lives in the 7400 block of Mabrisa Avenue, had been beaten by a man with a blunt instrument. "Salazar directed the deputies to a trailer park and warned them that her assailant had a gun," Martin said. When deputies surrounded the trailer and peered into a rear window they saw the suspect, Rual Valber, 47, of Walnut Park, inside and also saw a gun on the table. Deputies told Valber to surrender, but he came to the door with the gun in hand, pointed it at the deputies and ignored their instructions to drop the weapon, authorities said. Deputies recovered a loaded semiautomatic pistol.

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