(L.A.) Oganes Papazyan, 68, Died in a Parking Lot

Case Number: 2019-08603

Los Angeles County is reporting the death of a 68-year-old male of “Caucasian” ethnicity that occurred in a parking lot.

The coroner’s office has identified the man as Oganes Papazyan of Burbank, California.

Manner of Death: Homicide

Cause of Death: Sharp Force Trauma of Neck

RIP OGANES PAPAZYAN (June 15, 1951 – November 15, 2019)

The decedent was Armenian. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1990 and was a musician who had been supporting his family for over two decades by driving a taxi cab in L.A.

Papazyan was killed on a Friday by a passenger in a Burger King parking lot located at Grand and Cesar E. Chavez Avenue in Chinatown after being picked up from Union Station.

Daniel Victor Torres, a 32-year-old man from Los Angeles, was arrested on Sunday and charged wth murder by prosecutors the following Tuesday.

This was reported by news outlets as a stabbing death.

A witness said he saw the driver and passenger exit the car and then saw the passenger stab the driver at least three times in the neck.

The murder charge includes the special circumstance allegation of murder during the commission of a carjacking, along with allegations of murder of a transportation operator and use of a deadly and dangerous weapon.