Century City/ Westwood JULY 29 – AUGUST 25, 2022
NEWS CenturyCity-WestwoodNews.com
West LA Man Found Guilty of Stalking Charges for Harassment Campaign Against Female Doctors at the VA Gueorgui Hristov Pantchev faces up to 20 years in prison By Sam Catanzaro A federal jury this month found a West Los Angeles man guilty of federal stalking charges for his harassment campaign targeting two female doctors at the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and two other female doctors working at the VA’s Loma Linda facility in San Bernardino County. The man, 50-year-old Gueorgui Hristov Pantchev, was found guilty of four counts of stalking.United States District Judge John F. Walter scheduled a September 26 sentencing hearing, at which time Pantchev will face a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for each count. According to evidence presented at his five-day trial, Pantchev’s conduct with respect to two of the doctors began in 2011 with numerous threatening communications sent to West L.A. VA doctors identified in court documents as Victim C and Victim D. As a result of this harassment, Pantchev was charged by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office and was convicted in 2014 of nine counts of stalking and witness intimidation.
After serving a state prison sentence, Pantchev was paroled in 2017 and he was barred from the West L.A. VA Medical Center. Pantchev then began seeking medical services at the VA’s Loma Linda facility, where he started stalking, harassing, and intimidating Victims A and B. Notwithstanding the parole conditions that prohibited him from going to the West L.A. facility, in 2020, Pantchev sought care there and began sending harassing and intimidating
communications to colleagues of Victims C and D. Pantchev deluged Victims C and D and their colleagues with hundreds of lewd, sexually explicit, and defamatory fliers bearing large pictures of Victim C and Victim D that Pantchev repeatedly distributed around the West Los Angeles VA facility and other locations. On the morning of Pantchev’s arrest in January 2021, he drove to Victim D’s
home and her child’s elementary school and distributed more sexually explicit flyers that included the victim’s home address and contact information. During a search of Pantchev’s residence, law enforcement found more copies of the same flyers, along with printed copies of some of the letters and emails Pantchev sent to victims. Pantchev has been in federal custody since his arrest in January 2021.
Man Fatally Shot by Police in West Los Angeles 36-year-old Felipe Guerrero shot after running towards officer with knife July 7 By Sam Catanzaro A man was fatally shot by police on Pico Boulevard in West Los Angeles this month.. According to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), on July 7 around 5:00 p.m., West Los Angeles officers responded to a call reporting a man armed with a knife in the area of Pico Boulevard and Sawtelle Boulevard. The first police unit at the scene was a uniformed sergeant who was directed to the man by a community member. “The sergeant exited his police vehicle and began giving directions to the man, later identified as 36-year-old Felipe Guerrero. Guerrero, armed with a knife, continued to
walk in the direction of the sergeant. As the sergeant continued to give commands to Guerrero, Guerrero, still armed with the knife, ran toward the sergeant resulting in an OIS. Guerrero was struck by the sergeant’s gunfire and fell to the ground,” the LAPD said in a statement. Guerrero was taken to a local hospital and later pronounced deceased. According to the LAPD, the knife Guerrero was armed with was recovered at the scene. The sergeant was transported to a local hospital for an injury he received from falling during the incident, police say. The incident remains under investigation by the Chief of Police, Board of Police Commissioners, Office of the Inspector General and Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. The LAPD did not immediately respond an inquiry asking if body camera footage will be released, if the victim was a homeless person since the shooting happened near an encampment and if the Department will be releasing the identity of the officer.
Photo: Google Sawtelle and Pico.