Karine Hakobyan, a 38-year-old female of Armenian ethnicity, was found fatally shot on March 26, 2010, in Hollywood, California. Her body was discovered by her 14-year-old daughter in the carport of their apartment complex, slumped behind the wheel of her Honda CRV with a gunshot wound to the back of her head. Hakobyan worked as a nursing assistant at Children's Hospital and had immigrated to the United States from Armenia with her husband. The murder occurred in the Little Armenia district of Hollywood, an area known for its close-knit community.
Tragically, this was not the first time violence had struck the family. Eighteen months earlier, on December 11, 2008, Hakobyan's husband, 43-year-old Khachik Safaryan, and their 9-year-old daughter Lucine were found shot to death inside their apartment. Both incidents were discovered by the same surviving daughter, who was 12 years old at the time of the first murders. Following the initial tragedy, Hakobyan and her daughter moved to a nearby apartment complex to live with her in-laws. Despite the change in residence, the violence followed them.
On April 22, 2010, authorities arrested Alberd Tersargyan, a man known to the family, in connection with the murder of Karine Hakobyan. Tersargyan, whose age was reported inconsistently as either 73 or in his 50s, was taken into custody at his Hollywood-area home. He was initially arrested for weapons violations after police discovered several unregistered firearms. Ballistics tests later linked one of the handguns to the murder of the 38-year-old Armenian woman. Prosecutors stated that Hakobyan had just arrived home and parked her vehicle when Tersargyan allegedly shot her.
Investigators believed there was a connection between the three killings, though definitive evidence linking Tersargyan to the 2008 murders of Hakobyan's husband and daughter had not been publicly confirmed at the time. The family had known Tersargyan personally, and he reportedly had access to their home. Authorities had previously speculated that the murders might have stemmed from a romantic entanglement, but that theory was eventually dismissed. Despite the arrest, many details surrounding the motive and full scope of the crimes remained unclear.
