Sarkis Karadjian was a 26-year-old white male of Armenian background who died by homicide on April 3, 2010. He was fatally shot at approximately 4:30 p.m. inside the Hot Spot Mediterranean Café, located in the Valley Village neighborhood of North Hollywood, Los Angeles County. The location of the incident was in the 11600 block of Riverside Drive.
At the time of the shooting, 26-year-old white male Armenian Sarkis Karadjian was among a group gathered for a memorial luncheon following a
funeral. That gathering included several men, and the event was meant to commemorate an acquaintance who had perished in a car crash the year before. During the attack, a gunman—or possibly multiple gunmen—opened fire on the group. Three men, including 26-year-old white male Armenian Sarkis Karadjian, 28-year-old Harut Baburyan, and 25-year-old Hayk Yegnanyan died at the scene. Another man, 31-year-old Vardan Tofalyan, succumbed to injuries at the hospital roughly an hour later. Two other individuals were wounded but survived. Law enforcement emphasized that the victims were targeted and that the shooting was not random.
Investigators faced challenges early in the probe: witness accounts were conflicting, and the exact number of shooters—one or possibly two—was unclear. A security video from inside the café was not helpful because it did not capture interior activity. Ballistics and shell casing evidence were being examined to shed light on what exactly happened. Authorities suspected ties to Armenian or Eurasian organized crime, though no definitive motive was confirmed at the time.
Within a few weeks, law enforcement identified a suspect: 28-year-old Nerses Arthur Galstyan was believed to be the shooter. He had been attending the same memorial event inside the Hot Spot Café. A dispute broke out during the gathering, prompting Galstyan to briefly leave, retrieve a firearm from his car, return, and open fire on the group. He then left the scene.
Galstyan was indicted federally on weapons charges—including dealing firearms without a license and possessing a weapon with an obliterated serial number—and was wanted in connection with the restaurant killings. He was subsequently arrested near Seattle, Washington, on April 20, 2010.
Years later, in March 2016, a jury convicted Nerses Arthur Galstyan for the Valley Village restaurant shooting. He was found guilty of multiple homicide and related charges: two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances of multiple murders, one count of second-degree murder, one count of voluntary manslaughter, two counts of attempted voluntary manslaughter, and one count of mayhem. Prosecutors pursued the death penalty based on the severity and nature of the crime. Ballistic analysis showed that over 50 shots were fired, with 30 bullets recovered from the bodies of six people; many victims were apparently shot at close range.
The defense argued that Galstyan acted in self-defense, claiming that he and his brother had been threatened and humiliated by members of the party. They alleged that Sarkis Karadjian and others may have arrived armed and tried to intimidate Galstyan and his brother. However, investigators suggested that some of the victims had connections to organized crime and weapons trafficking. In fact, one victim, Vardan Tofalyan, was implicated in a prior illegal firearms sale to a federal informant in 2009.
