Andrew Patsukevich was 37 years old when he was killed on Sunday, November 6, 2016, in Van Nuys, in the San Fernando Valley. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma in the 7400 block of Sepulveda Boulevard. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case handled by the department's Valley Bureau Homicide detectives.
According to the Los Angeles Times and the Los Angeles Daily News, Andrew and his wife, Oksana, were driving north on Sepulveda Boulevard in a green Lexus sedan shortly before 10 p.m. when a man on a bicycle rode toward the car. Andrew honked, and the cyclist slammed the windshield with his fist. Andrew got out, and the man on the bike punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground, then jumped into the Lexus and hit the accelerator. Oksana got out of the car, but Andrew held on to the driver's door as it sped forward. With him clinging to the door, police said, the carjacker steered the car into a row of parked cars, crushing him, and then drove away on Sepulveda Boulevard.
Officers responding to a call of a carjacking found him on the ground with his wife beside him. He was taken to Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, where he was pronounced dead at 10:23 p.m., according to the coroner's office.
In an interview with KTLA, reported by the Daily Mail, Oksana said she believed her husband held on because he thought she was still inside the car. "He held onto the car on the other side," she said. "He dragged his body against all the parked cars that were there, breaking everything." She added, "He gave his life. " The couple had married in California in 2010 and lived together in Van Nuys. The Times reported that his family set up a fundraiser to help with funeral and other expenses.
Police described the carjacker as a Latino man, 20 to 30 years old, about 5 feet 11 and 140 to 160 pounds, wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt and dark pants.
Van Nuys is one of the oldest and most central communities in the San Fernando Valley, home to the Valley's civic center, its courthouses and Van Nuys Airport. Sepulveda Boulevard is one of the Valley's busiest north-south corridors, lined with car lots, motels, small shops and apartment buildings, and traffic moves along it at all hours.
By the mid-2010s Los Angeles was recording roughly 250 to 300 homicides a year, among the lowest totals in decades, yet many of those killings still went unsolved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Andrew Patsukevich could be found in news archives or public records. More than nine years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was on Sepulveda Boulevard in Van Nuys on the night of November 6, 2016, who saw a man on a bicycle near the 7400 block, or who later saw a damaged green Lexus, may hold information that could help detectives. The Times listed the number for Detective Steve Castro as 818-374-1925. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call the Los Angeles Police Department at 877-527-3247 or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
