The shocking quadruple murder of four people outside a boarding house in an otherwise nice Northridge neighborhood has some community activists steamed about such residences.

The City Council has been considering an ordinance that would eliminate boarding homes in residential areas and limit single-family houses for rent to single leases.

One Northridge leader says that, in light of the homicides, it's about time this rule goes through:

Steve Patel, president of the Northridge East Neighborhood Council says the crime “was a complete surprise to all of us in the community. Northridge as a whole is a great area.”

The victims were discovered by police responding to a 4:25 a.m. call of shots fired yesterday, Officer Venus Hall told us.

Cops found two women in their 20s, a man in his 30s and a man in his 40s dead from gunshot wounds outside the home in the 17400 block of Devonshire Street, she said: All appeared to be of Asian descent.


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The victims were reportedly found face down, possibly indicating an execution-style attack.

News reports from the scene indicated the house had multiple tenants, with some sleeping on mattresses on the floor and at least one room accessible only through a window.

All this shocked neighbors in the otherwise well-kept community of ranch-style homes.

Patel:

You can have a three bedroom home with 20 people living in there. What about the fire code, safety, and parking? I just hope that the council approves a law that will prevent a group home from operating in this kind of area.

It's not fair to the neighborhood. The owners usually never live there and the neighbors have to have to suffer.

The proposed ordinance has to respect state law that protects facilities for the disabled. A City Attorney's memo notes:

State law prevents cities from regulating smaller licensed facilities serving six or fewer residents differently from other single-family residences.

No suspects have been identified.

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

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