Sheriff's officials on Thursday said the shooting death of prominent attorney Jeffrey A. Tidus was a homicide, putting to rest, at least for now, the possibility that the high-profile litigator killed himself.

Sheriff's Sgt. David Infante said “detectives have determined that Tidus was murdered.” It's a scary prospect. If true, he was, as one sheriff's official put it, “targeted.” It might even appear to be a professional “hit” but our observations. Tidus took a bullet to the head as he went to his car to retrieve a laptop about 8:30 p.m. Monday outside his home in tony Rolling Hills Estates.

As the Weekly reported Wednesday, Tidus was felled only hours after three top leaders at a company he represented, New Century Financial, was accused of fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Irvine-based firm collapsed in 2007 as part of the mortgage meltdown.

Tidus also represented Hawthorne Savings, California Federal Savings, Aames Financial, First Alliance Mortgage Company, First Los Angeles Bank and Tokai Bank. Investigators are looking at the court filings and cases he was working on to determine if there's any link to Tidus' murder.

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