Advertisement

Hollywood marijuana dispensary slaying victim identified

Share

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office Saturday released the name of the marijuana dispensary worker who was killed at his job in Hollywood just hours after another employee was killed and a second one was injured at a pot shop in Echo Park.

Ila Ali Packman, 39, of Hollywood was found dead about 9 p.m. Thursday by his employer at Hollywood Holistic 2 on North El Centro Avenue, off Sunset Boulevard, authorities said.

Police sources said Packman had suffered stab wounds, but coroner’s Investigator Joyce Kato said Saturday that the cause of death was not known because an autopsy had not yet been performed.

Advertisement

About 4:15 p.m. Thursday, just five miles away, four people entered the Higher Path Holistic Care Collective on Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park and ordered two employees to lie face down at gunpoint, then ransacked the store for cash and marijuana, police sources said.

Although the two workers did not resist, the attackers shot them, according to an account the critically wounded victim gave police.

Killed in the attack was Matthew Benjamin Butcher, 27. The condition of the victim wounded in that attack was not disclosed Saturday.

The attacks appear to be unrelated, according to police sources.

On Friday, friends and family held a candlelight vigil outside the dispensary where Butcher was killed.

City Atty. Carmen Trutanich, who is a friend of Butcher’s mother, Julie Butcher, arrived at the vigil to comfort her. He said he was sure the Los Angeles Police Department and the district attorney’s office would do everything they could to bring the perpetrators to justice and that his office would do anything it could to help.

“It’s a very sad day for Los Angeles,” Trutanich said in a phone interview. “Quite frankly, it’s a black eye on the city for something like this to occur; it’s very sad.”

Advertisement

The homicides come as the city tries to shut down about 400 illegal dispensaries and exert control over approved outlets.

“We have had a number of robberies, a number of assaults and now three killings, possibly four,” Trutanich said. “That’s why the regulation was in place, why we’re moving quickly and strongly to enforce the ordinance.”

ruben.vives@latimes.com

Advertisement