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A 69-year-old man charged with fatally shooting his gay son in North Hills also was being investigated Wednesday regarding the stabbing death of his wife, a detective said.

Los Angeles police Detective John Doerbecker told the Los Angeles Times the son may have been killed not over his sexual orientation, as prosecutors initially said, but as part of an effort by the suspect to cover up the earlier killing of his wife.

Shehada Khalil Issa was arrested after the March 29 shooting of his son, 38-year-old Amir Issa. The father was charged Friday with murder.

Police were called to the family’s house in the 15000 block of Rayen Street shortly after 9 a.m. and found Amir Issa dead outside the residence and his mother dead inside the home, according to police and prosecutors.

The mother, identified by the coroner’s office as Rabihah Issa, 68, was stabbed multiple times, police said.

In announcing the murder charge against Shehada Issa, the District Attorney’s Office indicated that Issa had killed his son because of his sexual orientation, and alleged that Issa had previously threatened to kill his son because he was gay.

But Doerbecker told The Times that Issa’s anger over his son’s sexuality was believed to be a contributing factor in the shooting, but not the underlying motivation for the killing.

Doerbecker said detectives are working on the theory that “dad killed mom and then killed his son to cover it up.”

According to Doerbecker, Issa told authorities he heard noises in his home and, suspecting a burglar, grabbed a shotgun only to be confronted by his son, who Issa said was carrying a knife. Doerbecker told The Times police found no knife near the son’s body and officers discovered the bloody body of Issa’s wife while investigating the son’s death.

Doerbecker said police were still reviewing evidence before seeking a possible murder charge against Issa for his wife’s killing. The woman is believed to have died 12 to 24 hours before the son was shot, he told the paper.

Shehada Issa is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in San Fernando.

–City News Service

Man faces charges for shooting son now accused of stabbing wife was last modified: by

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