Vigil held for man killed in his own backyard

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    LOS ANGELES (KCAL KCBS) — Neighbors in Beverly Grove came together to share grief and anger Saturday after Gabe Donnay, 31, was killed in his own backyard last Monday by a man believed to be homeless.

Police said the suspect came into Donnay’s yard on Maryland Drive and stabbed him. When officers arrived, they said the suspect took off and killed himself in a guest house two yards away.

Donnay’s friends met Saturday to remember him and to protest policies that they said aren’t helping homeowners.

“I grew up in LA and I’ve seen kind of what’s happened to the city in the last couple of years,” said Riley McCluskey, the victim’s friend. “It no longer feels safe. It no longer feels like where I want to be and where I want to raise my family. I just feel failed, like the city Gabe loved and adopted failed him.”

Councilmember Paul Koretz released a statement calling Donnay’s death senseless and saying the city is working, “To bring safety and order into a shaken community devastated by the tragic murder, with a focus on very aggressively working to bring homeless residents of the nearby encampment into housing and off the sidewalk that they are blocking.”

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