Student, 16, Killed Crossing Street

VAN NUYS — A 16-year-old student jaywalking on her way home from Grant High School was struck and killed by a motorist Friday afternoon in front of a stunned crowd of teenagers leaving campus for the weekend.

Inna Marutyan, a sophomore who came to the United States from Russia two years ago, was heading to her family’s apartment across the street from Grant when she crossed the 13100 block of Oxnard Street without checking oncoming traffic, police said.

An eastbound car traveling in the lane closest to the curb halted for the girl, but she was struck in the next lane by a Jeep driven by an 18-year-old woman. The driver’s name was not released.

“It happened right in front of me. I ran out to check her pulse,” said Sam Muradyan, 17, a junior. He said Inna’s pulse was faint and that she died about two minutes after the accident, which occurred shortly after the school’s bell rang at 3:05.

The driver was not arrested. “Presently there is no indication that there are any violations on the part of the driver,” said Sgt. Rod Grahek, watch commander at the Los Angeles Police Department’s Valley Traffic Division.

“By all accounts, she just ran out in front of a car. She was hit by a car she didn’t see.”

Inna crossed Oxnard street in mid-block, rather than walking a half-block east or west to the two closest crosswalks, at Ethel or Coldwater Canyon avenues.

Shortly after the accident, Inna’s parents returned home and discovered her death. Relatives clasped the dead girl’s hand in the street and wept as a large crowd, including many students, gathered.

Grant High officials said a crisis team had been activated and that psychologists and counselors would be available to students Monday morning for individual and group sessions. Some team members are expected to visit each of Inna’s classes, said Grant High School Principal Eve Sherman.

“We’re a family, this is very difficult,” Sherman said, sighing heavily. “The world’s worst tragedy is to lose a child.”

The apartments across from Grant High School house many Armenian and Latino immigrants. Residents said neighbors often visit and lean on each other for help in language and other needs in their new country.

Friends and neighbors said Inna emigrated with her parents from Russia about two years ago. Inna spoke broken English and attended English as a Second Language classes. Her father, Syoma Marutyan, is unemployed, friends said, and her mother, Rita, is a part-time student at Valley College. Inna was their only child.

The girl’s grandparents had just emigrated from Russia to live with her family two days ago, said Lucy Abnovian, 21, a family friend.

Inna enjoyed dance and hip-hop music, school and doing homework, friends said. Though she spent most of her time with her parents, Inna was friendly and often chatted to the neighbors in her apartment complex, they said.

Irina Ovakimian, 18, now a freshman at Cal State Northridge, said she tutored Inna as a teacher’s aide last semester. “She didn’t understand the reading so I would translate for her,” Ovakimian said. “She was a quiet and shy girl; she wasn’t wild, she was very calm.”

“She was a very home person. She didn’t like to go out, she didn’t have a lot of friends,” Abnovian added.

Friends and neighbors said Inna usually crossed the street at either of the two nearby intersections even if it meant not crossing with her friends.

“She was always very careful, she didn’t want to make any mistakes according to the law,” Ovakimian said. “Everybody kind of laughed at her” for being so careful, she said.

No one seemed to know why Inna changed her course this time; many guessed she must have been in a hurry.

“I don’t know why she crossed the street [in mid-block], she never did that,” Abnovian said. “It was really her first time.”

Sherman said the students are directed to use the intersections to cross Oxnard Street. But residents of the neighborhood complained that most high school students ignore that instruction.

“I said, ‘It’s going to happen sooner or later,’ ” added Michael Bensimon. “There’s no guard here for the kids. They cross and the drivers can’t see with the sun in their eyes.”

Sara Henderson, 16, a Grant sophomore, circled the throngs of onlookers at the accident scene, gathering signatures for a petition to put a crosswalk directly in front of the school.

“I cross every day in the middle of the street--it’s too far between intersections,” Henderson said, adding she planned to give the petition to her City Council representative.