ALISO VIEJO (CNS) - A 26-year-old man suspected of killing his father and his father's girlfriend and wounding two other men in a normally quiet Aliso Viejo neighborhood remained behind bars today.
Luke William Ferguson, arrested in Inglewood following a traffic stop, is suspected of fatally gunning down 51-year-old Lisa Cosenza, who was once the ad director of the Los Angeles Times' local newspapers in Orange County, and her boyfriend, 59-year-old Doug Ferguson, around 2:45 p.m. Thursday at 6 Ashbury Court.
The shooter also wounded a 23-year-old man and a 48-year-old man, leaving both hospitalized.
Ferguson is being held without bail. His first court appearance, in the Central Jail Court, has been scheduled for Tuesday, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Department.
The sheriff's department has not confirmed the relationships between the victims and shooter, but one victim, Todd Kuchar, who was shot in the leg, told newscasters that Doug Ferguson was the shooter's father and that all the victims lived in the same house as the suspect.
Kuchar said the gunman had a smirk on his face as he opened fire.
The other wounded man was identified in a CBS2 news report as Brandon Dufault, who was shot in the face and remains hospitalized.
Ferguson was apprehended shortly after noon Friday, when Ventura police, aided by Orange County sheriff's investigators, swarmed into a Ventura neighborhood near Dunning Street and Telegraph Road after fielding reports of a ``suspect wanted in a shooting and double homicide out of Orange County'' seen in a residence.
Investigators suspected it was Ferguson, Orange County sheriff's spokeswoman Jaimee Blashaw said.
About three hours later, however, Inglewood police spotted the suspect driving a stolen vehicle at high speed and made a traffic stop near La Cienega and Manchester boulevards, where they detained Ferguson, Blashaw said.
Orange County sheriff's personnel soon arrived and arrested Ferguson on suspicion of homicide and attempted homicide.
Ferguson was previously arrested in November 2014 by Los Angeles police on unspecified misdemeanor charges and was sentenced to 273 days in jail.
The stolen vehicle and a handgun were recovered at the scene of the arrest, she said.
Cosenza was remembered as an outgoing, friendly and hard-working colleague by former co-workers.
``We worked really well together at the Daily Pilot,'' said Lana Johnson, who was the promotions director at the group of local newspapers while Cosenza was ad director.
``We collaborated on special sections,'' Johnson recalled. ``We had a great working relationship... Her employees valued her expertise and she was very professional.''
Johnson said she was ``horrified and shocked'' by the news.
Tom Johnson, publisher of Stu News, hired Cosenza for the real estate section and encouraged her to apply for the ad director job when he was publisher of the Times Community News papers.
``I hired her at the Pilot in the early `90s in (the) real estate department and she was very good,'' Tom Johnson said. ``She came from a real estate family and over time I really enjoyed working with her and she worked her way up the ladder. In the early 2000s, I had an opening for an ad director at the Pilot and I went to Lisa and told her she should apply for the job.''
Cosenza served as ad director from 2004 to 2013.
Tom Johnson added, ``She was just a good, strong person to work with.''
He was also saddened by the news of her killing.
``When you hear news like this, especially after everything going on it brings it so close to home. It's so awful,'' he said.
Cosenza was ``loud,'' Tom Johnson said, recalling her outgoing personality.
``We worked hard and had fun doing it. It was like family,'' Tom Johnson said.
Another former co-worker, Vilma Hidalgo-Cruz, said Cosenza, an avid Cincinnati Bengals fan, loved working at the Pilot.
She also had a ``passion for life and her work,'' Hildalgo-Cruz said.