California
California doctor-to-the-star’s ex-wife among 5 charged with ambush-style murder outside of his practice — months after saying she was ‘shocked’ by killing
The ex-wife of a prominent Los Angeles doctor – gunned down in an ambush-style attack outside his clinic in August – was arrested and charged with his murder as police raided her home.
Ahang Mirshojae, née Kelk, was among five people arrested earlier this week for conspiracy to commit the murder of Dr. Hamid Mirshojae, the Los Angeles Police Department announced.
No motives were revealed in the suspected murder and police have not released details of the roles each allegedly played in Dr. Mirshojae’s death.
Dr. Mirshojae, 61, was fatally shot in the back of his head by a “masked man” in the parking lot of his family clinic on the 5900 block of Topanga Canyon Blvd. in the Woodland Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles on Aug. 23, 2024.
Mirshojae, whose patients included “celebrities, movie stars, athletes and many people of different walks of life,” had just finished his shift at around 5:34 p.m. when the gunman appeared from a hiding spot and ran towards the Iranian-born doctor.
After the fatal shooting, the gunman ran to the rear of the Woodland Hills Medical Clinic and Urgent Care as police responded 42 minutes later to an “Ambulance Shooting” call.
Mirshojae was pronounced dead at the scene.
After a nearly four-month-long investigation, police officials announced the arrest of Kelk and four others.
Kelk, 53, had mourned the death of her ex-husband in a since-deleted Facebook post.
“Hamid, the kids and I are in so much shock we miss you so bad,” she said. “August 23rd 5:30pm they took Hamid away from us right in front of his practice. He was always helping people seeing tens and thousands of patients for decades we fought HARD to make life happen starting from nothing in the apartment and still the world is so cold.”
The now-suspected murderer said her family had to be “strong in the face of evil” to remember Mirshojae.
The former couple shared three adult children.
Hours before her arrest, LAPD and federal investigators raided Kelk’s Calabasas home Thursday evening, according to KTTV.
It was not revealed if anything was discovered during the search.
In August, Kelk denied any involvement in her ex-husband’s death.
“It’s all lies,” she said according to the Los Angeles Times.
After separating from his ex-wife, Dr. Mirshojae remarried in 2023, and the newlywed couple shared a 6-month-old girl at the time of his death.
His new wife and daughter were visiting family in Turkey at the time of the shooting, but jetted back to the US after learning the heartbreaking news.
Suspects
Along with Ahang Mirshojae’s arrest Thursday, police also arrested and charged four others for the Aug. 23 suspected killing.
Evan Hardman, 41, was arrested on Dec. 10 in the greater Houston area of Texas and charged with Murder with Special Circumstances and will be transferred to LAPD custody.
Ashley Rose Sweeting, 40, was nabbed in the San Fernando Valley Tuesday for being an accessory to murder.
Sarallah Jawed, 26, was taken into custody Wednesday and charged with Murder with Special Circumstances.
Shawn Randolph, 46, was arrested and booked for Murder on Thursday.
Hardman and Jawed were also charged with attacking Dr. Mirshojae with a baseball bat in May, Fox 11 reported.
The two were each slapped with an assault with a deadly weapon charge for the May 3 attack that left Mirshojae fearing for his life.
“They came and they beat him with baseball bats,” an employee told the Los Angeles Times at the time. “They were some strangers that we didn’t know.”
Kelk and Randolph are being held without bail and their cases will be presented for filing consideration to the LA DA’s office on Dec. 16.
The investigation is ongoing, the LAPD said.
The IPOs of SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic could deliver billions of dollars to California’s coffers.
We’ve seen this movie before.
In 2022, California recorded a nearly $100 billion surplus, saved just $10 billion in its rainy day fund and then spent the rest. Two years later, a $56 billion deficit loomed.
Now, with the state facing ongoing operating deficits of more than $10 billion, we’re back in familiar territory.
The coming IPO windfall is a rare second chance. But we’ll only benefit from it if we first fix the structural flaw that’s caused us to squander every previous boom — a budget reserve that isn’t built to hold what we put in it.
The stakes this time are higher than ever. The war in Iran raised recession risk, and the federal government is systematically dismantling the funding streams California has depended on for decades.
When Washington retreats, Sacramento has to choose: cut services, raise taxes or have enough saved to bridge the gap. Right now, we don’t have enough saved.
We’re not outside observers wringing our hands. We helped shape the fiscal architecture the state is now straining against, and we’re here to say: It needs to be rebuilt.
As California state controller, one of us campaigned alongside Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to pass Proposition 58 in 2004 — creating California’s first Budget Stabilization Account. The other authored the Assembly Constitutional Amendment that became Proposition 2 in 2014 — the stronger, harder-to-raid replacement that voters approved with 69% support.
California’s tax system is the envy of progressive states and the nightmare of budget directors. We tax the wealthy at high rates, capture enormous capital gains revenue in boom years and then discover — every single time — that the peak doesn’t last.
If California treats the IPO windfall from SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI as permanent revenue, our state would repeat exactly the mistake we made four years ago.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and Assemblymember Avelino Valencia have each proposed important reforms to strengthen the fund. First, they call for requiring the state to make deposits until the fund reaches 20% of the general fund total, rather than the current 10%. Second, they propose changing an arcane accounting rule that treats saving for future downturns as spending.
We see one additional opportunity to make the rainy day fund even stronger.
If we want a larger budget reserve, we have to do more than merely allow it — we need to require it. Proposition 58 taught us everything we need to know on this front: Between 2004 and 2014, with that proposition fund in place, only two deposits were made. If we want consistent deposits during the boom times, they can’t be optional.
These reforms should be a win-win for the California Legislature. A larger reserve is the most durable protection that public sector workers, social service recipients and education advocates have against the kind of emergency cuts that have repeatedly gutted programs during downturns.
It’s also the strongest argument against tax increases in a recession because you don’t need to raise taxes if you actually save during the booms.
Building a stronger rainy day fund isn’t the cautious choice. It’s the visionary one — the closest thing we have to investing in the next generation of Californians.
We built the last rainy day fund because we’d lived through the consequences of not having one. We’re making the same argument again, for the same reason except now the stakes are higher. This time, the federal backstop is weaker, and the next storm is closer than it looks.
Fix the fund this year. The next generation of Californians will thank us for it.
Mike Gatto served in the state Assembly between 2010 and 2016, and he authored the measure that created California’s current rainy day fund. Steve Westly served as state controller between 2003 and 2007, and he co-championed Proposition 58, California’s original rainy day fund. Westly chairs the 21st Century Alliance, a nonpartisan organization focused on solutions to the state’s most pressing challenges.
CHICO, Calif. — A shooting at a library in Northern California on Monday left two people dead and a suspect is in custody, according to police.
Police responded to a 911 call soon after 5 p.m. in which the sounds of gun shots and people screaming could be heard coming from inside the Chico branch of the Butte County Library, Billy Aldridge, the city’s chief of police, said during a news conference.
Once officers were inside the library, the suspect fled out of the back, he said. Additional law enforcement behind the library took the suspect into custody, according to Aldridge.
“The incident this evening was obviously very sad, traumatic for a lot of people. Very traumatic for our community,” he said.
The streets around the library were closed temporarily and a family reunification center was set up for the people who were inside the building.
A child was also taken to the hospital with a minor injury.
Aldridge said there is no serious threat to the public and law enforcement are investigating the shooting.
The police didn’t release the suspect’s name nor details on what prompted the shooting. Law enforcement said they believe the shooter acted alone.
Law enforcement are also not releasing the names of the people killed until next of kin have been notified.
The county urged the public to avoid the area and said all Butte County library branches will be closed Tuesday.
The county in a post on Facebook offered “deepest condolences to everyone affected, including the victims, their loved ones, library staff, and all those impacted by this heartbreaking incident.”
Copyright © 2026 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
CALIFORNIA CITY, Calif. (KERO) — A 12-year-old boy is dead and another child was hospitalized after two unleashed dogs attacked a group of children at Central Park in California City on Friday, June 18.
California City Mayor Edwin Hawkins said police responded to the scene after reports that four children had been mauled.
Fernando Torres Moreno, 12, jumped into a nearby lake to escape the charging dogs. Officers pulled Fernando from the water, and he was taken to the hospital, where he died the next day.
A second child suffered serious, though non-life-threatening, dog bite wounds and has since been released from the hospital. Two additional children were shaken but did not require medical treatment.
Authorities say the dogs, both mixed breed, were off-leash but in the presence of their owner when the attack unfolded.
The investigation remains active and ongoing. No arrests have been made.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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