Police have charged a 32-year-old Las Vegas man in connection with a 2016 violent home invasion in Santa Monica where the homeowner was shot in the torso, according to Lt. Saul Rodriguez with the Santa Monica Police Department. Vacho Shahen was already in custody at a Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia when he was charged with attempted murder, robbery and burglary for crimes allegedly committed in California.
The charges bring closure to a disturbing incident on Adelaide Drive in August of 2016, where the homeowner walked in on a burglar wearing a mask from the movie Scream. The burglar shot the homeowner and then ran away. The victim survived the shooting.
Santa Monica Police Department detectives collected DNA evidence after the break-in but didn’t make any connections until Shahen was arrested in Philadelphia in 2017. An SMPD detective recently traveled to Pennsylvania to interview Shahen in Federal Prison before officially filing the charges related to the California crimes.
Shahen is currently in prison related to an alleged debit-card scam that used sophisticated skimmers to steal personal information.
Shahen could not be reached for comment.
kate@www.smdp.com
