Gay man’s killing is tale of dysfunction

Los Angeles — The house in North Hills is on a street with beautiful rosebushes and bad sidewalks, one in a row of single-story homes with iron security gates. Like his neighbors, Shehada “Joe” Issa had ringed his modest property with a strong fence and slapped a sign in the window to warn off trespassers.

But in this high-crime neighborhood, where most take pains to guard what little they have, the violence that destroyed the Issa family didn’t come from outside.

New details emerged Saturday about a strange series of events last week that left Shehada Issa in jail and his wife and son dead. Information from law enforcement agencies and interviews with neighbors suggested that a longbrewing mix of drugs, mental illness, homophobia and extreme family dysfunction had finally led to a tragic result.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office announced Friday that Issa, 69, was being charged with first-degree murder in the shooting of his 29-year-old son, Amir Issa, who was found dead Tuesday outside the family’s home. Found inside the house was the body of Shehada’s wife and Amir’s mother, Rabihah Issa, 68. She had been stabbed, police said, and may have been dead for some time before her body was discovered.

Shehada Issa has not been charged in his wife’s death. Police said he admitted to shooting his son with a shotgun. Amir Issa, who had gunshot wounds to the face and abdomen, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The district attorney’s office alleged in a statement that Issa killed his son because of his “sexual orientation,” a move that brought national publicity to the case.

There were a number of signs that Amir Issa’s killing was not a simple story of a father acting out of murderous rage that his son was gay.

Turmoil appears to have reigned behind closed doors at the Issa home since Amir moved back in with his parents, which neighbors said occurred within the last two years. Los Angeles police Sgt. Greg Bruce said officers had been called to the home to help evict Amir, whose parents were attempting to sell the house against their son’s wishes. The son had even vandalized the house, according to police.

Joel Munoz, 38, has lived across the street from the Issas for 15 years. Munoz said he had recently done handiwork for Shehada Issa, who complained to him about what he described as his son’s problems with drugs and mental illness.

“He was a good guy. The son was a bad guy,” Munoz said. “I’m so sorry for the old man.”

Problems were evident, among other places, on Amir Issa’s Facebook page. In his last post, 10 days before his death, he said he worried that his parents, brother and sister were “literally controlling me in my sleep” and that “they tell people to rape and molest me and make it seem like I enjoy that.”

Amir also posted a video to his Facebook page in which he interrogates his parents about whether they had performed certain sex acts.

“That’s not appropriate for a child to ask his parents,” Rabihah Issa says to the camera as she sits on the sofa.

Further complicating Shehada Issa’s case is the apparent homicide of his wife. Asked whether Amir Issa might have killed his mother before being shot by his father, Lopez said, “That’s something that detectives will investigate.”