The Beverly Hills Police have come up with their theory about how Ronni Chasen was murdered. It’s a doozy.
According to the BHPD, Harold Smith–the man who committed suicide last week–was riding a bike ten miles from his hotel in the middle of Beverly Hills at 12:30am. The police figure Smith, riding the bike, attempted to rob Chasen by somehow approaching her while she driving a big Mercedes. He then, from his bike, or on foot, I guess, standing in the middle of Sunset Boulevard, in a suburban, non commercial area, shot her five times in the chest.
If other reports are to be believed, he did this with hollow bullets, then cleaned up the shell casings before he left. I supposed he biked back to Hollywood, where he’d been staying at a run down hotel.
According to Google Maps, this would be at least a 45 minute bike ride for Smith.
Maybe the police are right. But if you were going to rob someone, wouldn’t you go into a more urban area, where people are walking (at least to and from cars)? The spot where Ronni was shot on Sunset has no pedestrian traffic at that hour (or any hour). And if you were driving and saw someone on a bike coming toward you, you’d get away from them fast. Five clean shots? Harold Smith must have been quite the marksman.
That simple? Or a rush to find a solution? We may never know the answer. And if that area is so vulnerable to such crimes, then there’s a really big problem in Beverly Hills.
