Horrific moment gunman executes stranger on LA metro platform before he’s fatally shot by cops

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Horrific footage shows the moment a train passenger was executed by a stranger who shot him in the back of the head as he made a call on an LA platform.  

Serial criminal John Anthony Holenbeck, 28, was identified as the gunman in the November 2021 incident at the Willowbrook/Rosa Parks Metro station.

Video footage released this week revealed that Holenbeck targeted David Koliba, 40, who was a complete stranger, and followed the man up to the train platform and executed him.

Koliba was talking on the phone and waiting for the train when Holenbeck approached him and shot him once in the back of the head. 

It is unclear why Holenbeck – who has previous convictions for robbery, drugs and theft – chose to target Koliba.  

Deputies standing on the street level of the train station nearby were alerted to the shooting and responded quickly to the scene on the platform where they saw Holenbeck jump down onto the railroad tracks from the south side of the platform. 

The deputies yelled at the suspect to stop, but he did not comply and instead crossed the tracks and picked up a pistol which had fallen out of his pocket during the jump. 

He then pointed the pistol at deputies and shot at them. The deputies returned fire, striking Holenbeck, who fell to the ground. 

He was taken to a nearby hospital where he later died. 

Koliba was found on the C-line platform with a gunshot wound to his head. He was pronounced dead at the scene. A loaded KelTec .22 caliber semiautomatic handgun was recovered.

Investigators determined that Holenbeck randomly targeted Koliba who was a complete stranger. No one else was injured during the incident. 

Murders in LA have rocketed by five per cent this year compared to last – but the City of Angels is currently most notorious for violent robberies targeting its wealthy residents. 

Woke DA George Gascon faces a recall over his soft-on-crime policies critics say have caused a spike in serious crime.  

According to the Los Angeles Police Department, property crimes in the city have risen 12.3 percent from last year, while violent crimes increased 7.5 percent.

Robberies in the City of Angels rose 18.8 percent from January 1 through April 30 compared to the same time period last year, and burglaries rose 9.5 percent.

Thefts from vehicles, meanwhile, rose 9.4 percent over the last year and motor vehicle thefts rose 13.7 percent, with unspecified other thefts rising 16 percent.

At the same time, though, robbery arrests are down 5.6 percent from last year, burglary arrests are down 15.4 percent and motor vehicle arrests are down 9.3 percent

Larceny arrests, however, are up 8.9 percent.

In March, cameras caught the moment a jewelry store in Beverly Hills lost millions in merchandise in a smash-and-grab robbery in broad daylight.

The incident took place at the Luxury Jewels of Beverly Hills at the corner of South Beverly Drive and Charleville Boulevard at about 2 p.m.

Authorities said that the five arrived in what they discovered was a stolen car but left it, fleeing in a different, unknown vehicle.  

A group of five is seen on video with what police say appeared to be sledgehammers, obliterating the front window of the store. They then took off with several items.

Some of the crooks were spotted wearing hooded sweatshirts and sweatpants, while several wore surgical masks. 

The store was left with glass covering the sidewalk below and a gaping hole in their front window. 

Peter Sedghi, the store’s owner, told ABC7LA that the merchandise taken was valued between $3-5million, with one necklace alone worth nearly $500,000. 

Sedghi added that he thought he’d heard gunshots and came outside with his gun. 

And just last month, five so-called follow-home robberies occurred in just over 48 hours, with video from one of the incidents showing a woman being mowed down by a Dodge muscle car so muggers could steal her watch.

The victim tried to flee the muggers silver Dodge Challenger after they smashed her car window when she was stopped at a light in Downtown Los Angeles, but the robbers struck her with their car.

They then got out and snatched the woman’s watch off the road after she ripped it from her wrist in a bid to get them to leave her alone. 

Her plan seemed to work as the suspects could be seen grabbing the timepiece before fleeing the scene. 

Many of these these crimes are being committed by at least 17 gangs in the southern part of the city that are working independently, Los Angeles Police Department Capt. Jonathan Tippet announced last month.

These thieves use spotters to scope out people who are wearing these high-end watches or are driving expensive cars, before as many as five carloads of people follow them home and swarm them to steal their belongings.

In many cases, Tippet said, they then sell those belongings on the black market. 

‘There’s no chance or opportunity for these victims even to comply,’ Tippet announced last month, according to the Los Angeles Times.

‘They’re just running up to people and attacking them, whether that’s putting a gun in their face or punching them and beating on them,’ he said. ‘Pistol whipping them as well.’

Tippet heads the Los Angeles Police Department’s ‘Follow-home robbery formed last year to identify the cause of a sudden surge in ‘follow home’ or ‘follow-off’ robberies that began in September.

Last year, he announced there were 50 robberies 8 in the Los Angeles Police Department’s Hollywood Division, 46 in Wilshire and 40 in the LAPD’s Central Division – which includes downtown Los Angeles.

The Pacific Division, meanwhile, had 17 follow-home cases, West LA had 15, North Hollywood saw 14 of these cases and Topanga saw 11.

In just one four-week period from September to October, there were 45 of these follow home robberies, and in November, there were another 39.

But since then, he said, the task force had made 24 arrests involving 47 robberies, as well as 16 arrests for gun possession and six for attempted murder.

According to Tippet, the department has also arrested four suspects on murder charges in the two homicides it has investigated in relation to the organized attacks.

In that span, the force has also served 278 search warrants, Tippet said, with nearly 200 of them designed to target suspects’ social media accounts – which police say gangbangers likely used to plan the heists – and 35 for homes and 20 for vehicles.

Tippet said that in addition to the arrests, the task force’s efforts have so far been largely successful, causing the number of incidents to fall to just 10 last month – a 78 percent decrease from the 45 seen at the outset of the crime wave.

‘Due to the crisis, we began making arrests as quickly as possible once individuals were identified,’ he said, revealing how the task force amended the department’s usual policy of waiting to identify all involved in a robbery before making arrests

He noted that the tweak was effective in quelling the number of the incidents.

‘This has been a major undertaking, however, I am confident that we are slowing this trend down,’ Tippet said at the briefing.