HELP SOUGHT IN LOCATING TEEN SUSPECT.

Byline: Lee Condon and Lisa Van Proyen Daily News Staff Writers

After four days of failed attempts to negotiate a surrender, police asked for the public's help Tuesday in efforts to arrest a 17-year-old male suspected of fatally shooting a Hoover High School student last week.

Glendale police investigators obtained an arrest warrant for Artiom Badalyan of Glendale, who is suspected of shooting Avetis ``Avo'' Demirchyan, 15, once in the abdomen during a melee on a street near the school Thursday, said Sgt. Rick Young of the Glendale Police Department.

After at least three surgeries at Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center, Demirchyan died of the gunshot wound Saturday night.

``We have to find him. We don't want a murderer on the streets,'' Young said.

Glendale Crime Stoppers is offering up to $1,000 as a reward for information leading to his arrest.

Glendale police have tried to work with Badalyan's family and a lawyer to encourage the suspect to give up, Young said. Badalyan, who attends Allen Daily High, a continuation school in Glendale, missed a 3 p.m. Tuesday deadline to surrender, Young said.

``We were led to believe the family would have him turn himself in,'' Young said.

Family members have maintained they do not know Badalyan's whereabouts, but that he has been calling them, Young said.

``If we find out they were harboring him or if we find out who is harboring him, they could be prosecuted,'' Young said.

Young added that police have no idea if the suspect has tried to flee the country.

Family members refused comment Tuesday night. A man at the home who referred to himself only as a friend of Badalyan's said, ``Don't believe anything they say.''

Badalyan's attorney, Jilbert Tahmasian of Glendale, said he was hired by the teen's parents and did not know where the boy was.

Two others have been arrested in the case: a 15-year-old Hoover High student, whose name was withheld because he is a juvenile, and Babken Santrosyan, 18, also of Hoover High.

The argument began at lunch at Hoover on Thursday. Words and vulgarities were exchanged and the victim refused to apologize, Young said. The victim and another student agreed to meet after school, when each side brought along friends and relatives. A fistfight led to someone pulling out a gun, official said.

Badalyan, who is the shooting suspect, is described as 5 feet 8 inches tall, 120 pounds with short black hair and brown eyes, police said.

Those who have information about the suspect can remain anonymous and are asked to call [phone] or Glendale police investigator Susan Hayn at [phone].

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: BADALYAN