STRAY BULLET KILLS NEWLYWED AT HOME POLICE SEEKING SOURCE OF GUNSHOT.

Byline: SUSAN ABRAM Staff Writer

SHERMAN OAKS -- The bullet, discharged from blocks away, found newlywed James Woodson as he stood in the well-tended courtyard of his Kester Street apartment complex.

Day had turned to dusk Tuesday as neighbors within the two-story, upscale complex heard Woodson's voice, loud and cheerful as he chatted with Pina, his wife of six months, who had just come home. Maybe they talked about dinner, or about how glad he was to see her.

Then the man -- who neighbors said had an easy smile and a green thumb when it came to tending the dozen potted plants around his front door -- collapsed along the concrete edge of the complex's pool.

``I was in the house and I heard a `pop' sound, and then the next thing I heard was screaming,'' Susan Richardson, who has managed the 16-unit apartment complex for more than a decade, said Wednesday. ``Someone was telling me to call 911.''

Woodson, 52, was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital from a gunshot wound to his back.

Los Angeles Police Department detectives speculated that Woodson was the unintended victim of a stray bullet. It was unclear where the round had come from, but an autopsy report to be released Friday could lead to valuable clues -- and to the shooter.

``He had no enemies and to hear the way the neighbors tell it, he was liked by everyone,'' said Detective James Nuttall with the LAPD's Van Nuys Division. ``But it does appear this is one of those incidents that is unfortunate.''

Woodson, a writing coach who is credited as an assistant editor on the 1989 Disney film ``Honey, I Shrunk the Kids,'' had seemed at his happiest in the past few months, neighbors said.

He had met Pina through Friendster.com, a social networking site on the Internet. He had brought her to his Sherman Oaks home from Indonesia, to the apartment complex where he had lived for seven years and where residents there think of themselves as a close-knit family.

On Wednesday, residents milled around the pool as Pina Woodson was comforted by neighbors in another unit.

``What they had was a true love story,'' said Jacci Belgard. ``He was a wonderful person.''

The likelihood of being killed by a stray bullet is ``extremely rare,'' police say, which is why they hesitate to say Woodson was an unintended victim.

``Usually, stray bullets are associated with Fourth of July and New Year's,'' said Van Nuys Division Capt. James Miller. ``In this particular case, it becomes very difficult to solve the crime, because you don't know where the bullets came from.''

Authorities said the case further illustrates a rise in violent crime in the San Fernando Valley. The Van Nuys Division, for instance, reports a dozen homicides so far this year, compared with seven for the period in 2005.

Shots fired within that area also have increased by 41 percent since last year.

``It speaks to the added consequences in the increasing violence we are seeing,'' said Deputy Chief Michel Moore, the Valley's commanding officer.

``This could be something as bizarre as a stray and, as with all loss of life, is tragic,'' Moore said. ``But whether or not the shot was intended for another person, or someone is shooting in the air, a bullet can travel for miles and can harm people.''

That a random bullet could hit Woodson disturbed some neighbors at his complex. Had he been standing in a spot just a few inches away, he would still be alive, Richardson said.

``It's so safe here. Nothing like this has ever happened,'' said Richardson, whose weary eyes focused on the potted plants around the Woodsons' door. ``I was sitting in my living room watching television. It could have been any one of us.''

susan.abram(at)dailynews.com

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Anyone with information about the shooting death of James Woodson is asked to call the LAPD's Van Nuys Division at [phone] or 1-877-LAWFULL.

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Writer and newlywed James Woodson was shot in the back about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the courtyard pool area of his apartment complex off Kester Avenue in Sherman Oaks, and later died. He and his wife were married only six months ago.

(2 -- color) James Woodson, killed Tuesday by a bullet in the back, was a writing coach who was credited as film editor on the 1989 film ``Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.'' He was friendly, an avid gardener and attentive to his wife of six months, neighbors said.