Music exec shot by Hollywood gunman still critical

LOS ANGELES – A music industry executive shot by a gunman who emptied his weapon firing at drivers on the streets of Hollywood was in critical condition Sunday night, two days after police killed the attacker.

John Atterberry, 40, a music industry executive who has worked with artists like Jessica Simpson, Brandy and the Spice Girls, was shot in the face and upper torso as he drove his Mercedes Benz through Hollywood Friday morning, police said in a statement.

Paramedics took Atterberry to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he has remained in critical condition since, hospital spokeswoman Simi Singer said.

Atterberry was the only seriously injured victim of 26-year-old Tyler Brehm, who angrily stalked the Hollywood streets in front of dozens of witnesses, screaming that he wanted to die and firing seemingly at random at passing drivers, unloading close to 20 rounds from what appeared to be a .40 caliber handgun.

An off-duty officer working at a movie set and a detective confronted and shot him, police said.

A truck and another car were struck by bullets, leaving two men with minor injuries — one man with a graze wound and another with cuts from broken glass.

Friends and colleagues filled Atterberry's Facebook page with well wishes and promises of prayers.

"He is one of a kind, and always knows how to put a smile on your face," Atterberry's longtime girlfriend Sophia Holguin told KABC-TV as she stood outside the hospital. "When you know him, you love him. He's got a charisma about him that nobody I know actually has."

Police released no information on what may have been Brehm's motive,

Brehm's ex-girlfriend Alicia Alligood, who had lived with him at his Los Angeles apartment, told KNBC had been dating for four and a half years and had recently broken up.

Brehm's friend Christina Mesropian, who lived in the same apartment complex as the couple, said he was badly troubled, hadn't gotten over the breakup and was most likely suicidal.

"When you walk down the street shooting at people that's probably when you expect that you are going to die," she told KABC. "He was most probably asking for it."