Top Stories of 2011: No. 7—The Killing of Elvis

It was supposed to be an evening of celebration, four friends gathered for a night on the town to celebrate the birthday of Hossain Saidian. They went bowling, they went to a night club, they went home.

But the final trip included a stop at an all-night restaurant in Lake Forest, and in a flash all hell had spun loose.

It apparently started when a woman cut in line. It ended minutes later with one man dead and another mortally wounded.

Elvis Kechechian died shortly after the fight in the early morning hours of June 11. He was the strength and conditioning coach for the Santa Margarita Catholic High ice hockey club.

, was the man whose birthday was being celebrated, his 32nd.

The person who turned himself into police two days later—after Kechechian's death but before Saidian's—was Justin Alvin Maseo Tombleson of Lake Forest. He wasn't inside the restaurant initially, but responded to a phone call from his girlfriend, the woman who cut in line.

Although there are many different witness accounts as to what happened—more than 60 witnesses were interviewed—the verbal altercation escalated after Kechechian's older brother, Aris Kechechian, spit on the woman after she allegedly punched him.

Spitting is a bad move—always.

The group was told to go outside by management, and once outdoors, Tombleson arrived on the scene with a question: "Which one of you guys spit on my girl."

Tombleson, who had a history of battery offenses, allegedly used a pocket knife to kill Kechechian with a single stab wound and mortally wound Saidian with cuts to his arm and chest. Aris was also beaten in the melee, which may have included several other men joining the fracas against the celebrants.

Kechechian died shortly after the fight, and Saidian died five days later.

.

It was all over so quickly. The lives of Kechechian and Saidian ended. The life of Tombleson forever altered. Their friends and families shattered. And it was all so unnecessary.

There is a lesson here: Learn to walk away. .

A popular fitness instructor from Mission Viejo, as a man who had an infectious personality, who was caring and forgiving.

One of the Santa Margarita players, Andrew Kristof, addressed the overflow crowd at the theater at Saddleback Church. He praised Kechechian's "legacy of love, hard work and leadership ... I want to be like Elvis because I want to touch the lives of others just as he has touched mine."

Elvis Kechechian was buried wearing his coaching gear. He was 26.