'He Couldn't Have Shot Her,' Doctor's Friend Says

There was a bright bouquet of flowers placed in front of the former office of Dr. Alexander Michaelson on Monday, and all day long people stopped and quietly studied a photo, a prayer and a note, placed on the glass window behind the flowers.

The note said in big letters: "We love you so much."

The color photo showed an apparently happy, healthy couple: Dr. Michaelson and his wife, Vera Michaelson, who both died Wednesday at their home in the Sherman Oaks hills. 

Los Angeles police detectives say the Michaelsons' deaths were a murder-suicide. They say Dr. Michaelson, 39, fatally shot his 33-year-old wife and then turned the gun on himself. Their bodies were found in the driveway of their house in the 15000 block of Sherview Place.

No note was found, and investigators have been interviewing family members.

The couple, who had recently moved into the gated property, were the parents of two children, ages 5 and 7, who were not at home when the shootings occurred, police said.

The children are now staying with relatives in Orange County, according to police.

Looking at the display of flowers outside the doctor's Tarzana office Monday, a man who claimed to be Dr. Michaelson's best friend said, "I don't believe it, he couldn't have shot her; they loved each other very much." The man, who gave his name only as Mike, said he, like the Michaelsons, was a Russian immigrant.

Two women with Mike, also Russian immigrants, echoed his disbelief.

"The doctor was not capable of doing this kind of thing. He was very kind, a wonderful man," said one of the women, who identified herself as Lena but also declined to give her last name.

"I've known them for seven years, and what is being said could not be true," said the other woman, who gave her name as Maya.

"Vera and Alex loved each other very much," Maya added.

When asked what they thought happened, the three only shrugged and said they didn't know.

On Sunday, at the Michaelson home, family and friends were trying to make sense of the violence.

A man who was cleaning out the garage said he was a close friend of Dr. Michaelson.

When asked why he thought his friend would shoot his wife and then himself, the man gave a one-word answer: "Love."

Asked if the couple was splitting up, he replied, "I don't know," and turned away.

Then he stopped and pointed at three vehicles in the garage, two passenger cars and a sport utility vehicle.

"They had everything," he said. "What can we do with those now?"

Vera Michaelson's distraught father, a Russian immigrant who gave his name as Eduard Ischutsin, joined the man as they walked back to the house near the top of the Sherman Oaks hills. A woman was helping to go through things in the garage.

"I don't speak English," said Ischutsin to a reporter. Then he began to weep.

Alexander Michaelson, a native of Russia, practiced medicine on Clark Street in Tarzana. Vera Michaelson recently graduated from dental school.

According to Vera Michaelson's Facebook page, she hailed from Minsk, Belarus, and earned degrees from Belarus State University of Technology and California State University, Northridge. She had just completed the dentistry master's program at Nova Southeastern University in south Florida.

According to the California Medical Board website, Alexander Michaelson received his medical training at the Moscow Medical Stomatological Institute and changed his name from Alexandre D. Mihelson at some point after his California medical license was issued in 1998.

Dr. Michaelson was board-certified in infectious diseases and internal medicine, according to the medical board website.  

Neighbors said the couple were found by one of the doctor's co-workers, who came to the residence to check on him after he abruptly left work on Wednesday, saying that he had an emergency.

On Monday, many people stopped in front of the office to look at the memorial and read the prayer that was written above it.

"What a terrible thing," said a woman who was looking at the photos of the doctor and his wife.

"I didn't know them, but I wonder what happened," she said.