Police are looking for the husband of a woman found stabbed to death Saturday morning outside of a friend’s house, a day aftershe obtained a restraining order against him. Jane Yamamoto reports from West Hills for NBC4 News at 6 p.m. on Sunday, June 16, 2013.
Police were seeking a Los Angeles elementary school teacher accused of stabbing his wife to death in the street after she obtained a domestic violence restraining order against him.
The suspect, Michael Rodney Kane, 46, a teacher at Nestle Avenue Charter Elementary School in Tarzana, remained at large on Sunday night. His wife, Michelle Kane, 43, died at the scene of the stabbing outside of her friend's home in West Hills on Saturday morning.
Kane was still listed on the elementary school's staff directory. He has had his multiple-subject teaching credential since 1998, according to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing.
He and Michelle Kane had been married for 10 years and had two young children, who were inside the home where the attack began before it spilled out onto the street.
"We're asking for Mr. Kane to turn himself in and bring this tragedy to closure," Los Angeles police Capt. Joel Justice said at a news conference Saturday.
The pair had a history of domestic violence and was in the process of getting a divorce. Michelle Kane filed a police report on Friday reporting that Michael Kane had violated his restraining order, Justice said.
She and her children then went to stay with a friend in West Hills.
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The stabbing happened the next morning - about 7:30 a.m. on Saturday in the 7100 block of Deveron Ridge Road.
Witness Roy Bernard described the violence, saying a neighbor fought with another man.
"They wrestled around for a while. The owner of the house got a nice wound on his wrist," Bernard said. "The woman took off running. The (other man) catches (the woman) and finishes killing her in the middle of the street."
When Bernard went out to the street she appeared to be dead, he said.
"She had very deep wounds in her abdomen and back," Bernard said.
Less than a mile away, at the apartment complex where Michael Kane has lived for the last few months, neighbors reportedly found blood near his apartment door. Police taped off the area as a crime scene.
Tim Liedel, a neighbor of Michael Kane's, said he and other neighbors heard or saw Kane screaming at the top of his lungs recently.
Police believe Michael Kane may be driving a 1999 Chrysler 300M, silver-gray or mint-green in color, with California license plate No. 4HGP487.
