text: Ronni Chasen murder: Police seize office computers after top publicist shot dead | Daily Mail Online
  Baffled police seize computers and files after top Hollywood publicist is shot dead driving in Beverly Hills
  Updated: 02:50 EDT, 18 November 2010
  No suspects, motives or witnesses after Ronni Chasen shot 5 times in chest
  Passenger window of her car was shattered
  Possible scenarios include road rage
  Victim was acting 'happy-go lucky and fun' half hour before murder
  Police have seized computers from the offices and home of famed publicist Ronni Chasen after she was murdered in her Mercedes, as baffled authorities try to figure out what happened.
  The veteran PR mogul was shot dead in her car in Beverly Hills minutes after leaving the premiere and afterparty of Burlesque on Monday night at the W Hotel in Hollywood shortly after midnight.
  Ms Chasen, 64, was driving her Mercedes Benz at 12.30 am when she was shot at least five times in the chest near Sunset Boulevard, leading her car to smash into a lamp-post.
  Police do not yet have any suspects and said no threats had been reported against Ms Chasen.
  Friends say she was not a drinker, did not do drugs and has no enemies.
  Beverly Hills Police Sgt Lincoln Hoshino said detectives were pursuing a range of possible scenarios, including one in which the perpetrator followed Ms Chasen from the afterparty and another in which she was the victim of road rage.
  A friend who saw her just half an hour before the murder said she 'was happy-go-lucky and gossipy and fun, just like she always was'.
  The mystery deepened when police seized computers from her firm, Chasen and Co, and removed hard drives, CDs and file boxes from her luxury apartment.
  Ms Chasen lived in Westwood, some ten miles away, and was believed to be driving home when the attack occurred.
  Authorities said they arrived at Sunset Boulevard and Whittier Drive at about 12.30am and found the Mercedes Benz E350 crashed into the lamp-post.
  Morgan Freeman said he had the 'extreme pleasure' of working with Ms Chasen on Driving Miss Daisy.
  Mystery: The passenger side of her Mercedes with shattered window
  Investigation: A Beverly Hills Police Department forensic specialist leaves the office building of Chasen and Co on Tuesday
  'We've been friends ever since,' the actor said. 'She is someone I greatly admired, and she will be remembered.'
  Witnesses said they heard gunshots in the serene Beverly Hills neighbourhood and called the police emergency dispatcher before going outside to help.
  'I heard the 'Boom! Boom! Boom!' of gunshots, ran up to the window, and there was the back of the car,' Nahid Schekarchian, who lives in an apartment above the crash site, told The Associated Press.
  She said her daughter-in-law called police and her son and a neighbour ran down to the car and found Ms Chasen, who was struggling to breathe and bleeding from her nose and chest.
  The killing took place after the PR queen attended the premiere of the movie Burlesque, which the trade publication Variety said she was promoting for Screen Gems to position the soundtrack for an Oscar nomination.
  Ms Chasen 'was at our premiere last night and so full of her trademark energy and love of life,' said Amy Pascal, co-chair of Screen Gems owner Sony Pictures. 'We are heartbroken, shocked and completely devastated.'
  Her brother, screenwriter Larry Cohen - who worked on several episodes of Columbo in the 1970s - said: 'She was my sister and best friend and we shared so many wonderful times together.
  'Ronni was a loving and caring person who treated her clients like they were her own family.'
  'She wasn't a shady character,' he said. 'It's a small community and she was one of the fixtures in it.'
  Ms Chasen was struck down in the middle of her busiest time of year - Hollywood's award season, when the movie studios mount expensive campaigns to promote their better films for awards consideration using spin-specialists such as her.
  Her other clients included movie producers Irwin Winkler and Richard D. Zanuck.
  The crime scene was marked with yellow police tape stretched between two trees on a grassy parkway among stately homes south of Sunset.
  An orange cone marked the spot where the lamp-post had stood, and a small bouquet of yellow and red flowers was next to the edge of the road.
  Fatal: After she was shot five times, she was was struggling to breathe and bleeding from her nose and chest, a witness said
  'Ronni was a positive force of nature,' he said during an interview by The Associated Press and KNBC. 'She was just great at what she did, a supreme sales person and a great lady.'
  Ms Chasen was involved in Hollywood publicity since the 1970s. She also promoted On Golden Pond, which won Academy Awards for best actor, actress and screenplay in 1981.
  Scene: The Hollywood publicist was driving her Mercedes when she was shot five times in the chest leading her car to crash into a pole
  Stephen Jaffe, a crisis management consultant, said he and his wife, actress Susan Blakely, knew Ms Chasen for at least 25 years. The Hollywood awards season was always a busy time for her, Jaffe said.
  'She would always call us this time of year to come to really incredible events,' he said, explaining Ms Chasen would often arrange screenings followed by intimate gatherings of filmmakers and guests.
  'This was an absolutely shocking and inexplicable event that has hurt us,' Jaffe said of the shooting.
  Bragman said Ms Chasen had a unique way of doing business.
  'She was not a woman who was a slave to the fashion of the day,' he said. She played to her own vision and integrity. She was very bright, very successful.
  'She had been doing this forever. She had a lot of class, a lot of style and a lot of intelligence. She was just very, very well-respected', he said.
  Razzle dazzle: Chasen worked on award season campaigns. Here she is with Freida Pinto and Dev Patel at a Golden Globes party in 2009