Police search for Steven Hill, a porn actor they say is responsible for killing one and wounding two at a Van Nuys video production facility with a machete-like sword used as an adult movie prop.
The 30-year-old adult movie actor was at risk, police say, of losing his acting and production jobs at the adult entertainment studio of Ultima DVD. Police say Hill allegedly used a movie prop as a weapon, to stab three people late last night. LAPD Detective Joel Price says Hill was both working and living at the offices of Ultima DVD Inc.
The three stabbing victims were rushed to hospital, one pronounced dead. Seven people were in the Ultima DVD company office when the attack occurred. The stabbings occurred during a small social gathering late Tuesday at Ultima DVD Inc.’s distribution and production center in Van Nuys. Porn actor, Hill, had been told a week earlier to leave the studio by Wednesday.
Hill had lived for several months in a section of the Ultima DVD production facility, in Van Nuys, California, that apparently doubles as an adult movie set. A witness similarly lives on-site at the company. The Ultima DVD building resembles a small storage unit, described as located in a nondescript industrial park at the edge of Van Nuys Airport, in a region known as "porn valley". The section caters to the adult film industry, with that part of the San Fernando Valley serving as headquarters for numerous porn purveyors and porn companies.
“There was no indication that things were going to get violent [before the sword attack], there was nothing that provoked this attack [by Hill], but at some point Steven [Hill] chose to arm himself with what can be best described as a sword,” LAPD says. “He then used that sword against those three victims.” Hill apparently attacked one man near the back of the facility, turning on two others when they tried to intervene, say police.
A 30-year-old man, who tried to help during the stabbings, suffered a stab wound to the torso and died at a hospital. The other two victims were expected to survive. Porn actor Hill then fled the scene in an SUV, and with the weapon, one of several swords on-site at the Ultima DVD office. LAPD police found a dried pool of blood near one of the building’s doors, drops of blood leading toward a row of parking spaces. The porn actor had appeared in some Ultima films, additionally doing work on its website, but Price believed the studio severed its business ties with Hill when he was told to leave the production facility.
Police say Hill was separately and currently on probation, for an unrelated charge of carrying a concealed weapon, says LAPD. Names of the victims were not released, and LAPD verifies only-with identity-that they are not established porn stars.
Steve Nelson, editor-in-chief of Adult Industry News, says Hill “seemed like an OK guy who was trying very hard to get recognized and get his name out there. He [Hill] carried around pictures of himself in hard-core [porn] action, and he would always want to show them to me.” Hill appeared in adult pornographic films under the name of Steve Driver and has 13 adult films credited to his name including films for Ultima DVD as well as other porn companies. Ultima DVD specializes in niche adult movie films-in particular, sexual fetishes and scenes of women sexually abusing men.