After 14 years, justice comes closer for family

Fourteen years ago, freelance photographer Douglas Burrows was broadsided by a 18-wheeler in downtown Los Angeles -- a fatal hit-and-run that seemed destined to fade into obscurity.

The alleged truck driver, Rogelio Pereira, fled to Mexico. The Burrows case remained active, but investigators always seemed to be inundated with more immediate -- and pressing -- cases.

Still, there was one constant: Every year around the anniversary of his son’s 1993 death, John Burrows would place a call to detectives at the LAPD’s Central Traffic Division to see if investigators had made any progress.

Vacations, promotions, transfers and retirements meant that nearly every time Burrows called, there was somebody new to talk to.

Each time, Burrows insisted on telling the story of his photographer son. He told the officer about Doug’s struggle to overcome being born with a cleft pallet, requiring 30 operations to repair.

He recounted Doug’s professional triumphs, the pictures that appeared in the Los Angeles Times and Newsweek, capturing presidential news conferences, post-Gulf War Iraq, the Interstate Bank building fire and the Los Angeles riots.

And he reminded them of the injustice of Doug’s death.

Doug Burrows had just dropped off film canisters at the 9th Street Elementary School downtown when the 18-wheeler ran a red light at a nearby intersection and plowed into his car. When his red Toyota Corolla was engulfed in flames, the truck driver and his passenger ran off without coming to his aid. He was 29.

“I made it a priority in my life to see that this guy was caught and stand before a judge and jury for causing the death of my son,” said John Burrows, adding that he found himself frustrated when “too frequently there was a different person” on the line at the traffic division.

Officers said they, too, were frustrated.

Within days of the crime, witnesses had helped police identify Pereira as the driver. But after his arraignment on charges of felony hit-and-run causing death, he fled to Mexico.

Despite the wide net cast, which included contacting authorities along the U.S.-Mexico border and profiling the suspect on “Prime Suspect” and “America’s Most Wanted,” Pereira had vanished.

Then, two years ago, LAPD investigators linked up with the U.S. Marshals Service in an effort to jump-start the case.

Besides being sought by the LAPD, Pereira was wanted by the California Department of Corrections and the Yuma County, Ariz., Sheriff’s Department.

Authorities re-interviewed witnesses, tracked down Pereira’s friends and family, and scoured records.

They soon discovered that Pereira had become a U.S. citizen in 1976, after immigrating to the United States from Mexico. His status would help U.S. authorities make the case for his deportation.

Next was the challenge of tracking him down.

Pereira was using a variation of his family surname and had settled in Mexicali, where he worked as a motorcycle repairman, said Tony Burke, commander of the U.S. Marshals Regional Fugitive Task Force.

In April, the marshals pinpointed Pereira’s location and coordinated his arrest with the Mexican state police and the country’s immigration officials.

Pereira was taken into custody without incident the night of June 12 as he returned home from work. “Is this about the accident in L.A.?” Burke said of Pereira’s comments to police. “I’ve been wanting to turn myself in.”

The marshals took custody of Pereira after making the case to Mexican immigration officials that he was a U.S. citizen and a fugitive from justice. The next day, he was handed over to the LAPD at the border.

Pereira, who is being held without bail, is scheduled to be in court July 3 for a preliminary hearing.

For the Burrows family, scarcely a day goes by without a memory of Doug, his father said.

Douglas Burrows became interested in photography after moving to the Los Angeles area from Des Moines, Iowa.

He attended Pasadena City College and then Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, where for one project he brought an elephant to a photography class.

As a professional, Burrows took pictures that appeared in 300 publications. Some of his most notable work appeared in the Los Angeles Times and Newsweek.

Many of the images are stored in file cabinets in the guest house of the family’s La Canada Flintridge home and adorn the walls. One of the family’s favorites is a picture of a fireman looking skyward as the First Interstate Bank building burned.

Others include images taken in Iraq after the Gulf War in 1991. He had told his parents he was going to Japan so they wouldn’t worry.

That same year Burrows took pictures of the Los Angeles riots, returning home with a car that was scratched and dented from debris.

And there was the series of pictures Burrows took while chronicling life with the “hang out boys” gang in South Los Angeles, whose members were so moved by his images that one was buried with a photograph.

John Burrows still has the melted camera retrieved from his son’s car and charred press credentials given to him by the county coroner. Both symbolize his son’s achievements and his promise that was cut short.

The father recalled the day -- May 1, 1993 -- when authorities told him his son wouldn’t be coming home for a party at the family’s home.

“He overcame so much and ended up achieving more than many people do their entire life,” Burrows said.

andrew.blankstein@latimes.com