Man Sought in Slaying Surrenders

A 19-year-old Los Angeles County man sought in connection with a slaying last week in Chula Vista surrendered to police Thursday.

Scott Gordon Robinson of Rancho Palos Verdes surrendered to Chula Vista police officers at the Torrance police station and later was booked into the San Diego County Jail on suspicion of murder, kidnaping and robbery, police said.

Police allege that Robinson and another suspect arrested earlier tried to rob 21-year-old Thomas Mercier and Shawn Grant, 18, both of Chula Vista, at gunpoint on May 2 as the men sat in an auto on Gotham Street. When the suspects jumped in the auto demanding money, Grant leaped out of the car and was fired at but not hit, police said.

An off-duty detective who witnessed the shooting called for the suspects to stop, but was himself shot at as the suspects drove away in the victims’ car, police said. The auto later was found several miles away, with Mercier dead in the front seat, police said.

The second suspect, Timothy Dean Johnson, 18, of Redondo Beach, was arrested last weekend in Torrance and also is being held at the San Diego County Jail on suspicion of murder, robbery, kidnaping and assault with a deadly weapon.