Suspect in 3 Slayings Seized at Motel

A 24-year-old man from Jamaica suspected in the killings last month of three people was arrested Saturday at an Olympic Boulevard motel, and police said they hoped people who know and apparently fear him would now be willing to talk.

Michael Ellison, who used the alias Michael Grosset, was apprehended at the Oasis Motel near downtown Los Angeles, after a telephone tip led to police surveillance of a car he was using, according to Detective Paul Mize of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Mize said Ellison, who apparently suffered a heel fracture when he jumped from a second-floor window after police arrived at the motel, was booked at the jail ward of County-USC Medical Center on a murder charge in the South-Central Los Angeles shooting last Monday of two Jamaican nationals.

Dasemad Brown, 24, of Gardena, was killed, and Adrian Smith, 34, of Woodland Hills, suffered a leg injury in the incident. Jamaicans who lived in the triplex where the incident occurred fled their homes, and as of Saturday still had not returned, Mize said.

Ellison has also been linked to the Sept. 15 killing in Inglewood of Broderick Cochrin, 26, and Artiz Sterling, 30, Mize said.

“There are pockets of Jamaican nationals living in Inglewood and Los Angeles, and in contacting these small communities, they have just gone underground to avoid the guy,” Mize said. “When we talk to someone who is a Jamaican national, and this guy’s name comes up, they don’t want any part of the guy. They won’t talk to us. They won’t open doors to us.”

“The information we got is they will not communicate with the Police Department until Michael is off the street. Now that Michael is off the street, we hope they will come forward and tell us what the motive is for all this.”