3 Gang Members Arrested, 4th Sought : Students Are Found Executed

The bodies of two college students from Thousand Oaks who had been the subject of an intense six-day search were discovered by police Sunday shot execution-style in a grassy field beside Mulholland Drive, authorities said.

Police said 20-year-old Brian Harris, a student at California State University, Northridge, and 18-year-old Michelle Ann Boyd, a UCLA student, were shot by members of a Florence-Firestone area gang who stole their car to commit other crimes and wanted to leave no witnesses.

Three suspects were in custody Sunday and police were searching for a fourth, Los Angeles Police Cmdr. Larry Binkley said.

Binkley said the students, who had been dating for several months after meeting in a record store where they worked, were abducted as they left Boyd’s Westwood apartment about 11 p.m. last Monday.

They were taken to a somewhat remote area just west of the San Diego Freeway and shot about 11:30 p.m., Binkley said.

4th Suspect at Large

The three men arrested were identified as Deandre Brown, 21, Damon Redmond, 19, and Stanley Davis, 20. Brown and Redmond were arrested during a search of several homes early Sunday. Davis turned himself in to the Firestone sheriff’s substation later in the morning. Police did not give the name of the fourth suspect.

Binkley said the four suspects were gang members “out looking for a crime to commit.” He said they apparently stopped the young couple to use Harris’ 1981 Honda Civic for transportation.

“They just wanted the car,” Binkley said. “The motive that we’ve obtained so far is that the suspects were out looking for a crime to commit. They were having some problems with their engine, they wanted a more reliable piece of transportation, so they took the kids in that car and executed them.”

At least two of the suspects were arrested for a similar crime in June, 1984, after a UCLA student identified them as the men who abducted him and stole his car, police said. They were not prosecuted, however, because the identification was considered inadequate, Binkley said.

Homicide detectives speculated that the suspects decided to shoot Harris and Boyd because they wanted to leave no witnesses this time.

Binkley said it is not known whether the men used Harris’ car in any other crime Monday night.

The car was found Tuesday morning behind an auto parts store on East Florence Avenue with Harris’ wallet, identification, credit cards and keys inside. Although it had been soaked with gasoline and set on fire, police found fingerprints inside the car.

Search Warrant Issued

The fingerprints were sent to Sacramento for processing through the state’s Automated Latent Print System. On Saturday, at least one of the suspects was identified by the fingerprints, Binkley said.

A judge signed a search warrant Saturday for three houses in the Florence-Firestone area. A task force of homicide investigators and other officers conducted the search beginning at 5:30 a.m. Sunday, Binkley said. During the search they found information leading to two more houses, he said.

The officers searched those houses immediately, without obtaining another warrant, because they hoped they might find Harris and Boyd alive, Binkley said.

Instead, they found Brown and Redmond, Binkley said.

They also found more evidence leading to the field in the Santa Monica Mountains where the bodies were found, Binkley said.

Authorities declined to describe what kind of evidence was found.

Autopsies were scheduled for today.