Ex-Tenant Held in Apartment Fire Fatal to 4

A woman who was evicted from a Long Beach apartment house last month has been arrested on suspicion of murder in an arson fire in the building that killed four of her former neighbors.

Brenda Denise Cooper, 26, was arrested late Thursday, after detectives were told that she had been angry about her eviction from the low-rent complex, which was set afire late Wednesday night, Long Beach police said Friday.

Cooper was evicted from her $275-a-month apartment in early November, after being warned repeatedly that noise from music and late-night visitors was excessive, building owner Peter Dutta said Friday. She had lived in the apartment house with her 5-year-old son for about three months, he said.

“All the tenants were complaining about how there was drug dealing,” Dutta said. “She had people come at 1 o’clock in the morning. They broke the back door trying to get in. There was music, a lot of throwing of bottles and people sleeping on the floor.”

Dutta said Cooper would curse and laugh at him when he told her to keep the noise down.

Long Beach homicide Detective William MacLyman said he had also been told by residents of the building at 1334 Peterson Ave. that Cooper had sold drugs from her former residence.

Cooper, who was arrested by officers after she was spotted riding a bicycle on a Long Beach street, is being held without bail at the Long Beach City Jail, Sgt. Jim Ryals said. The case will be taken to the district attorney on Monday, he said.

Ryals declined to elaborate on the case, saying the investigation is continuing and the possibility of other arrests has not been ruled out.

Tenant Deborah Richards, who had lived next to Cooper, said the suspect called her several times on Thursday to ask about the welfare of Richards’ three children.

“She was my friend,” a tearful Richards said Friday. “She called me at the Red Cross (emergency) center, asking if my kids made it.”

The fire was set in at least three places in hallways and stairwells on both floors of the long, narrow apartment house, MacLyman said.

Residents of all but two of the 16 units escaped through windows, but Domitila Castellanos, 28, and two of her three children, Erika Estevez, 3, and Esmeralda Estevez, 8, died as they tried to flee down a stairwell, police said.

The third Estevez child, Saul, 6, was in “extremely critical” condition at County-USC Medical Center on Friday, with second- and third-degree burns over 57% of his body, a hospital spokesman said.

Also killed in the fire was Raul Navarro, 25, who fled into a hallway when he and his family had trouble removing the iron bars that had been installed on all their windows for security. No other apartment unit had bars on all windows, authorities said.

The fire left more than 50 residents homeless.