Gun of Bomb Suspect Not Linked to Earlier Attack

A pistol found in the home of makeup artist Donald Morse--booked on suspicion of murder in the bomb explosion Saturday that killed two police demolitions experts--was not the weapon used in the earlier shooting attack in which Morse is considered a suspect, police said Monday.

A spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department, Lt. Dan Cooke, said ballistics tests show that the .38-caliber pistol recovered Saturday was not the weapon fired last week in an apparent attempt to kill Howard Smit.

Smit, 74, business manager of the Makeup Artists and Hair Stylists Union Local 706, was wounded in the chest by a single shot from a .38-caliber pistol Wednesday as he walked to his car from the union’s office in North Hollywood.

A few days before the attack, Morse had stormed into the office to complain about being fined for being delinquent in his union dues, union officials said.

“In checking that out, detectives determined that about a year and a half ago, Morse had been arrested for rape,” said Cmdr. William Booth, who heads the Police Department’s press relations unit.

Never Prosecuted

Morse was never prosecuted for rape--the woman involved declined to press charges--but officers learned during the course of that investigation that Morse owned a .38-caliber handgun.

Booth said the information about Morse’s gun and his relationships with union officials provided police with the “probable cause” needed for a search warrant, and on Saturday morning, officers presented the warrant and began the search of Morse’s home at 6849 N. Vanscoy Ave., North Hollywood.

“While conducting the search, the officers found in the garage a cabinet containing two pipe bombs,” Booth said. “They called in the department’s experts.”

The two who responded were Detective Arleigh McCree, 46, commander of the bomb squad and considered one of America’s foremost experts on explosives, and officer Ron Ball, 43, who received the department’s highest award, the Medal of Valor, for disarming a terrorist’s bomb in 1980.

Booth said McCree reportedly remarked during his preliminary examination of the bombs that one of them appeared to have been booby-trapped. Despite this, McCree chose to dismantle the bomb at the site--preserving it as evidence--rather than the safer course of removing it with a long-range mechanical arm and blowing it up at a demolition site.

Moments later, Booth said, one bomb exploded, killing both men.

As a result, Morse--who sometimes used the first name Donnell--was arrested and booked on suspicion of murder. So were his brother, Alvin, 34, and sister, Ernestine Enoch, 39, who had recently arrived in North Hollywood from Florida. Young children from the family, who also had been staying at the home, were placed with relatives in Southern California.

Police declined further comment Monday on any additional evidence or possible motives in the case, but one officer said Alvin Morse and Enoch were linked to the explosion by more than the fact that they had been living in the house.

“We still have a lot of questions we want answers to,” Booth said.

Writ of Habeas Corpus

Prosecutors have until Wednesday night to charge the suspects or see them released on a writ of habeas corpus. The suspects’ sister, Joann Rhodes, said Monday in a telephone interview from the family home in Altamonte Springs, Fla., that she is confident that they will be released.

“They were all born and grew up here,” she said. “We’re just regular people. Things like this don’t happen to people like us.”

Rhodes repeated her belief that all three are innocent, recalling again that in a telephone conversation after his arrest, Donald Morse told her he thought he knew someone who might have placed the bombs in the garage. Rhodes, who said she had been warned by an attorney not to discuss the case, declined to identify that “someone.”

“It’ll all come out in the wash,” she said.

Meanwhile, Mayor Tom Bradley ordered that city flags be flown at half-staff in tribute to the slain officers. Memorial services will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at the Scottish Rite Masonic Temple at 4357 Wilshire Blvd.