‘Spur of Moment Thing,’ Say Teens Who Beat Thief

Four teen-agers who chased down and beat a 28-year-old man after they saw him steal the purse of an elderly woman in South-Central Los Angeles told police that their actions were “just a spur of the moment thing” brought about by their anger over the theft, a police spokesman said Friday.

Lt. Dan Cooke said the teen-agers talked with police Thursday night, a day after the beating victim, Derek Kent Pillares, died at Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital in Inglewood.

“It just happened,” Cooke said. “It wasn’t an organized vigilante thing.”

The events leading to Pillares’ death began when he snatched the pocketbook of a 67-year-old woman as she walked to a market near 89th Street and Western Avenue. The boys saw the theft and gave chase, police said.

Pillares was followed several blocks to South Harvard Street, where he knocked down a teacher in the La Salle Avenue Elementary School parking lot, grabbed her keys and tried to reach her car.

Witnesses on Thursday said that two teen-agers chased the man into the parking lot, where they were joined by several young men who had been playing basketball nearby and came to the aid of the teacher. The group, described by witnesses as numbering about seven, pummeled Pillares in the body and stomped repeatedly on his head.

Then, the witnesses said, they fled.

Police arriving later took Pillares to the hospital, but he died shortly after arrival.

A preliminary coroner’s report said Pillares suffered blunt force trauma to the head, coroner’s spokesman Bill Gold said Friday. A cause of death will not be established for about six weeks, when toxicological tests are concluded, he said.

Cooke said preliminary police interviews with the teen-agers indicated that while they were angry at Pillares, they did not mean to beat him senseless.

“That was certainly not their intent,” Cooke said.

Formal charges against the teen-agers will not be considered until a cause of death is decreed, Cooke said, calling such a determination “a little premature yet.” Detectives on Thursday surmised that Pillares might have taken drugs that contributed to his death.

Police said Friday that they have not yet interviewed other young men believed to have been present when the beating occurred.