Tow Truck Driver Booked in Collision That Killed 4

A tow truck driver was booked for investigation of vehicular manslaughter after his truck slammed into a car at a South-Central Los Angeles intersection Sunday night, killing the auto’s four occupants--a mother and her three children--police said Monday.

Los Angeles Police Detective Dennis Burkman said Ronald Farris, 29, of Compton was arrested at Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital in Inglewood, where he was treated for cuts suffered in the accident at Slauson and Normandie avenues.

Investigators said the tow truck apparently was traveling at high speed on Slauson when it crashed into the car driven by Gloria Laverne Deaver, 34, of Los Angeles as it was making a left turn onto Normandie, Burkman said. The force of the impact knocked Deaver’s auto 150 feet, witnesses said.

Deaver’s three children, Michael Wilson, 13, Devan Wilson, 9, and Ebony Walker, 8, were pronounced dead at the scene.

Firefighters used the “jaws of life” to cut the mother from the wreckage. She was also taken to Daniel Freeman, where she died a short time later, Burkman said.