Local News in Brief : 3 Suspects Arrested in Pacoima Man’s Slaying

Detectives have arrested two men and a woman in the shooting death of a reputed gang member whose body was found Monday in a Pacoima trash bin, police said Wednesday.

Johnny Ray Johnson, 32, of Pacoima and William Joseph Carson, 28, a transient, were arrested on suspicion of murder, Lt. Bernard D. Conine said. Sheila Ann Harris, 32, of Pacoima was arrested on suspicion of being an accessory to murder, he said.

Investigators believe that Carson shot Norris Laverne Hooper, 25, of Pacoima in an argument at a house in the 13400 block of Desmond Street, Conine said. Hooper’s body then was dumped in the trash bin about two miles away, in the 12500 block of Filmore Street, he said.

Johnson and Harris were arrested Tuesday at the house where the shooting took place, and Carson was arrested early Wednesday at a Sylmar motel. Conine would not describe the alleged roles of Johnson and Harris in the slaying, and he said the nature of the dispute between Carson and Hooper has not been determined.

Although Hooper was known to police as a gang member, the three people suspected in his death are not gang members, Conine said. The Desmond Street neighborhood has been a center of drug sales, leading detectives to suspect that Hooper’s death was related to drugs, Conine said.

Carson and Johnson were being held without bail at the Foothill Division jail. Harris was being held without bail in Van Nuys Jail, he said, adding that court appearances for the three have not been set.