Pacoima Driver Arrested in 2 Drag-Racing Deaths

A Pacoima man was arrested after a man drag-racing his car was killed along with another motorist Tuesday night in a chain-reaction crash, Los Angeles police said Wednesday.

Charles Davis, 26, was being held on suspicion of manslaughter in the jail ward of County-USC Medical Center, where he was being treated for broken bones in an arm and leg, Officer John Gambill said.

His opponent in the drag race on Glenoaks Boulevard in Pacoima was Willie Bob Woosley, 34, of Lake View Terrace, who died in a head-on collision with a car that was not involved in the race, Gambill said.

The driver of the uninvolved car, William Ewing, 48, of Sun Valley, was also killed, the officer said.

Gambill said four others were injured, including three women whose car was sideswiped by Woosley. A fourth woman riding with Davis also was injured, he said.

Davis was driving a 1977 Volkswagen Scirocco, which he apparently had borrowed from a friend, in a race against a 1975 Pontiac Trans Am driven by Woosley, Detective Don Bellante said.

‘Bizarre Race’

The accident occurred after the racing cars passed a slow-moving northbound Ford Mustang, one on either side, Gambill said. The Trans Am sideswiped the Ford, Gambill said, then hit the Volkswagen, which struck the side of a tractor-trailer truck.

Woosley’s car then entered the southbound lanes of Glenoaks Boulevard, colliding head-on with the 1984 Ford Thunderbird driven by Ewing, he said.

Police were awaiting results of tests on Davis for alcohol and drugs, Bellante said.

His passenger, Yettra English, 26, of Pacoima, was listed in fair condition at Holy Cross Hospital in Mission Hills, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The three women in the Mustang were treated and released at Serra Memorial Health Center in Sun Valley, police said. The truck driver was not injured.

“It was a bizarre type of race, not your standard drag race,” Bellante said. Most of those who race on empty northeast San Fernando Valley streets, such as Glenoaks Boulevard, start at a stoplight and stop racing after a quarter of a mile, he said.

The race between Davis and Woosley, however, reached speeds of more than 70 m.p.h., Bellante said. It began at least a mile south of the scene of the crash near Osborne Street, he said.