Boy, 9, Crashes Car After 100-M.P.H. Chase; Man Killed

A 9-year-old Gardena boy, who had taken a family car for a joy ride Wednesday, led police on a 100-m.p.h. chase that ended when he ran a red light and smashed into another car, killing the driver, authorities said.

Officers pulled the boy from the wreckage as “the car burst into flames,” Gardena Police Lt. Ross Weddle said. The boy, treated at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center for a leg fracture and cuts on the left hand, is under investigation on manslaughter and hit-and-run driving charges.

Bobby N. Colvin, 36, of Los Angeles, whose car was broadsided at Imperial Highway and Normandie Avenue, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The boy, whose name was not made public because of his age, was taken into custody and later released at the hospital to his parents. Police plan to present their case to the district attorney today.

Officers said they do not know why the boy took the 1972 Buick shortly after 1 a.m., while his parents were inside the house, or how he was able to drive more than three miles, hitting four parked cars and a house along the way.

“Apparently he was large enough to be able to handle a car at 100 m.p.h.,” Weddle said.

Pending the results of an investigation, the boy could be charged with vehicular manslaughter, felony reckless driving, evading police officers and running a red light, said California Highway Patrol Investigator Art Aclaro.

“We certainly experience juveniles driving without a license and definitely under the age of 16. But to have a 9-year-old in this circumstance is very rare,” CHP spokeswoman Jill Angel said.

A neighbor of the family on Harvard Boulevard said she heard a car’s wheels “squeaking and squealing” about 1:15 a.m. and thought the father was leaving for work. But moments later, she said, she saw the mother rush from the house into another car, apparently to find the boy.

The boy had caused problems before, shooting a girl with a BB gun last October, the neighbor said.

Hit House

Weddle said Gardena police received a call reporting that a blue Buick had struck some cars and a house, ripping off a porch support column near Denker Avenue and 154th Place, not far from the boy’s home.

Denker resident Abigail Garcia, 26, said the noise woke her up.

“I got up and looked out the window, and I saw the car hit a white car. He was going very fast and he had the lights off,” she said.

Officers responding to the call attempted to stop a car fitting the description, but it “took off at a high rate of speed,” Weddle said.

With police in pursuit, the car turned north onto Normandie, where it reached its peak speeds before broadsiding with Colvin’s 1976 Ford, police said.

After rescuing the boy, officers quickly put out a fire in the the Buick’s engine, Weddle said.