Local News in Brief : Dead Assailant Identified
A man shot to death Wednesday by the boyfriend of a Hollywood woman he was holding at knifepoint in a robbery attempt has been identified as Jerome Frederick Copeland, 27, police said Thursday.
Copeland has been linked to a similar rape-robbery four hours earlier, according to Los Angeles Police Detective Russ Kuster. Both victims were accosted in underground parking garages.
Police have determined that Copeland’s slaying was “justifiable” and will not seek criminal charges against the boyfriend, whose name was withheld because a second suspect is still being sought, Kuster said.
Copeland, an Alabama man who served a prison term for armed robbery in Arizona, had been in the Hollywood area for at least a month, Kuster said.
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