Final Suspect in Officer’s Death Sought

Police were searching Friday for the remaining suspect in the slaying of an Inglewood detective after another man, believed to have been the gunman, killed himself at the end of a high-speed, 45-mile car chase.

Police were still looking for Joevone Elster, 22, of Los Angeles, who they believe planned the bungled gas station robbery that led to the death of undercover Sgt. George Aguilar. Elster was fired two weeks ago from a job at the gas station, Inglewood Police Sgt. Harold Moret said.

Three others--including a juvenile--have been charged in connection with the Thursday morning shooting of Aguilar, 46, of Redondo Beach.

The suspected gunman, Leslie Holget, 32, shot himself in the chest after his car engine blew out and the car stalled on the Golden State Freeway in Newhall, Moret said. The chase started about 11 p.m. Thursday in South Los Angeles, where police had staked out a car seen near the Inglewood slaying.

Police said a woman in the car with Holget told them that when the vehicle came to a stop and officers approached, Holget said: “I killed somebody, and I think it was a police officer. I know they’re going to get me so I’ll get myself first.”

No officers fired shots, Moret said.

Holget’s female passenger was questioned and released, Moret said.

Arrested in the case at their South Los Angeles homes early Friday, he said, were Patrick Anthony Carr, 22, and a 14-year-old male.

Van Otis Wilson, 21, of Whittier was arrested Thursday morning in a manhunt in the Inglewood neighborhood where Aguilar was shot as he pursued the robbers on a busy street.

All three have been charged with murder of a police officer and robbery.

The slaying, the first of an Inglewood officer in the city’s 80-year history, stunned the 187-member police force, which prides itself on aggressive police work that has helped reduce Inglewood’s crime rate nearly 30% in the last six years.

A 15-year veteran narcotics investigator who had worked three years previously in the Compton Police Department, Aguilar was married and had two grown children, a 3-year-old son and a grandson. Colleagues said he was well-liked and an extremely skilled investigator.

“He was one of the slickest, sharpest police officers you can imagine,” Moret said. “He was SWAT-trained, a top narcotics expert. He had arrested hundreds of dangerous criminals.”

Aguilar was headed to Oxnard for police training classes when he was flagged down by the robbery victim, a courier who had picked up money from the gas station, one block from the San Diego Freeway. Aguilar was in civilian clothes driving an unmarked police car, but the victim--Masih Madani--recognized him because he was an occasional customer of the gas station.

According to Moret, Holget and Wilson robbed Madani, 25, and fled in his car, followed at a distance by a car containing Carr, Elster and the juvenile.

Madani spotted Aguilar, flagged him down and they followed the courier’s stolen car while notifying other officers.

When Aguilar pulled alongside the suspects’ car several blocks away, Holget fired several shots with one striking the detective, police said.

After the shooting, heavily armed officers surrounded and searched an area just southwest of the Forum, eventually capturing Wilson, who was hiding under a stairwell.

Holget escaped by stealing a 10-speed bicycle from a back yard and riding it to his South Los Angeles home, Moret said.

The suspects in the second car also escaped but were spotted by a witness who supplied a description and partial license plate number to police. Acting on that information, officers were waiting when Holget and his companion got into the car Thursday evening near 69th Street and Broadway, setting off the chase.