Local News in Brief : Shooting Suspect Held
A 17-year-old suspected gang member has been arrested in the wounding of an 11-year-old boy who was watching television at home, Los Angeles police announced Wednesday.
The teen-ager allegedly fired his pistol into the Crenshaw-area home of the boy, Donald Ritchie, because he was angry at having been asked to leave by the boy’s mother, Police Chief Daryl F. Gates said.
The juvenile suspect, who lives a block away, surrendered to police Tuesday evening and was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, Gates said.
He allegedly came to Ritchie’s home looking for a woman, but the boy’s mother told him that the woman was not there and that he was not welcome in the house, Gates said.
When he left, the 17-year-old fired one shot through the door, striking Donald in the forehead as the boy was sitting with other members of his family watching a videotape of the movie “Lethal Weapon.”
He was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he is on a life-support system and “his prognosis is not good,” Gates said.
Gates said officers also arrested Sandra Johnson, 38, and her 17-year-old son, who live next door, for helping the suspect hide from the police.
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