Suspect Held in Killing of Nurse Who Tried to Help

Los Angeles police on Friday arrested a man they said was the boyfriend of a nurse shot to death in an ambush after stopping her car to help a man lying in the street.

Giles Aubery, 53, was arrested on suspicion of murder in the death of Lucille Marie Warren, 40, of Inglewood, who died at 11 a.m. Wednesday, about four hours after being repeatedly shot when she stepped out of her car in the 7400 block of Woodrow Wilson Drive, in the hills above Studio City.

Aubery, of South-Central Los Angeles, was being held without bail at the North Hollywood jail.

Police said the motive for the killing appeared to be a domestic dispute, although the nature of the disagreement was not clear.

“It appears to be that,” said Lt. Ron LaRue. “There was a relationship between the two. We had information that he had spoken to her recently,” LaRue said, and the relationship had not been broken off before the shooting.

LaRue said detectives were led to Aubery by information uncovered during a background investigation of the victim. A car, which witnesses on Woodrow Wilson Drive said the gunman used to escape after the shooting, was traced to Aubery, he said.

Police arrested Aubery at 9 a.m. Friday at his home in the 8900 block of Cimarron Street near Inglewood. Detectives said the suspect lived at the home with his wife. A gun was seized during the investigation, and police said ballistics tests would determine if it was the weapon used to kill Warren.

Warren, a divorced mother of two teen-agers, was shot shortly after leaving a home at the end of Montcalm Avenue where she was employed as a night nurse.

The only exit from the cul-de-sac in the exclusive area was by way of Woodrow Wilson Drive. Detectives said that when Warren reached that street Wednesday morning, she stopped because she saw a man lying in the street.

Detectives said they had not determined whether Aubery was lying in a position that concealed his identity from Warren or whether she recognized him before getting out of her car. Detectives originally said they believed the nurse got out of the car because she thought the man on the street needed help.

When Warren walked to the front of her car, the man stood up, pulled a gun and shot her repeatedly, including once in the head. She fell mortally wounded while the gunman ran to a nearby car and sped away.