One Suspect in Slaying of Girl, 7, Held : LAPD Credits Tips From Residents for Helping to Crack Case

A 24-year-old Los Angeles man has been arrested in the shooting death of 7-year-old Kanita Hailey, who was shot in the head as she played baseball with her friends on a stretch of dirt inside the Imperial Courts housing project in Watts, police said at a news conference Thursday.

Paul Calloway, a reputed gang member, was arrested Sept. 14 in connection with another, unrelated shooting. Police said Thursday that they now have received enough information from residents and witnesses to link Calloway to Kanita’s slaying.

That shooting, which came just five days short of Kanita’s eighth birthday, triggered an outpouring of concern about the growing number of children falling victim to animosity between warring gangs.

Last year, 70 people 17 years old or younger were the victims of homicide in Los Angeles.

“Kanita Hailey was another innocent victim of gang violence in Southeast Los Angeles who just happened to be playing in the neighborhood when the suspects were trying to kill a member of a rival gang,” said South Bureau Deputy Chief William Rathburn.

Rathburn said police were able to link Calloway to Kanita’s slaying after he and two other unidentified men became suspects in the July 9 shooting of reputed rival gang member Dennis Rogers.

Rogers was shot and killed in Imperial Courts about two weeks before Kanita was killed.

While investigating the Rogers case, detectives said they determined that Calloway and two unidentified suspects were reportedly attempting to kill another rival gang member, Donnel Jones, shortly after 7 p.m. on Aug. 2 when they allegedly fired an AK-47 assault rifle and a handgun from a moving car in the direction of where a group of children were playing baseball.

Kanita, a student at Grape Street Elementary School, was shot in the head as she tried to run from the hail of bullets. The girl was on a life-support system when she died two days later at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center.

In order to protect their informants, authorities declined to be specific on details that link Calloway to both cases.

Calloway has been charged in the Rogers slaying, and police planned to seek charges in Kanita’s slaying soon, Rathburn said.

At Thursday’s news conference, Rathburn praised residents for coming forward in the case, saying that he sees such community involvement as the start of a welcome trend. He had made similar statements two weeks ago when community involvement led to arrests in three other homicides in South-Central Los Angeles, including the shooting death of a 7-year-old boy.

“I see a very, very positive trend developing, and that trend is that people are getting fed up with the violence in South-Central Los Angeles and are coming out of their homes now and doing something about it,” Rathburn said.

“There has been a very, very high level of intimidation and fear in this community . . . in the minds of the good people,” Rathburn said. “They have retreated into their homes.

“They have been very, very reluctant to assist the Police Department in solving these cases. When they don’t assist us, we have a very very difficult, if not impossible, time solving serious crimes like drive-bys.”