Police Arrest Ex-Boyfriend in Slaying of Woman : Crime: He set himself afire after the young mother was killed by a shotgun blast on the porch of home where she sought help.

Terrified, 19-year-old Tammy Marie Davis cowered in the doorway of a darkened house in Huntington Beach just before midnight on Friday night.

“Help me, help me,” she screamed, banging on the door of a stranger’s home.

Seconds later, a point-blank shotgun blast killed her.

About 19 hours after the murder, the only suspect--the victim’s former boyfriend, Brian Keith Framstead, 29, of Inglewood--set himself afire in a car near Victorville after being stopped by a California Highway Patrol officer. A CHP officer had pulled Framstead’s 1989 Toyota over on Interstate 15 in the high desert city after the officer matched his car to a description of the murder suspect’s vehicle.

After firefighters put out the blaze, which Framstead had apparently set with lighter fluid, San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies took him into custody in connection with the murder. He was in serious condition Saturday night in the burn center at San Bernardino County Medical Center.

Framstead, the father of Davis’ 21-month-old daughter, Reanna Rose, was reportedly under a court order to stay away from Davis and was to begin a six-month jail term tonight at Theo Lacy Branch Jail in Orange for threatening her with a gun.

Huntington Beach police and relatives said Davis’ violent death on a quiet residential street ended a stormy relationship with Framstead.

Although police said there were no witnesses, they believe they have enough circumstantial evidence to make a murder case against Framstead.

Witnesses told police that Framstead was the last person seen with Davis when she left her job at a local Bob’s Big Boy restaurant, Huntington Beach police Lt. John Foster said.

“He is our only suspect at this time,” Foster said.

A shotgun, believed to be the murder weapon, was found Saturday morning by police in bushes not far from where Davis was shot.

Davis’ 13-year-old brother and 17-year-old cousin, who visited the crime scene in the 15200 block of Rushmoor Lane on Saturday, said Framstead had telephoned the family’s house twice Friday asking to talk to the victim.

“I told him over and over again, ‘Brian, she does not want to talk to you,’ ” said thebrother, who asked that his name not be used.

Davis later went to work at the restaurant. Her shift was scheduled to end at 9:30 p.m., but she ended up working overtime, her brother said.

Framstead has harassed Davis and her family repeatedly since the couple ended their relationship last April, her brother and cousin said.

An occasional construction worker, Framstead lived with the victim, her mother and the baby in a three-bedroom mobile home in Garden Grove until just a few months ago, neighbors said. Police went to the mobile home Saturday afternoon to see if he might still be there but came up empty.

The couple separated after he allegedly “pulled a gun on her and the baby,” her brother said.

It was not known if that incident was connected to Framstead’s order to serve the jail term for brandishing a firearm, Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Lynn Nehring said.

But Davis’ brother said the threats were often, driving Davis to obtain a restraining order against Framstead who, the brother said, was an unemployed cabinetmaker.

Despite the restraining order, “he didn’t leave her alone,” the youth said. “He’s threatened me and my whole family.”

The woman who found Davis slumped on the front of her porch at 11:25 p.m., described the attack as swift and bloody.

“I was startled by a bang on the door,” the woman said. “Then I heard her scream. I didn’t even get as far as the hallway (outside the bedroom) before I heard the shot. It happened so fast.”

The woman, who also asked that she not be identified, said she hurried to the phone and dialed 911 as soon as she heard gunfire.

She then looked out the door’s peephole to her partially secluded front porch.

“I saw her feet and there was blood on the cement,” she said. “She was not moving.