Sheriff’s Sergeant Finds Gun Concealed in Car, Scares Off Abductor

An off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff’s sergeant was robbed and abducted at gunpoint in Inglewood Wednesday night, but she escaped injury by using a concealed gun to fire at her assailant and scare him away, authorities said.

Sgt. Willie Miller, 38, was in an underground parking garage at her Inglewood apartment complex about 10:15 p.m. when she was forced into the trunk of her car by an unidentified man wielding a sawed-off shotgun, police said.

Miller, one of 81 female sergeants in the 7,570-member department, is a 12-year veteran stationed in the recruitment bureau, Sheriff’s Department officials said. She previously had worked for five years in the sheriff’s public information bureau.

“I don’t know whether she was selected or if it was random,” Inglewood Police Capt. James E. Seymour said. “Unless we catch this individual, we may never know that.”

At the time of the incident, Miller was returning to her apartment from an evening out, and was wearing valuable jewelry, police said.

The man took Miller’s purse and jewelry before he forced her into the trunk of her Honda. He apparently did not see the sheriff’s uniform and handgun that, Miller told investigators, were in the trunk.

As the man drove off with Miller in the trunk, he yelled loudly that he planned to rape her when he stopped. By the time the car arrived at an unknown location, Miller had armed herself with a handgun that she had in addition to her service revolver, police said. She fired three shots when the man opened the trunk, but police said there was no blood at the scene and “no evidence of a hit.”

Although the shots apparently startled the man, he slammed the trunk shut and again drove off before Miller could escape, police said.

A short time later, the man abandoned the car at 65th Street and Marlborough Avenue, a residential area about a mile from Miller’s apartment.

The sergeant freed herself by kicking through the trunk panel and crawling through the back seat. The gunman already had fled with more than $4,000 in cash, jewelry and other valuables, police said.

Miller, who suffered a cut on her knee, drove to a phone booth at a nearby gas station on Centinela Avenue and called Inglewood police. She described the gunman as a black male in his 30s, about 5 feet, 9 inches tall with an average build. He was wearing a green vest and khaki pants.

Seymour praised Miller for “keeping her cool and resorting to the use of force only when she absolutely had to.”

The incident is being investigated by Inglewood police and Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives.