Family May Have Planned to Join Fugitive Son
The family of a Long Beach teen-ager accused of shooting two deaf Palmdale brothers, killing one, may have been preparing to join the fugitive youth in Upstate New York before he was arrested there, police said Tuesday.
Los Angeles Police Detective Michael Brandt said investigators had indications that the Bellinger family was planning to return to New York, where Joey Bellinger, 16, was arrested Friday in the Jan. 28 slaying of Cesar Vieira, 30, and the wounding of Vieira’s brother Edward, 25.
Joseph Paul Bellinger, 40, the youth’s father, was arrested Monday on suspicion of helping his son evade arrest. The elder Bellinger had been selling furniture from the family’s home and police had “unconfirmed information” that the family would move soon to the Utica, N.Y., area, Brandt said.
The elder Bellinger posted $5,000 bail and is to be arraigned March 16 on a charge of being an accessory to a felony.
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