Arrest Fails to Dim Horror for Husband of Slain Woman

Police had jailed one teen-ager charged with killing Alfredo Enriquez’s pregnant wife, and they were scouring the Southland Wednesday for a 16-year-old alleged accomplice in a violent crime rampage that frightened people throughout the county.

But Enriquez felt little comfort. The woman he loved since she was 15 had been shot to death by a pair of robbers who burst into their Huntington Park home. His wife’s 8-month-old fetus perished, too. His mother-in-law was slashed across the face.

For three hours his family was terrorized--tied up on the floor, guns held to their heads, triggers pulled, enduring “crazy” laughs from the pair when the weapons proved empty.

So the arrest Tuesday of 18-year-old Walter Steve Scott held only slight relief for Enriquez, who was so traumatized by the Feb. 26 attack that he and his family moved from their home. The newly decorated nursery and memories of that night were too much to bear, he said after police gave him details of the arrest.

“I can’t say I’m happy about the arrest,” said Enriquez, 27, talking about the ordeal for the first time. A warehouse manager who has not returned to his job since the attack, Enriquez apologized for lengthy pauses in his conversation. “What can I tell you? It’s hard. What happened, I dream about it sometimes. It is horrible.”

Scott was arrested Tuesday afternoon as he walked down a residential street in Hawthorne. Huntington Park detectives, who received tips of Scott’s whereabouts from among “hundreds” of citizen callers hoping to help, had been watching the area of 135th Street and Prairie for two days, Huntington Park Detective Tom Weselis said.

“He walked by our van about 4:30,” he said. Scott was not carrying a weapon and did not resist arrest.

Police are hoping citizens can provide the whereabouts of Glenford Brooks, 16, who is also charged with the murders of Sylvia Enriquez, 24, and her fetus. Brooks and Scott have been charged with the murders plus 33 felonies that include rape, robbery and car theft in connection with five violent break-ins in the Los Angeles area. Brooks has had a criminal record of violence since he was 13, Weselis said.

Juvenile suspects generally are not identified, but police released Brooks’ name because they believe that he is “armed with a gun” and “dangerous to the public,” Weselis said.

Scott, who has a criminal record for robbery and rape, appeared Wednesday morning for arraignment in South East Municipal Court in Huntington Park. The hearing was continued to April 4. He is being held without bail at the Los Angeles County Jail.

Weselis said the suspects are members of the 5 Deuce Crips street gang, and do not go to school or work. The felonies with which they are charged stem from five robbery-assaults in Long Beach and the San Gabriel Valley. In three of those robberies, they are charged with raping three women before fleeing in stolen cars.

Enriquez said he was asleep when two young men burst into the home and threatened to maim and kill the family if they didn’t give them money and valuables.

His 23-month-old son witnessed part of those horrible events, and that weighs heavy on him, he said. The young robbers, dressed in dark baseball caps, looked “normal” but “one of them danced on top of the TV and a table. Then they played with us, taunted us with the guns.”