2nd Teen Arrested in Killing of Woman

The second of two reputed gang members sought in last month’s slayings of a pregnant Huntington Park woman and her unborn baby was arrested Saturday morning as he lay in bed in an apartment near downtown Los Angeles.

Acting on a citizen’s tip, Huntington Park police kicked in the door of a one-room apartment at 2802 W. 8th St. and surprised 16-year-old Glenford Brooks, who surrendered without incident.

Brooks and an 18-year-old arrested Tuesday have been linked by authorities to a brutal series of residential robberies, including one Feb. 27 in which Sylvia Enriquez was slain along with her 8-month-old fetus.

Police allege that Brooks and Walter Steve Scott, 18, forced their way at gunpoint into Enriquez’s home and terrorized her family for more than two hours, finally shooting her when she resisted their efforts to drag her into a side room.

Detective Tom Weselis said Saturday that Huntington Park police had received several tips from the public on Brooks’ whereabouts, including a report that he was living in the apartment on West 8th Street, west of MacArthur Park.

A team of Huntington Park detectives began a surveillance Friday night of the 20-unit apartment and spotted Brooks going into the building hours later, Weselis said. At 7:20 a.m., armed with a search warrant and shotguns, the officers raided apartment No. 202 and made the arrest.

Tenants said Brooks had been staying for the last few days with Charles Jackson, an elderly, longtime resident of the building who told neighbors that Brooks was his son. Jackson, who reportedly suffers from poor health, was hospitalized Friday night, before the raid, and could not be reached for comment.

Retiree Donald Denton said he was standing outside the building when police entered.

“I held the door for them,” Denton said. “No sooner did they get to the top of the stairs then I hear the door go wham! About 10, 15 minutes later, they came out with this kid. His vocabulary was just four-letter words, things like ‘Get your hands off me, pigs.’ They were very calm with him.”

Though he had seen a picture of Brooks on television after Enriquez’s arrest, Denton said he did not immediately realize that the murder suspect and teen-ager staying in Jackson’s apartment were one in the same.

“It didn’t look like the same kid,” Denton said. “He had cut his hair and was wearing glasses.”

Brooks was taken to the Huntington Park police station for questioning and then to Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall. He is scheduled to be arraigned Monday.

Both he and Scott, who was arrested Tuesday as he walked down a residential street in Hawthorne, have been charged with the Enriquez murders and more than 30 other felonies including rape, robbery and car theft.