3 Seized in Slaying of Pregnant Woman

Three suspected gang members have been arrested in the fatal shooting of a pregnant Pasadena woman, whose 8 1/2-month-old fetus also died in the drive-by attack near the Rose Bowl, police said Tuesday.

Tyra Lashon Warren, 18, a former waitress at a Pasadena senior center, was shot in the head and the back as she sat in a parked car with her 20-year-old fiance Sunday night in front of Brenner Park, next to her aunt’s apartment.

Her fiance, whom authorities would not name but identified as a gang member, was shot seven times and was hospitalized in critical condition Tuesday.

“I couldn’t keep her away from him,” said Warren’s mother, Joeann Williams, 37. “He even tried to keep her away so she wouldn’t get hurt. But she loved him so much.”

Police said they had no reason to believe Warren, who was expecting her first child, was involved in gang activity.

Two teen-agers were arrested Monday night on suspicion of murder, and a third was taken into custody Tuesday, police said. Eric Fuller, 18, who police say is a member of a gang that considers Warren’s boyfriend a rival, was arrested at a Compton residence. The other two youths, both 16, were arrested in Pasadena.

“It’s possible that the suspects were looking for someone else,” said Pasadena Police Lt. Wesley Rice. “The male victim had borrowed this car from a friend of his, and it’s possible that the suspects had been looking for the friend.”

That was of little consolation to Warren’s friends and family, who described her as a quiet, unassuming woman who had just purchased baby clothes for her child, due April 29.

“We’re all just sick about this,” said Ellie Durr, administrator of Pilgrim Tower North, the senior center where Warren worked until recently. “She was a darling girl with a lovely smile who had a great respect for the elderly.”

At the yellow and brown two-story house where she lived with her mother, grandparents and three brothers, family members recalled Warren as a gentle person who enjoyed staying home and watching television.

“She wasn’t even going to leave that night,” her mother said. “But I told her to go out to the movies, that it would be good for her. I wish I had told her to stay home.”