3-Year-Old Tells Police Argument Led to Killing, Suicide

A 3-year-old boy, found shaken and blood-spattered but otherwise unhurt, could tell police only that his mother and her boyfriend had been arguing before gunshots rang out in the car-pool lane of the San Diego Freeway, authorities said Sunday.

George Charles Woodford III fired several shots Saturday night into the head and body of 33-year-old Audrey Denise Davis of Long Beach, then the 28-year-old Long Beach man put a single bullet into his head before slumping over the steering wheel, police said.

The 1976 AMC Pacer continued to speed down the southbound car-pool lane, its left front wheel dragging against a median guardrail until the tire caught fire and the car finally halted just north of the Springdale Avenue exit just after 10 p.m. Saturday.

“The boy said they started to argue over something one of them said to the other,” Westminster Police Lt. Andrew Hall said.

What sparked the argument and led to the shooting may never be known, said Hall, because “to the best of my knowledge, our only witness is the little fellow himself.”

The youngster--described as bright and talkative--was being held Sunday at an Orange County emergency shelter. Shelter officials said he was in good condition. His name was being withheld.

Although the toddler referred to Woodford as “Daddy,” both police and social service officials said Sunday the man apparently was not married to Davis and was not the boy’s natural father.

“Some relatives have called . . . and there’s some indication we may have located the boy’s father,” Orangewood Children’s Home director Robert Theemling said.

It was the boy who was first spotted by California Highway Patrol officers responding to a report of a car fire.

“They could see the little boy bouncing around inside the vehicle . . . standing in the back seat looking out the windows,” Westminster Police Sgt. Jack Davidson said. “They could see that he was OK.”

But when the flaming tire was extinguished and officers could move closer, they saw the bodies of both adults lying on the front seat, a .25-caliber handgun near them.

The boy “wasn’t crying, but he was a little nervous at first,” Davidson said. “He was able to talk to the officers and tell (them) his name and that it was his mother.”

Davidson said the boy told officers that his “mommy” and “daddy” had been “hurt.”