Suspect Dies as Son, Mother Foil Thieves : He Disarms and Shoots One of Two Robbers as She Jumps Into Melee to Help

A son’s love for his mother--and a mother’s for her son--foiled a robbery attempt in View Park that ended with the shooting death of one of two suspects, authorities said Tuesday.

“They smacked my mother,” said David Hall, a 6-foot-3, 235-pound criminology student. “I’m not going to let anybody do that.”

Doretha Hall, 47, was returning from work about 8 p.m. Monday when she was confronted outside her home by a man who handed her a brochure about a special deal at a local hairdressing salon and pushed a revolver in her back, according to Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies. He then ordered her inside, where her 21-year-old son was standing.

Seconds later, a second suspect entered and began choking Hall, throwing her to the ground, authorities said. David Hall, lunging for the gun-wielding assailant, forced him outside and began fighting for the weapon on the front lawn.

At that point, the second suspect joined the fracas--as did Hall herself, who jumped onto the pile to save her son, snapping her fingernails as she yanked on the hair of one suspect. During the melee, David Hall was shot in the leg but managed to get control of the weapon and fatally wound one of the suspects in the head as he fled, according to authorities.

Sheriff’s deputies have identified the slain assailant as Richard Maragh Jr., 18, of Los Angeles. The second, unidentified suspect, who was wielding the .38-caliber revolver, remains at large.

Doretha Hall, sitting beside her son in their luxurious Spanish-style home on Tuesday, said she never thought twice about coming to the rescue of her “baby.”

“I knew that with these two guys against my son that he would get killed or hurt seriously. So I just jumped in,” she said. “I wasn’t thinking about my safety. I was thinking about my son’s safety.”

Authorities said the two probably saved each other’s lives.

“Actually, they are both heroes,” said Lt. Derry Benedict of the Sheriff’s Department homicide unit. “Maybe in hindsight it was foolish because they both could have been killed. But they both did some amazing things. She might very well have saved his life, and he might very well have saved hers.”