Gunfire From Car Kills Baby, Injures Parents

Gunfire erupted from a passing car in the Willowbrook area Sunday night, killing a 14-month-old girl and seriously wounding her parents and an uncle, authorities said.

Little Michelle Jones was one of at least 17 people to die in violence in the Los Angeles area over the weekend. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department investigators said she was pronounced dead on arrival at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center. She had been shot in the face.

The child’s father, John Jones, 22, mother, Katy Jones, 21, and uncle, Albert Jones, 26, were being treated at other area hospitals for wounds described by authorities as serious, but not life-threatening.

Sheriff’s Homicide Lt. Derry L. Benedict said the Joneses had just driven up to their home at 132nd Street and Carlton Avenue about 7:30 p.m. and were leaving their car when a blue Jeep Cherokee containing several men drove by and several shots were fired.

While detectives worked the crime scene, several relatives and friends of the victims stood by, grief-stricken, late Sunday.

One unidentified woman sobbed uncontrollably while saying over and over:

“This is stupid. Stupid. Stupid. . . .”

Another relative, identified only as Anthony, was being comforted by two friends about 50 yards from the Jones home. The Gardena man said he happened to be in the neighborhood when he saw a helicopter circling overhead. He drove to the scene, where a friend told him that his relatives had been attacked.

“That was my family over there,” he said, “my sisters and brothers. The baby is dead.”

A 30-year-old man who lives nearby, cried out:

“You dumb-ass gangbangers killed a baby!”

“We don’t know if this family has any gang affiliations,” Benedict said. “We have no witnesses at this time and no suspects.”

One longtime resident of the neighborhood, a woman who declined to give her name, said:

“This is a very stable residential area. I watched these kids grow up,” she said of the Jones couple. “I watched the babies have babies.

“This just doesn’t happen on our street.”

But another woman who lives on Carlton Avenue said gunshots are common.

“We hear them every night,” she said.