2 Burglary Suspects May Face Murder Charges

Authorities said Monday that they are considering murder charges against two burglary suspects whose alleged accomplice was shot and killed by an off-duty California Highway Patrol officer.

Arthur Lewis Hughey, 39, of Los Angeles was shot to death Sunday night in Long Beach, where he had allegedly driven from Irvine with two other suspects in an apartment burglary.

In releasing new details of the incident Monday, authorities said that Hughey allegedly drove his getaway truck toward a pedestrian in Long Beach who happened to be a California Highway Patrol officer. The unidentified officer raised his gun and, when the vehicle continued toward him, shot the driver once through the windshield, police said.

The truck then veered and missed the officer by inches, officials said.

The officer “was in fear, trying to save himself and the people who were with him,” said Long Beach Police Detective John Boston. At the time of the incident, the off-duty officer was helping deposit money from a church fund-raiser in a night box at the Farmers & Merchants Bank at Bellflower Boulevard and East 23rd Street in Long Beach, officials said.

The shooting ended a chase that began after Hughey and two others allegedly burglarized an apartment in the 3700 block of Parkview Lane in Irvine.

The residents came home, surprised the burglars and got the make and license plate of the truck as it fled. Seal Beach police spotted it northbound on the San Diego Freeway and chased it at speeds of more than 100 m.p.h.

Hughey exited the freeway at Bellflower Boulevard and then “accelerated and headed directly at the officer” at the Long Beach bank, with Seal Beach police behind him, according to a CHP account of the incident.

Hughey died at Long Beach Memorial Hospital of a single gunshot wound, officials said. The two other suspects in the car, Donna Delores McDaniels, 33, of Los Angeles, and Theodore Cedric Green, 38, of Carson, were arrested without incident.

They were booked on suspicion of murder and held at the Long Beach City Jail pending arraignment.

“They were with (Hughey) in committing the crime, and a person died because of it,” Boston said in explaining the possible murder charge.

Boston said charges may be filed as early as today by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office in Long Beach. Sgt. Steve Frew of the Irvine Police Department said the two suspects will also face burglary charges there.