Man Charged With Murder in Baby’s Hit-and-Run Death

Six felony charges--including murder--were filed Wednesday against a reputed gang member who is accused of causing the death of a 5-month-old girl last week when he ran down a man who was carrying the child, police said.

Lashanique Leverett died the day after she was dropped from the arms of her uncle, Howard Germany, 20, in the 100 block of West 78th Street on April 22. Lashanique was dropped after a car swerved across the street and the driver gunned the engine, deliberately running into Germany and the child, police said. The baby was thrown several feet to the pavement. Her mother, Lashawnda Robertson, 17, was nearby.

Police credited the public with offering leads that led to the arrest of Eric Lamont Reed, who was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon without incident near his home in South-Central Los Angeles.

“We received numerous calls and using that information, we were able to identify Reed,” said Lt. Rich Moloney of the South Bureau. “We were able to show his photograph in lineup to witnesses and they positively identified him.”

Reed, 22, was being held at the Los Angeles County Jail without bail pending his arraignment today on one count of murder, four counts of attempted murder and one count of assault with a deadly weapon.

Even before Tuesday’s arrest, police suspected that the incident was gang-related because Germany, who was hospitalized with head and leg injuries, belongs to a gang.

The death of Lashanique heightened outrage in South and East Los Angeles, where two other little girls had been killed by gunfire a few weeks earlier.

Eighteen-month-old Sabrina Haley was shot April 8 while she sat beside her father, Michael Haley, in a car at 48th Street and Avalon Boulevard. The father was described by police as a known associate of gang members and was thought to be the target of the assailants.

Two days after Sabrina was killed, 3-year-old Denise Silva of Boyle Heights was shot through the heart as she and her father were caught in gang cross-fire as they walked hand in hand to a corner grocery store at 1st and Savannah streets.

After the incidents, police issued descriptions of the vehicles and suspects involved. Scores of residents risked gang retaliation and contacted police to pass information that led to arrests.

Two gang members, James Taylor, 22, and Everett Butler, 19, face murder charges in Sabrina’s death. Two other gang members, Andres Varela, 22, and a 17-year-old, were arrested in Denise’s death.

When Denise was buried, hundreds of people attended a Roman Catholic funeral Mass at Our Lady of Talpa Church. During the Mass, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony urged that the two killings might serve as “a resurrection, a dramatic turning around of the terrible violence of the whole gang culture” that took 771 lives in 1991.

A friend of Lashanique’s family said they had no money for hospital or funeral bills for the baby.