Youth Wanted in Slaying Surrenders Through Reporter

A 14-year-old San Bernardino youth suspected of killing a man during an argument over illegal electrical wiring surrendered to police Sunday with the help of a KTLA-TV reporter.

The teen-ager, whom neither police nor KTLA would identify, was taken into custody in the parking lot of KTLA’s Hollywood studio. Los Angeles police turned him over to San Bernardino detectives.

Relatives had gone to the station looking for reporter Warren Wilson, to whom several suspects have surrendered recently. When Wilson could not be found, arrangements were made with reporter Paul Jackson.

Jackson picked up the boy in Pacoima, where he had apparently been hiding with relatives, drove him to KTLA and called police. Jackson said the boy “said he was afraid of the police ‘because they are down there shooting people.’ ”

The teen-ager is a suspect in the shooting death of James Dee King, 27, who was killed Friday outside his San Bernardino house. Someone had allegedly been tampering with the electrical panel on King’s house, and King was shot apparently during a confrontation over the matter, said San Bernardino Police Lt. Don Malone.

Police believe that the boy was one of two people who were tapping King’s wiring for electricity, Malone said. Further details were not released, but KTLA’s Jackson said the boy denied any involvement in the shooting. The boy told Jackson that he and a friend were fixing King’s electrical box, heard gunshots and fled in panic, Jackson said.

A number of high-profile suspects have recently surrendered to KTLA, the city’s oldest television station.

A fugitive wanted for questioning in the murder of two Compton policemen turned himself in this month with the assistance of Wilson--the sixth surrender the African-American TV reporter has handled in his 30-year career. Wilson has said the six--all African-Americans--feared that the police would mistreat them.

“It seems like it’s (surrendering) getting routine for (KTLA), but a lot of us are nervous,” said Jackson, who is an African-American. “For us to bring felons on the lot, it could be volatile.”