3 Arrested in Killing of Mother at Mall : Violence: Police say the suspects shouted racial slurs at the woman before beating her to death as her child and shoppers looked on.

Police arrested three people, including a teen-age girl, in connection with the slaying of a 26-year-old mother of four who police believe may have been beaten to death in a mall parking lot because she was black, authorities said Friday.

Police said that during a shouting match Thursday evening over a traffic dispute, at least two suspects used racial slurs against the La Habra woman, Tina Roxanne Rodriguez, before pounding her head into the pavement as her child and shoppers looked on.

“At this time it’s being treated as a hate crime until proven otherwise. . . . There were words exchanged and there is some evidence that racial slurs may have taken place,” said La Habra Police Sgt. Keri Wilson.

An anonymous telephone tip Thursday evening, about two hours after the slaying, helped lead investigators to an apartment on Ridgeway Lane in La Habra, where they found John Richard Collins, 25, of El Monte and a 17-year-old La Habra girl, whose name was not released because of her age. Collins, on probation for a burglary conviction last year, and the teen-ager were arrested on suspicion of homicide, police said.

Friday morning, officers arrested Rebecca Luker, 22, of Whittier in connection with the killing after she came to the Police Department front desk by chance to retrieve items belonging to her brother, who had been arrested in La Habra on a parole violation. She was described by police as a friend of the other two suspects.

Police believe that the two women attacked Rodriguez, and Collins drove them from the scene.

The altercation began Thursday shortly before 5 p.m. at a strip mall parking lot at La Habra and Beach boulevards. Rodriguez was a passenger in a car, and she and an unidentified friend got out after they were cut off by a Ford Taurus in the lot, police said. Rodriguez’s 3-year-old daughter remained in the car.

The two women--believed to be Luker and the teen-ager--got out of the Taurus, and the yelling started, police said. Then the two women began beating Rodriguez, slamming her head into the pavement repeatedly, police said. Collins allegedly stayed in the car and drove off once the women jumped back inside.

From 10 to 20 people witnessed the beating, police said, but apparently no one intervened. Police said they are uncertain why no one stepped forward to help the woman.

The three suspects are scheduled for arraignment Tuesday on murder charges. They were being held in the La Habra City Jail.

Police said initially they did not believe that Rodriguez’s death was racially motivated. But after further interviews, authorities changed their position Friday, citing racial slurs allegedly used during the attack. Police would not elaborate on what was said at the scene but they said they are still interviewing witnesses to see if anything else might have contributed to the slaying.

“Obviously I’m very concerned for the fact that someone was killed out there,” said Rusty Kennedy of the Orange County Human Relations Commission. “It’s something that strikes to the bone and terrorizes us all that such a seemingly minor incident can be blown up to someone dying.”