Mother Charged With Trying to Kill Children

Blaze: A toddler and an infant suffered smoke inhalation and are hospitalized with second-degree burns. Firefighters had to break through a security gate to extinguish the fire.

Two small children were hospitalized with second-degree burns Friday after their mother allegedly tried to kill them by setting fire to the family’s apartment in Willowbrook.

LaTunga Stark, 22, was booked by sheriff’s deputies on charges of arson and attempted murder of her 2-year-old son, Rushon White, and her 8-month-old daughter, LaTina Stark Ford.

Rushon was in stable condition at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center and LaTina was in serious condition at the burn ward of County-USC Medical Center.

The children also suffered smoke inhalation from the fire that broke out Thursday afternoon in the two-story apartment building in the 11800 block of Alabama Avenue.

Neighbors climbed a spiked fence around the building and persuaded Stark to hand the children to them through a window of her first-floor apartment shortly before county firefighters arrived. Firefighters had to break through a security gate to extinguish the blaze, which caused minor damage to the apartment.

Stark was initially held on suspicion of child endangerment, but was booked on the more serious accusations after arson detectives investigated the fire.

The Sheriff’s Department released no motive for the incident, but firefighters said Stark appeared to be mentally ill.

“She was just acting erratic and uncontrollable,” said Fire Capt. Dennis Walsh.