LOS ANGELES : Gang Member Sought in Killing of Cheerleader
Los Angeles police were searching for a gang member suspected of killing a Dorsey High School cheerleader who may have inadvertently gotten mixed up in a robbery attempt.
Detectives said fingerprints and other evidence found at the crime scene on Oct. 28 helped them identify Carlton Maurice Gladden, 24, as a suspect in the killing.
Anitra Jolie Watson, 17, was shot several times execution style inside a duplex near Haas Avenue and Century Boulevard.
Detectives said Watson was killed in an area police have called a drug hot spot. She was there when a robbery attempt took place.
“It may have been a drug rip-off or it may have been a straight robbery; we do not know,” said Lt. Sergio Robleto.
“She was there at the location at a time when there was possibly a robbery going to take place, a robbery of the occupants of the location,” Robleto said.
“Somehow or other it appears somebody may have mistaken her for one of the assailants and then subsequently executed her.”
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