Police Ask Public’s Help in Search for 2 Gunmen

Police asked the public’s help Monday in finding two men involved in a home-invasion robbery in Southwest Los Angeles in which a mother and daughter were shot in the head while tied up.

Vanessa Arlene Sells, 46, remained in critical condition at UCLA Medical Center late Monday; her daughter Kristian Forte, 16, was listed in good condition after being treated at the same hospital, police said.

The gunmen are black and believed to be between 18 and 22 years old. One was described as about 5 feet 8 inches, weighing between 160 and 170 pounds, cleanshaven with a muscular build and thick eyebrows. He was wearing a white tank top and khaki pants, police said. The second was between 5 feet 9 and 5 feet 11, weighing more than 200 pounds and wearing a blue bandanna to cover his face, officials said.

At a news conference Monday, police described a terrifying sequence of events at the victims’ house on Sunlight Place between Culver City and Baldwin Hills:

About 6:40 p.m. Sunday, the men--both armed with small-caliber revolvers--entered the women’s home and demanded money from Sells while Forte was in her bedroom in the back of the house.

Both of the women were forced into a hallway and told to sit on the floor. Sells began to pray out loud, causing one of the men to threaten her with a gun.

While one gunman rummaged through the house, the other tied up the girl, carried her into a bedroom and placed her on a bed, police said. The man reportedly told the girl, “You’re lucky I’m not [serial killer] Jeffrey Dahmer ‘cause I’d rape you.”

The mother was taken to the front of the house where she was bound and then shot several times in the head. The taller of the men told Forte to “look the other way” and shot her in the head, police said.

Forte pretended to be dead until the robbers fled in her mother’s car, a “champagne-brown, four-door 1992 Lexus 300ES,” police said. She was able to free herself and called 911, officials said.

The Lexus has the license plate 2XNY522, officials said. Anyone who has seen that car or a burgundy Cadillac that a neighbor saw parked in Sells’ driveway or has information about the robbery and shootings is asked to call detectives at (213) 237-1310 or (213) 485-2504.