Seeking Answers

At 29, Donterrell Berry had foregone his youthful gang affiliation for fatherhood and, if he had lived two more weeks, marriage, family members said.

His life revolved around two young sons--Marcus Eric, 7, and Damion Terrell, 3--and fiance Anastashia Smith, 24. The two were to be married in Las Vegas next month.

As far as his family knew, Berry had no enemies, which is why they find it hard to understand who would shoot him dead Saturday on a crowded freeway in broad daylight.

“It’s totally unimaginable,” said Berry’s mother, Janet Pool, 44, in an interview at a friend’s house in Pacoima. “Everybody that knew him loved him.”

In a crime that echoed the roadside murder of comedian Bill Cosby’s son, Ennis, last year, Berry was shot about 5:30 p.m. Saturday as he fixed a flat tire on the shoulder of the southbound Golden State Freeway near the Van Nuys Boulevard exit.

A white or beige pickup truck or sports utility vehicle with two men in it came up alongside him in the freeway’s slow lane, police said. The passenger fired numerous times, striking Berry in the upper torso.

Berry was taken to Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, where he was pronounced dead. His fiance, a nurse’s assistant at the hospital, was on duty when Berry was brought in.

On Sunday, a grieving Pool tried to figure out what happened to her only son.

“The [assailants] didn’t just drive by,” she said. “They stopped--but I don’t know how an enemy could predict a bad tire.”

Los Angeles police detectives were not available for comment Sunday. But Sgt. Joe Flores of the Foothill Division said no arrests had been made and the homicide remained under investigation.

Berry--described by his family as athletic--was born in Iowa, but moved to Los Angeles 15 years ago with his mother and younger sister, Eboni Berry, 22. He attended Cleveland and Monroe high schools, traveling to Iowa regularly to visit relatives.

On a visit there a few years ago, Berry bought the green Ford Explorer he was driving Saturday. The truck still had Iowa plates.

Working odd jobs, mainly in construction, Berry fathered two boys with different women. Smith, mother of Damion, said she and Berry had been together for five years, she said.

“Everything was perfect between us,” Smith said. “He was a good father.”

Pool saw her son for the last time Friday night at her Canoga Park home when he picked up Damion, whom she had been baby-sitting. Throwing a slumbering Damion over his shoulder, Berry said, “See you tomorrow, Ma,” and headed for the North Hollywood apartment he shared with Smith.

There the following day, Berry--unemployed and looking for work--told Smith about 2 p.m. that he was going to run an unspecified errand.

She told him to hurry back and bring her something to eat. The next time she saw him was at the hospital.

Smith said she told Damion about his father’s murder, but the boy did not seem to understand what had taken place.

All of Berry’s family--except for his mother and sister--live in Iowa, mostly in Waterloo.

Pool said she planned to fly her son’s body there for burial after the coroner’s autopsy.

“I still feel like this is a nightmare,” said Smith, who had carefully planned their wedding trip to Las Vegas on a weekend, so she would not miss work. “It doesn’t seem real.”