Three Shot to Death Outside Liquor Store

Two men and a woman who were parked behind a liquor store in Compton were shot and killed late Thursday by two gunmen, police said Friday.

Witnesses told investigators that two men, armed with an assault rifle and a handgun, pulled up behind Frank’s Liquor Store at Compton Boulevard and Central Avenue, got out of their vehicle and opened fire, fatally wounding the three people.

Words were exchanged but investigators were unable to say whether anything was said in anger, Compton Police Capt. Danny Sneed said.

Sneed said that “in excess of eight” shots were fired by the two assailants, who got back into their dark-colored sport utility vehicle and drove away about 10:40 p.m.

The dead were identified as Willie Calhoun, 43, of Compton; Anthony Colbert, 39, of Compton; and Lisa Butler, 37 of Paramount.

Butler was pronounced dead at the scene. Calhoun and Colbert were taken to Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, where they later died.

Sneed said the motive for the attack was unknown, but added that it was not gang-related. He refused to elaborate.

Calhoun and Colbert were regular customers of the liquor store, frequently buying beer and other items, said Frank Boswell, the store’s owner. “They were hang-around kind of people,” he said. “They weren’t violent.”

One friend of Colbert’s--David Jones, 37, of Compton--said he couldn’t believe the news.

“I just shook hands with him yesterday,” said Jones, who went to the liquor store Friday morning after he got off work. “I had to see for myself.”

Another friend, Robert Watkins, 26, of Compton, said Colbert was a good person who was trying to kick a drug habit.

Although some in the neighborhood say the liquor store is a drug hangout, Sneed said, it hadn’t been the scene of a major crime for several years.

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Times staff writer Elise Gee contributed to this story.