3 slain in Banning; boy, 2, found gagged
A 2-year-old boy who was bound and gagged was found crying inside a makeshift room Tuesday afternoon in a Banning apartment where his parents and a woman were slain, law enforcement authorities said.
Police late Tuesday had not established a motive for the slayings but said the incident did not appear to be a murder-suicide.
The boy was found by police in a very small space in the back of a room that had been converted to a bathroom in the apartment in the 100 block of North Phillips Street about three hours after they initially responded, authorities said. He was uninjured and taken to San Gorgonio Memorial Hospital in Banning.
The crime, which police described as “horrific,” was a shocking incident in the city of roughly 29,000 residents about 85 miles east of Los Angeles in Riverside County.
“Obviously this is a very heinous crime,” Banning Police Chief Leonard T. Purvis told The Times. “This doesn’t happen very often in any city.”
The bodies were found about 12:20 p.m. by a friend of the parents who had stopped by the apartment for a visit, police said. She called 911 and reported three people not breathing.
“She just happened to show up and unfortunately came across this horrific scene,” Purvis said.
The names of the victims had not been released late Tuesday. They were pronounced dead at the scene.
Purvis said police did an initial “protective sweep” of the apartment but did not see the child in the converted bathroom.
Around the same time, police said, they received reports that a suspect had fled in a vehicle, possibly with the boy. “We thought that this child had been taken away from the scene,” Purvis said.
Police launched a hunt for the vehicle as investigators continued to process the scene. The boy was found by an officer who heard crying, Purvis said.
He declined to say how the victims were killed, citing the continuing investigation.
A friend of the family, James Alexander-Pace, 64, said that his son used to date the boy’s mother. The parents, he said, had a “love-hate” relationship and fought frequently.
According to Alexander-Pace, the child’s mother had trouble holding down a job and moved around a lot. She was on welfare and stayed home with the boy, he said, but she was thinking about going to cosmetology school.
“She could hold her own,” Alexander-Pace said in an interview. “She took care of herself and her baby like any mother would.”
He said he had always regarded the boy as his grandson. He attended the baby shower and stayed in touch with the mother after the child was born. He last talked to her three or four days ago.
“I felt connected to take care of him,” he said, “and help out his other grandparents.”
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