Three-year-old boy's death in Compton fire suspicious
Mother despondent
COMPTON, Calif.—Sheriff’s homicide detectives today continued to investigate a “suspicious” fire at a two-story home in an unincorporated area near Compton that took the life of a 3-year-old boy.
The fire at 835 E. Lennon St. in the Rosewood section of the county east of Compton broke out around 4:30 p.m. Thursday and was brought under control at 5:11 p.m., according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Damage was estimated at about $250,000.
Ivan Buggs died at a hospital, said coroner’s Chief Craig Harvey.
The boy’s 38-year-old mother was inside the home when the fire started and escaped with minor injuries.
She was “very upset ... very despondent” as she was being questioned by homicide investigators Thursday night, said sheriff’s Lt. Mike Rosson, a member of the squad investigating the blaze.
The early indication is that she and the boy were upstairs, “and at some point the child went downstairs,” Rosson said.
The woman smelled smoke and tried to go down the stairs, but the ground floor was already “filled with smoke and heat,” he said, adding she then went out the balcony and returned in a futile effort to get inside.
The boy was later found by firefighters and taken to Memorial Hospital of Gardena, where he was pronounced dead.
The child’s demise is regarded as “a suspicious death,” according to a sheriff’s department statement. But the cause of the fire and its point of origin were not immediately determined.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—A fire inside the attic of a one-story strip mall in South Los Angeles this morning damaged two businesses, but didn't hurt anybody, according to fire officials.
Firefighters responded to 8712 Western Avenue at 3:56 a.m., said fire department spokesman Brian Humphrey. They discovered heavy smoke coming from a liquor store at the north end of a six-tenant row of businesses.
The fire, in a common attic, was put out in about 35 minutes by 119 firefighters, Humphrey said.
INGLEWOOD, Calif.—Flames erupted in a vacant, two-story apartment building today in Inglewood, but there were no reports of any injuries.
Arriving crews from the Los Angeles County Fire Department quickly moved into a defensive mode as they worked to douse the blaze, which was reported shortly after 3 p.m. in the 3800 block of West 102nd Street.
Fire crews contained the blaze in about an hour, but they were still working to knock down the flames, according to County Fire Inspector Don Kunitomi. No other structures were threatened.
INGLEWOOD, Calif.—A woman riding in an SUV was killed today when her vehicle was involved in a crash with an Inglewood police car.
The crash was at about 12:55 a.m. near Manchester and Prairie avenues, Robert Diaz of the Los Angeles County Fire Department said.
Two officers were driving to the location of a nearby officer-involved shooting in the 600 block of West Venice Way when the crash happened, according to broadcast reports.
The victim died at the scene, Diaz said. Her name was withheld, pending notification of kin.
A man was booked into jail this Monday morning, May 21, on suspicion of fatally shooting an MTA bus driver in West Hollywood.
Anthony Craig Chambers, 41, of Los Angeles was arrested at the scene of Sunday morning's shooting and booked on suspicion of murder at the West Hollywood Sheriff's Station, where he was being held in lieu of $1 million bail, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
The Center for Environment, Commerce and Energy (CECE) recently established a partnership with the Greater Union Baptist Church to operate an environmental tour called the “Compton to Catalina Program,” which takes students and other young people from Compton to Catalina Island.
The CECE and the California Center for Economic Initiatives (CCFEI) are also partnering under the Compton to Catalina program to expose Compton youth to boating and to provide young adults with technical training in boat repair and maintenance.
