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.—The owners of horses that have been kept at a condemned stable in the county’s Athens area—where a recent fire killed two horses, a pony and a goat—have been given more time to relocate their animals, officials said today.
The fire broke out about 11:25 p.m. June 17 at the stable near 131st and Figueroa streets, and appeared to have been sparked accidentally, according to a preliminary investigation by the sheriff’s department.
COMPTON, Calif.—A 15-year-old boy who has been charged as an adult was scheduled to be arraigned today on a murder charge stemming from a shooting that killed a 14-month-old boy and wounded his father in Watts earlier this month.
Donald Ray Dokins is scheduled to appear in Compton Superior Court this morning to enter a plea to one count of murder stemming from death of Angel Cortez on June 4 and one count of attempted murder for allegedly shooting the boy's father, Mauro, in the shoulder.
COMPTON, Calif.—Authorities today identified a man who was fatally shot in an unincorporated county area near Compton.
The shooting occurred about 3:40 p.m. Thursday in the 14000 block of Parmelee Avenue in unincorporated Rosewood, said Deputy Guillermina Saldana of the Sheriff's Headquarters Bureau.
Andre Deon Jones, 42, of Compton died a few minutes later at a hospital, said coroner's Assistant Chief Ed Winter.
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.
