Skip to content
Advertisement

Authorities investigate death of infant

Advertisement

Authorities today identified a month-old girl who died after she, her 8-year-old sister and their mother were found naked, unconscious and covered in white powder in the parking lot of a South Los Angeles market.

The three were found about 1:45 a.m. Thursday behind a Numero Uno at South San Pedro and East 23rd streets, police said. The woman is the girls’ mother, and police said the powder was determined to be some type of “baby product.”

Kamille Brewster died at a hospital, said coroner’s Assistant Chief Ed Winter. An autopsy was pending to determine the cause of death.

The 26- or 27-year-old woman was hospitalized in stable condition, and the 8-year-old girl was listed as critical, police said. Their names were not released.

Police went to the location in response to a report of a female heard screaming, Los Angeles Police Department Capt. Michael Rimkunas of the Newton Division said.

The three victims were found naked on the ground in the Numero Uno parking lot, covered in a white powder and not breathing, Rimkunas said.

It wasn’t immediately clear what happened to the victims, but they showed no obvious signs of injury. A hazardous-materials team determined that the powder was a “baby product,” police said.

A police lieutenant told the Los Angeles Times officers Wednesday night went to the home where the woman is thought to live. Responding officers saw white powder in a room, but there was no evidence of a crime, so they left.

A neighbor, Johnett Green, told reporters the woman’s boyfriend would often scream at her, leaving neighbors to wonder if she was an in abusive relationship. Green said the boyfriend once broke some windows while searching for the woman.

The owner of the market, Sunhee Chung, told the station the woman had been in the store Wednesday, buying three cans of Ajax cleaner and latex gloves. Chung said the 8-year-old girl was with the woman, crying.

“The girl, she was crying all night long,” Chung told Channel 7.

Chung told The Times one of her employees saw the woman and two girls outside the store Wednesday night, all nude and covered in power. The woman was breastfeeding the baby, she said.

Chung also told The Times that she saw the woman trying to open the doors of cars parked outside the store.

Advertisement

Latest