Boy's Eye Contact With Shooter Led To Hawthorne Officer-Involved Shooting That Killed 2
HAWTHORNE (CBSLA.com) —Eye contact between a 12-year-old boy led to the shooting deaths of the boy's mother and the shooter, authorities said Thursday.
Denise Barry, 44, died at the scene, as did the suspect, identified as Robert Washington, 38, of Rialto, at about 12:45 p.m. Wednesday at Rosecrans and Kornblum avenues. Barry's son was also shot, but survived, according to sheriff's detectives who are assisting Hawthorne police in the investigation.
The boy, who is in the hospital recovering from several gunshot wounds, has been interviewed by investigators at least twice, as recently as Wednesday night. The boy told investigators that it was an exchange of looks with the strangers who he and his mother had never met that triggered the gunfire.
"There were some feet hanging out the car. At that point there was some looks exchanged. We're not sure at this point," Hawthorne police Capt. Michael Ishii said.
The child said he laughed and pointed it out to his mom, then the suspects began to chase them.
Barry had pulled up alongside the patrol officer and said she was afraid someone was following her.
"The officer told her to pull her vehicle in front of his, and pull over so he could assist her," according to a sheriff's statement. "At that moment, another vehicle pulled (up) adjacent to her."
The shooter got out of that vehicle, a Cadillac, and began firing at Barry and her son, and the officer got out of his vehicle and fatally shot the suspect.
Two men who had been in the car with the suspect – 24-year-old Stanley White and 19-year-old Brandon White -- have both been arrested for murder and conspiracy to commit a crime, respectively. Both are being held on $1 million bail.
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