Three men have been arrested and charged with murder in connection with the shocking triple homicide of three women in a Los Angeles neighborhood earlier this year.
Dejan Thompkins, 28; Dontae Williams, 22; and Daries Stanford, 28, were each charged with three counts of murder and six counts of attempted murder in connection with the Jan. 28 shooting in Beverly Crest that killed three women, authorities announced Wednesday. Friday.
It is not clear if all three have retained a lawyer. The Los Angeles public defender’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday.
The men and their victims were from the Chicago area, Los Angeles police and prosecutors said during a news conference Friday.
«One thing that can be said is that the violence that is happening in Chicago today is affecting all of us, and we have realized that it is affecting other states as well,» said Los Angeles Police Department Capt. Jonathan L. .Tippet. saying.
Tippet said the three suspects are «involved» and «connected» to a gang, but did not provide further details. The Associated Press informed.
The April and May arrests took place in Chicago; Gary, Indiana; and New York City, authorities said. The charges were filed May 8 to trigger arrest warrants, prosecutors said, though the filings were announced Friday.
The victims were previously identified as Iyana Hutton, 33; Nena Davis, 29; and Destiny Sims, 26.
The three women were returning to a vacation rental from a concert early that morning and were in a vehicle when shots rang out in what prosecutors described as an ambush of semiautomatic fire.
The three were not the intended targets of the attack, Tippet said, according to AP.
Four others were injured but survived, authorities said. Two others were unharmed despite being attacked, prosecutors alleged. The possible motive was not disclosed.
The women were pronounced dead at the scene.
Violence rocked the Beverly Crest community of eight-figure estates that are home to many celebrities.
On Friday, authorities said one of the suspects, Thompkins, faces an additional charge of murder. He is accused of fatally shooting a man identified as Julian Bynum, 30, outside an apartment complex in nearby North Hollywood on December 16.
Prosecutors say the three defendants face special circumstances charges that could mean life in prison without the possibility of parole if they are successfully convicted.
Those circumstances include lying in wait for and committing multiple murders, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office alleged in a statement Friday.
“This is another example of the widespread damage that gun violence can cause,” District Attorney George Gascón said in that statement. «We must do more, whether through legislation or education, to stop mass shootings.»
The arraignment will be scheduled in the coming days, Gascón’s office said.
The arrests occurred as Chicago dealt with another deadly spring that included back-to-back weekends last month when the number of shooting victims was in double digits.
erick mendoza contributed.