Global Courant 2023-05-12 19:30:09
Los Angeles Police Department detectives have taken into custody several suspects in connection with a triple homicide outside a Benedict Canyon home earlier this year, law enforcement sources told The Times.
After months of investigation that led detectives to a high-rise in Beverly Hills where a getaway car had been spotted, police have arrested those they believe were involved in the January 28 attack that killed three and seriously injured four others. according to police sources. Three suspects have been identified, sources report to The Times.
An LAPD press conference is scheduled for 9 a.m. Captain Jonathan Tippet, who heads the Robbery and Homicide Division, is expected to provide details on how the crime unfolded and how the suspects were apprehended.
The deadly attack occurred outside a short-term rental home in the 2700 block of Ellison Drive, a street of tall homes on a hill north of Beverly Hills. Neighbors reported seeing several cars drive away minutes after gunfire rang out around 3 a.m., police said.
Detectives issued a crime alert with information they received from both witnesses and surveillance video from the crime scene. They said the suspects were last seen driving a blue four-door Tesla with damage to the right front fender and no license plates. That vehicle was tracked to an apartment complex on the 8600 block of Wilshire Boulevard, where one of the apartments was searched in March for forensic evidence related to the shooting.
Tips from community members who saw the suspects’ vehicle in and around the West LA and Beverly Hills area led investigators to the apartment complex on Wilshire. A search warrant was obtained after it was connected to the Tesla.
Tippet told The Times in March that the Benedict Canyon attack was not random; it focused on three women and members of their group, one of whom was an aspiring rapper.
Those Who Were Killed — Nenah Davis, 29, of Bolingbrook, Illinois; Destiny Sims, 26, of Buckeye, Arizona; and Iyana Hutton, 33, of Chicago — all had roots in the Chicago area, police said. The lifelong friends died in a hail of gunfire that peppered their rented Porsche SUV.
Hutton was trying to get into the music business before she was killed and a friend said she was in LA for an album release. One of Hutton’s best friends, Davis was a mother who once worked as a nurse. Sims was a mother of three and a hair stylist who grew up in Illinois before moving west with her family.
Earlier on the night of the shooting, the trio had visited a bowling alley before returning to their rental, according to friends interviewed by The Times.
Artist Mick E. Finnz, an old friend of Hutton’s, wondered if something happened at the bowling alley that triggered the deadly events. But Tippet said detectives found no evidence of any altercation.
