The associate of a gunman who fatally shot the mother of a 12-year-old boy and was subsequently shot to death by a Hawthorne police officer was sentenced Monday to four years in prison.
Stanley White was driving a car in which 38-year-old Robert Washington was a passenger when he opened fire on Denise Berry because her son had laughed at someone riding in the car.
Berry, 44, died at the scene of the April 1, 2015, shooting at Rosecrans and Kornblum avenues. Berry’s son was wounded but survived.
According to sheriff’s officials, the Hawthorne police officer was parked on Kornblum Avenue in his patrol vehicle, monitoring traffic, when Berry pulled alongside in a Mercedes-Benz and told the officer that another driver had been following her.
“The officer told her to pull her vehicle in front of his, and pull over so he could assist her,” according to the sheriff’s department. “At that moment, another vehicle pulled (up) adjacent to her.”
Washington got out of the other vehicle and began firing at the woman and the boy, prompting the officer to get out of his patrol car and fatally shoot the suspect, sheriff’s officials said.
Sheriff’s Lt. Dave Coleman said the boy had earlier looked at the Cadillac Washington was in and laughed because someone’s feet were hanging out of a window, and he pointed it out to his mother. That prompted Washington and the two other people in the car to begin following the woman and her son, Coleman said.
— Wire reports