A 20-year-old man was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of murder in connection with the death of a 5-year-old boy whose body was found in or near a trash bin in Panorama City.
Brycson Malik Gaddis was taken into custody by officers from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Hollywood Station and was being held in lieu of $2 million bail, according to police and sheriff’s jail records.
A second person, who has not been identified, was arrested on unrelated charges, police said.
The arrests followed the detention of five people for questioning after the unidentified child’s body was found about 7 a.m. Saturday in a parking lot in the 8200 block of Van Nuys Boulevard, just south of Roscoe Boulevard.
Authorities have not said how Gaddis or the others may be related to the boy. However, broadcast reports indicated that one of those detained is the child’s parent or guardian. Police said Gaddis is not the boy’s biological father.
The cause of the boy’s death has not been disclosed.
Detectives with the LAPD’s Abused Child Unit were leading the investigation.
Police said a tip from the public led them on Tuesday to a “large Panorama City apartment complex in the 14500 block of Lanark (Street).”
“Around 9:30 p.m., a search warrant was served at one unit — two adults (one male, one female) were detained, and two children were at the unit.”
A vigil for the young victim was taking place as police arrived at the apartment complex, less than a half-mile from where the boy’s body was found.
Then at around 1 a.m., while detectives were still collecting evidence at a second unit, LAPD personnel detained two more men and a woman near Sunset Boulevard and Ivar Avenue in Hollywood, police said.
All five adults were taken in for questioning, and the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services took custody of the two children, police said.
No further information was immediately available.