Cops: Mother Killed, Son Wounded After They Laughed at Unhinged Gunman
In a bizarre sequence of horrendous events, Denise Chiffon Berry was shot and killed near Los Angeles on Wednesday—seemingly at random—by a gunman who followed her and her son in their car.
According to police, Berry, 44, was driving with her 12-year-old son on Kornblum Avenue in Hawthorne, Ca. Wednesday afternoon when the two apparently spotted a Cadillac with a man's legs hanging out the window.
“This is what the little boy is saying,” Hawthorne police Lt. Dave Coleman told the Daily Breeze. “Mommy says, ‘Look at that, isn’t that funny?’ and they made eye contact. She drove on and they began following her.”
When she realized the Cadillac was following her, the Los Angeles Times reports, Berry then drove up to a police officer parked in his vehicle, alerting him to her situation. The officer apparently instructed her to park her car in front of his; as she parked, the Cadillac reportedly drove up, and one man opened fire with two handguns, killing Berry and injuring her son. The officer exited his car and returned fire, killing the shooter.
The gunman, Robert Washington, 38, and the other two passengers in the Cadillac—Brandon Armolav White, 19, and Stanley Ross White, 24—police say, had "no connection whatsoever" to Berry. “It appears to be random or misguided,” Coleman told the Daily Breeze.
The brothers were both arrested by police. Stanley White, the driver, has been charged with suspicion of murder and conspiracy; his brother Brandon has been charged with suspicion of conspiracy.
Berry's son was taken to the hospital after the shooting and is reportedly in stable condition.