Bill Cosby’s Son Slain in Apparent Robbery

Police launched an intensive search Thursday for the killer who gunned down the only son of entertainer Bill Cosby, as the pain of the apparently random tragedy resonated across a nation that has embraced Cosby as its preeminent family man.

Authorities said they believed that Ennis William Cosby--a 27-year-old graduate student who had been the inspiration for some of his father’s most touching work--had stopped early Thursday to fix a flat tire on his green Mercedes convertible when he was set upon on a secluded stretch of road above Bel-Air.

Cosby was found on Skirball Center Drive, near the top of the Sepulveda Pass, at about 1:40 a.m. by a woman who told authorities she saw a man leaving the area. Police released only the suspect’s race, describing him as a “white male,” but said they hope the witness’ description would lead to a composite drawing.

In New York, Cosby’s face appeared crumpled with grief as he arrived at his Manhattan townhome. “He was my hero,” Cosby said before disappearing inside.

Shortly before 9 p.m., Cosby, appearing profoundly sad, left his home with his wife and one of his daughters. Friends carried luggage and shopping bags to a waiting car. Police surrounded the car. The actor looked at one of the police officers and said to him, “Thank you very much.”

With a police escort, the family left for an unknown location. The younger Cosby had been visiting Los Angeles, staying at his family’s Pacific Palisades mansion, while on vacation from his studies at Columbia University in New York.

Most of the details of the crime remained a mystery late Thursday, including the identity of the female witness, initially described as a “passerby” who called police to the scene.

Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Tim McBride said Cosby knew the woman and was on his way to meet her when his tire went flat.

According to what the woman told investigators, “she came to the scene to help him change the tire, and ultimately became a partial witness,” McBride said.

The woman, who was pursued by the media Thursday, was “freaking out” and fearful the killer might retaliate against her, McBride said. “She doesn’t want to talk to anybody. She doesn’t want any part of this.

“She’s the only one who can identify the suspect,” McBride said. “This is a murder investigation. Disclosing her identity . . . could put her at risk.”

Nothing the witness told police caused them to alter their initial opinion that “it’s a straight crime, and he’s a straight victim,” McBride said, adding that Cosby might have been robbed. “Somebody just saw this nice car and said, ‘There’s some money here, a nice car, maybe I can get some of that.’ ”

The death seemed to resound deeply with a public that feels “as if it were a death in the family,” said Neal Gabler, a cultural historian and author of several books about culture and the entertainment industry. “I have a feeling that within the next several days, that’s exactly how it’s going to be treated.

“There are celebrities who constitute part of a national family, and I certainly think Bill Cosby qualifies,” Gabler said.

The elder Cosby received the news Thursday morning as he was preparing to rehearse for the regular Thursday-evening taping of his new program, “Cosby.” Los Angeles police spokesman McBride said he delivered the news and then talked to the star about the pain of losing a child.

After Cosby retreated into his Manhattan townhouse, flowers were left outside. The shades were drawn for most of the day.

Somber-faced crew members left the studio after the evening’s taping of “Cosby” was canceled. “We’ve all known Bill Cosby for a long time,” said one worker. “This is a terrible tragedy.”

Outside Cosby’s $3-million estate in Pacific Palisades, the entertainer’s spokesman said Ennis Cosby had been happy and well adjusted. The family agreed with police suspicions that the crime was random.

“There would have been no reason for anyone seeking him out,” said David Brokaw, president of the Brokaw Co., a public-relations agency. “When you are living a very disciplined life, when you have got all your values in the right place, you’re less inclined to incur someone’s wrath.”

At Columbia University in Manhattan, where Ennis Cosby was a graduate student, professors wept at the loss. On the day before he left for winter vacation, he had been counseling a young boy with reading problems, a disability that Ennis Cosby had overcome.

In West Hollywood, at a celebration of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, a crowd that included many students gasped when U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) announced the death.

“I am very sad today because my dear friends are mourning, not simply for Dr. Martin Luther King,” said Waters, a friend of the Cosby family, who spoke to the entertainer Thursday. “Bill Cosby and Camille Cosby just lost their son, Ennis Cosby. . . . His death is painful to me and everyone who knew him.”

Police said they believe that Ennis Cosby, nearing the end of a two-week vacation, was driving northbound on the 405 (San Diego) Freeway and nearing the top of the Sepulveda Pass into the San Fernando Valley, when his left front tire went flat. Cosby apparently exited the freeway at Skirball Center Drive and pulled partially onto a dirt shoulder to change tires.

He apparently had removed the bad tire and put on the spare. The lug nuts, crowbar and wrench were lying on the ground next to Cosby’s body when authorities arrived. The trunk and passenger-side door were open.

Police would not say how many shots were fired or the nature of Cosby’s wounds.

Back along Skirball Center Drive, dozens of detectives swarmed over the murder scene, as news helicopters hovered overhead. The commotion jammed streets in the area, home to several schools and the Skirball Cultural Center, for several hours.

Police appealed to the public, asking anyone who may have seen anything to call them.

While the real-life Ennis Cosby kept a low-profile, his alter ego became a staple of America’s television diet--the model for the son “Theo” on the blockbuster “The Cosby Show.” The real and fictional characters shared many struggles--with dyslexia, with ubiquitous sisters, with schoolwork and with a sometimes bumpy adolescence.

Bill Cosby’s private pride in his son became public when the last episode of the Cosby show aired in the spring of 1992. The program featured Theo’s triumphant college graduation, a feat that shortly thereafter would be completed by Ennis Cosby, who received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Morehouse College in Atlanta.

Bill Cosby once said that he was doubly proud of his son because of the obstacles he had overcome. The boy had once told his father he felt too much pressure to succeed and wanted to be “just regular people,” not putting so much energy into his studies. But things began to turn around when educators at Morehouse diagnosed and began to treat his dyslexia.

On the way to his degree, the younger Cosby worked at an Atlanta homeless shelter, studying and counseling cocaine addicts who lived there.

“He was not your typical Hollywood kid, if there is such a thing, not the kind that usually ends up in the news,” said professor Harold Braithwaite, Ennis’ college advisor. “He was a compassionate person and sensitive to other people. That is my strongest, most potent remembrance of him.”

He was also intent, Braithwaite said, on “being accepted as Ennis, not as the son of Bill Cosby.”

After graduation, the young man entered a graduate program at Columbia University’s Teacher’s College. He earned his master’s degree in special education in 1995 and was pursuing a doctoral degree in the same field, with emphasis in reading.

Late Thursday afternoon, two of Cosby’s professors, Jeannette E. Fleischner and Margaret Jo Shepherd, sat in a small office at the college. Fleischner and Shepherd specialize in preparing teachers to work with learning disabled students. Tears welled in Fleischner’s eyes as she recalled Cosby and his goal of opening a school for children with learning problems.

“Part of the reason that this has been so distressing aside from the loss of Ennis is my feeling of the sense of loss of the children he worked with while he was a student here have got to be feeling today,” Shepherd said.

College spokesman Barry Rosen recalled how Bill Cosby looked, sitting in the front row, while his son received his master’s degree in 1995.

“His face was beaming. He was so proud of his son,” Rosen said. “It was a wonderful event. His (Bill Cosby’s) hero was tutoring children with learning disabilities.”

Times staff writers Andrea Ford, Abigail Goldman, Duke Helfand, Shawn Hubler, Brian Lowry, Beth Shuster and researcher Maloy Moore contributed to this report from Los Angeles. Staff writers John J. Goldman, Jane Hall and researcher Lisa Meyer reported from New York.