Hunt Intensifies for Suspect in MTA Slaying

Police on Friday continued their search for a 16-year-old boy believed to be the shooter in last week’s attack on an MTA bus, which killed 17-year-old Corie Williams and wounded another young woman also riding the bus home from Centennial High School in Compton.

The Los Angeles City Council tried to encourage the public’s cooperation by adding $25,000 to a growing reward fund for anyone who provides information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.

The motion was sponsored by Councilman Rudy Svorinich, whose district includes the area where the shooting took place.

With one boy and three men in custody for their alleged roles in what is being attributed to a gang feud, the search for the 16-year-old and for 20-year-old Wilbert Eric Pugh, is all the more intense, investigators said.

“At this point, we think they’re both still around,” said Lt. John Dunkin of the Los Angeles Police Department. “Right now we’re focused on finding these guys, and after we apprehend them, I suspect we’ll find ourselves in a position where other witnesses will come forward.”

The shooting at Avalon Boulevard and Imperial Highway in South-Central Los Angeles was striking for its viciousness.

A group of alleged gang members, upset that a bus from Centennial High had been rerouted and now carried rivals through its territory, had been staking out the corner for days, looking for a chance to attack, police said.

That opportunity came Jan. 16, when police allege that Pugh boarded the crowded bus looking for trouble, spotted a rival in the rear, exchanged gang signs and epithets and then exited before the bus pulled away from the stop. At that point, the 16-year-old suspect started shooting into the vehicle’s rear windows, police said, but instead of hitting the rival gang member, he hit Corie and her classmate Tammi Freeman.

Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams on Thursday released the names of Pugh and the 16-year-old in an attempt to seek the public’s help in capturing them. The Times generally does not print the names of juvenile suspects unless they are officially charged with a serious crime for which they could be prosecuted as adults.

After the announcement, Dunkin said, police received about 30 tips from callers offering suggestions about the two suspects’ whereabouts or claiming to have seen one or both. Police were moving quickly to follow up on each lead, Dunkin said.

“This kid doesn’t have a home, so someone is hiding him out,” Dunkin said. “The more time passes, the more difficult it is to get him into custody.”

For its part, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has beefed up transit police patrols on Line 53 buses along the route where the shooting took place, a spokeswoman said. Increased patrols are also monitoring the nearby area.

MTA spokeswoman Andrea Greene said eight blocks of the bus route were moved from Central Avenue to Avalon Boulevard in June 1995, after the nearby Metro Green Line station opened and community members said more passengers would be served on the new route.

That change added 200 riders a day, Greene said. Police say it also added an opportunity for gang members bent on an attack.

Drivers, however, had not reported an increase in gang activity, Greene said, and it is not MTA policy to change a route because of the behavior of street hoodlums.

“If we did that, we’d be changing lines all the time, and we don’t want to deprive transit-dependent people of their mobility,” Greene said. “But obviously, when something like this happens, we have to take a look. We have to be flexible, that’s the key here.”

Greene said Line 53 would only be changed if the community requested modifications.