May 30, 2013
City News Service
The coroner's office today released the name of an 11-year-old boy stabbed to death in a family dispute inside a Westlake District apartment. He was Jai Shaun Lewis, coroner's Lt. Joe Bale said. The boy's accused attacker, his 26-year-old stepfather, who was also injured, remained under guard at County USC Medical Center, awaiting a doctor's clearance to be released from the hospital and booked on charges in connection with the boy's death, said Sgt. Melvin Gamble of the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart Station.
The homicide took place inside a Westlake District apartment at 227 S. Carondelet St. and was reported just before 9 a.m. Monday, said LAPD Sgt. Michael Mabie of the Rampart Station.
``An 11-year-old boy has died from his stab wounds and we have his attacker, a 26-year-old man, in custody now,'' Mabie said.
LAPD spokeswoman Norma Eisenman told City News Service the suspect is the boy's stepfather. Eisenman said she did not know what triggered the violence between the man and the boy. Neighbors told reporters that they heard an argument, and then screams from the boy's mother from the upper floor of the two-story building, in a densely populated neighborhood northwest of MacArthur Park. The boy was in cardiac arrest when he was transported from the scene by paramedics and died at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. His stepfather was injured in the struggle with the boy and taken to County USC for treatment, according to Mabie and Eisenman. His name was not expected to be released until he is booked.