A man wanted in connection with a double homicide in Detroit has been arrested in Gardena by U.S. marshals and Los Angeles County sheriffs deputies.
Acting on information provided by Detroit police, they arrested Derrick Dennard Smith on Friday near 146th Street and Normandie Avenue. Smith is being held at the county’s Twin Towers Correctional Facility.
Smith, 42, was wanted in connection with the fatal shootings of a woman and her boyfriend in Detroit on March 1. The woman’s two daughters, ages 8 and 6, were in the home hiding at the time, and the oldest girl’s distraught 911 call was heavily publicized.
When the child could not tell the dispatcher her address, the dispatcher asked her to put her mother on the phone. "She’s almost dead,” the girl replied.
–Andrew Blankstein