Cops Say They Know Who Killed Them
Carol Waites and Sharen Burton were killed on New Year's Eve
By PAUL KRUEGER
Updated 5:57 PM PST, Mon, Jun 29, 2009
A man is in custody, accused of a New Year's double murder shooting that also left a 7-year-old boy's body riddled by gunfire.
Two women -- Carol Waites, 45, and Sharen Burton, 32, who police said were innocent bystanders -- were caught in the crossfire of a gang war early in 2003 outside Dr. J's Liquor store in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of San Diego. Also hit by gunfire was Waites' young nephew. He was struck by bullets a half-dozen times shielding her 2-year-old granddaughter, who was not hit. Remarkably, the boy also lived.
Now investigators say the crime was so violent that community members risked their lives to help find the man who is accused of killing them.
Those who knew the victims said they were sorely missed.
"She always had a smile on her face," Deacon Abner Gaston of the True Faith Missionary Baptist Church in City Heights said about Waites. "She just made you feel warm inside."
Gaston said Waites, who was an usher at True Faith, went out of her way to help people.
Waites and Burton were killed just after midnight outside a Lincoln Park liquor store. They had stopped at the store to buy a fireplace log.
"These innocent victims were caught in a gang revenge shooting that shook the community and left law enforcement with very few leads," County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis said at a news conference Monday. "Over the years, investigators pursued this case with great determination. The shooter who fired the fatal shots will now be held accountable for his crimes."
Detectives have worked the case for six years. The said that for years, anyone who knew anything about the killings was too scared to talk, but finally, an informant opened up.
"The case so grotesquely crossed the lines of even gang-subculture behavior that people were then willing to cross the line and come to us," said Deputy District Attorney Robert Hickey.
The tips helped police and prosecutors charge James Carter, 35, who is alleged gang member, with the murders. He also faces charges of conspiracy to commit murder and four counts of attempted murder.
For law enforcement, it's another murder solved. For Gaston, it brings a sense of closure to a horrible crime.
"This is what we've been praying for," Gaston said. "This is what we've been looking forward to."
First Published: Jun 29, 2009 3:35 PM PST
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