Councilman Demands Stronger Effort to Catch Serial Slayer of Prostitutes

Los Angeles City Councilman Robert Farrell said Saturday that he will ask the council to authorize a $25,000 reward “to awaken the public’s attention” to the search for a killer believed responsible for the deaths of at least 15 women, nearly all of them black prostitutes in South-Central Los Angeles.

Farrell’s comments came at a forum in Jesse Owens County Park in South Los Angeles, where several speakers criticized law enforcement efforts to capture the suspect, suggesting that because the victims have been streetwalkers, police and sheriff’s investigators have not worked as diligently as they did to tackle the “Night Stalker” case.

Los Angeles Police Department’s ranking black officer, Deputy Chief Jesse A. Brewer, said that the 25-detective task force often works 12-hour days, six days a week.

Critics also charged that the media has not provided adequate coverage of the killings. “A lot of people in the black community are asking, ‘Why not more outrage?’ ” said Margaret Prescod, coordinator of the Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders. “These are human beings being murdered.”