Local News in Brief : Transient Charged in Shooting of 2 Men
A transient has been charged with murder in the shooting deaths of two other homeless men in a Santa Monica park.
Perry Lavert Stephens was arraigned Thursday on charges that he killed the two homeless men, aged 45 and 32, in Crescent Bay Park as they slept under a gazebo Dec. 21.
Santa Monica Police Lt. Robert Thomas said that witnesses identified the 41-year-old Stephens as one of several people near the murder scene, a small bluff overlooking the beach, and that he was arrested based on additional evidence.
The victims were apparently looking for shelter from the rain when they lay down under the park gazebo, a local gathering place for small groups of homeless men.
It was the second time in a month that one transient has been accused of killing another in Santa Monica. Earlier, a homeless man was accused of the robbery and murder of a transient whose body was found on a bench in front of the city’s Heritage Museum.
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