Los Angeles police arrested a 14-year-old woman within the early morning killing of a lady who was shot on a road nook in South L.A.
{The teenager} is accused of taking pictures Kendra McIntyre, 20, simply earlier than 4:30 a.m. on March 21 whereas she was standing on the intersection of seventieth and Figueroa streets, the Los Angeles Police Division alleged in a information launch on Tuesday.
The suspect was recognized by LAPD murder detectives Monday and brought into custody at a police station lower than a mile from the place the taking pictures occurred. The Los Angeles District Legal professional’s workplace charged the unidentified teenager with McIntyre’s homicide, however there was no details about a motive or whether or not the woman acted alone.
There was additionally no details about why McIntyre was standing on that specific road nook two hours earlier than daybreak.
McIntyre’s mom, Debra Rush, believes that her daughter was being compelled by South L.A. gang members to promote intercourse when she was shot. Murder investigators haven’t supplied any details about what McIntyre was doing in part of South L.A. often known as a sex-trafficking hall.
Years earlier than, Rush discovered herself in the identical a part of South L.A.
Within the mid-2000s, Rush was kidnapped from her residence in Fresno and compelled to have interaction in intercourse work to pay again a drug debt her mom owed, she advised The Occasions. One of many locations her captors put her to work was on Figueroa Road. She ultimately ran away and located her approach again to Fresno.
Rush is the founding father of the nonprofit Breaking the Chains, a corporation that seeks to attach victims of intercourse trafficking with sources that may assist them discover housing and different companies to flee their traffickers. Rush based the group within the San Joaquin Valley, the place McIntyre was raised, Rush wrote in Fb posts honoring her daughter.
“Kendra was an all-around superb human being; fiercely loyal, superbly creative, hilarious, outgoing, and loving,” Rush wrote in a single put up.
In a message posted Wednesday on the Breaking the Chains Fb web page, Rush thanked the LAPD for “tirelessly working to deliver closure” to her household, however she added there was nonetheless sorrow in her world and “no justice can fill the void” of dropping her daughter. She wrote that her daughter had skilled trauma as a baby and suffered from “extreme psychological well being challenge(s).”
Rising up, McIntyre’s life revolved round portray, cheerleading and the English dramas and flicks she used to binge in her free time. For a time in her teenagers she went by a section by which she spoke solely in a British accent, her mom recalled. She graduated from highschool at 16 and went to work at a hospital as an environmental companies aide.
Photographs of McIntyre usually confirmed her flashing a broad smile. However Rush mentioned the completely happy exterior hid a deep properly of ache and struggles with psychological well being.
The lives of each mom and daughter have been marked by recurring abuse and violence. Rush suspects a few of her daughter’s points have been rooted in sexual abuse inflicted by a caretaker. She additionally recalled an incident on the peak of the pandemic in 2020 by which she mentioned McIntyre was the sufferer of a violent residence invasion. Two suspects broke in whereas she was residence alone and assaulted her.
“She was alone with them for 45 minutes, and I don’t need to go into particulars,” Rush mentioned.
The suspects have been charged and McIntyre testified at their trial, an agonizing expertise that her mom mentioned despatched her on a downward spiral. Her daughter had additionally been recognized with bipolar dysfunction, which Rush mentioned compounded her scenario.
“That’s the place we type of misplaced Kendra,” her mom mentioned.
Her daughter started having violent outbursts and grew withdrawn, Rush mentioned. Now not feeling protected of their residence, McIntyre left city earlier this yr and ended up in L.A., Rush mentioned.
By her personal experiences, Rush grew to become an advocate within the anti-trafficking group and garnered the eye of lawmakers in Sacramento and Washington. Regardless that Rush inspired her daughter to be taught from Rush’s experiences, McIntyre nonetheless discovered herself in the identical scenario, her mom mentioned.
Associates of the household began a GoFundMe marketing campaign to assist Rush pay for funeral bills.
Occasions employees author Libor Jany contributed to this report.
