THE COSBY SLAYING : `IT COULD'VE BEEN YOU' VALLEY VILLAGE MAN IDENTIFIED AS PRIME SUSPECT CHIEF DESCRIBES KILLING AS 'SPONTANEOUS' CRIME.Byline: Jaxon Van Derbeken, Patrick McGreevy and Janet Gilmore Daily News Staff Writers Ennis Cosby Ennis William Cosby (April 15, 1969 – January 16, 1997) was the son of actor Bill Cosby and Camille Hanks. He had four sisters. Life Ennis's father Bill Cosby mined family life for much of his material, but kept the family itself quite private. was killed in a random botched botch tr.v. botched, botch·ing, botch·es 1. To ruin through clumsiness. 2. To make or perform clumsily; bungle. 3. To repair or mend clumsily. n. 1. robbery committed by an 18-year-old ``street thug'' from Valley Village whose boasting of the killing led to his capture, police said Thursday. The suspect was identified by police as Mikail Markhasev, a Ukrainian immigrant who had passed through a gifted middle school and a probation camp after moving to the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. with his mother eight years ago. Cosby, 27, the son of entertainer Bill Cosby William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr., Ed.D. (born July 12 1937) is an American actor, comedian, television producer, and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a vanguard role in the 1960s action show I Spy. , was killed Jan. 16 by a single shot to his head after he pulled off the freeway to fix a flat tire atop the Sepulveda Pass Sepulveda Pass (el. 1130 ft. / 334 m.) is a mountain pass through the Santa Monica Mountains in Los Angeles, California. It is often called Poop-Out Pass, a phrase once used by now-deceased traffic reporter Bill Keene. . Markhasev happened upon Cosby and intended to commit a crime of opportunity, but the holdup went awry, Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Police Chief Willie L. Williams Willie L. Williams (born 1 October, 1943) was chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) from 1992 to 1997, taking over after chief Daryl Gates' resignation following the 1992 Los Angeles riots. said during a news conference. ``It could have been you or I sitting on the side of the road trying to get help to fix a tire,'' Williams said. ``Robbery was the motive.'' Williams said the robbery was spontaneous, and no money or property was taken from Cosby, whose body was found beside his $130,000 Mercedes-Benz sports coupe. ``We believe we have the one person involved in the shooting. We are still trying to determine whether there were other people involved,'' Williams said. A man and a woman detained for questioning Wednesday have been released, he said. After receiving more than 800 phoned-in tips over nearly two months, the LAPD 1. LAPD - Link Access Procedure on the D channel. 2. LAPD - Los Angeles Police Department. investigation appeared to be at a standstill. The break in the case came when the National Enquirer En`quir´er n. 1. See Inquirer. Noun 1. enquirer - someone who asks a question asker, inquirer, querier, questioner told police that it had received a tip from a California man interested in the supermarket tabloid's $100,000 reward. The tip led police to Markhasev, whom authorities said once attended gifted schools in the Hollywood area and briefly went to Reseda High School Reseda High School, established in 1955, is located in the Reseda section of Los Angeles, California, United States. The current principal of Reseda High is Alfredo Tarin. The mascot of Reseda High is the Regent, a lion welding a crown and a scepter. . There, he earned good grades, but got in trouble with the law for assault and was sent to an Orange County probation camp in late 1995 for six months. Markhasev was arrested Wednesday night at his Magnolia Boulevard apartment where he lived with his mother, Victoria Markhaseva. ``This kid is really hard beyond his years,'' one police official said. Markhasev's juvenile record includes a conviction for marijuana possession and assault with a deadly weapon Assault with a Deadly Weapon is the term used to describe the act of threatening to harm one or more people by using a weapon (usually a firearm). Here, assault must be differentiated from battery as they are often confused. Assault is threatening to use force. , police officials said. And according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. police, within weeks after Cosby's death, he told acquaintances that he had killed an African-American man in Los Angeles with a .38-caliber handgun. An acquaintance called the National Enquirer with his story, saying he was interested in the tabloid's $100,000 reward and in ``justice,'' said Enquirer editor Steve Coz. ``We felt he was extremely legitimate,'' Coz said. The Enquirer then passed the information to the police. Williams said the tip came through its press relations section, and investigators tracked down the informant using the pager number and name that he had left with the newspaper. The informant took detectives to an area off Coldwater Canyon Avenue near the Los Angeles River The Los Angeles River is an intermittent river flowing through Los Angeles County, California, from Canoga Park in the west end of the San Fernando Valley, 51 miles (82 km) southeast to its mouth in Long Beach. channel, where he said Markhasev had told him he dumped the weapon. A team of police recruits combed the area and found a .38-caliber revolver wrapped in a knit watch cap and hidden under leaves, sources said. Investigators matched bullets from the revolver with the single bullet that killed Cosby, said Williams. With the match in hand, the LAPD's elite Special Investigations Section tailed Markhasev and arrested him Wednesday at his home. ``There were no problems with the arrest,'' Williams said. The Cosby family expressed its gratitude to police. ``We realize how tough it must have been on them every day. We hope that they will find the suspect and allow the jurisprudence to unfold,'' the Cosbys said in a statement. ``The Cosby family was getting increasingly concerned that there wasn't anything leading to an arrest,'' said Bill Cosby's spokesman, David Brokaw. But upon hearing the news, the Cosbys were ``exuberant and upbeat that there's an encouraging sign for the resolution of the case,'' he said. ``Their number one priority is to see the arrest of the person who killed their son.'' Markhasev attended Reseda High school between February and October 1995 before leaving the district, said Shel Ehrlich of the Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. . He first attended Gardner Street Elementary School elementary school: see school. in West Hollywood in 1989, and then enrolled in John Burroughs Middle School in Hollywood, in a program for gifted children. Markhasev briefly attended a school in Los Alamitos, and in February 1995 he came to Reseda High School but lasted just one semester. A brush with the law resulted in his incarceration Confinement in a jail or prison; imprisonment. Police officers and other law enforcement officers are authorized by federal, state, and local lawmakers to arrest and confine persons suspected of crimes. The judicial system is authorized to confine persons convicted of crimes. in October 1995 at the Los Pinos Conservation Camp in Lake Elsinore, a probation school and work camp for Orange County. Camp officials could not comment. At Reseda, the principal said he and his staff didn't remember Markhasev, but school records showed a well-behaved, better-than-average student. ``From what we can tell, he was an intelligent young man,'' said Reseda High School Principal Robert Kladifko. ``His grades were good. He came to the states from the Ukraine, Soviet Union, in 1987.'' ``He took the regular kind of classes,'' Kladifko said. ``He had good attendance. His grades weren't quite as good as they were at Burroughs, but they were above average.'' He had good attendance and, Kladifko said, there was ``no indication of anything wrong. I guess he went downhill.'' At the Valley Village apartment complex, police in uniform and plainclothes plain·clothes or plain-clothes adj. Wearing civilian clothes while on duty to avoid being identified as police or security: a plainclothes detective. arrived about 5 p.m. Wednesday, according to the building manager, Olga Faynshteyn. She let them into the apartment where they rummaged about until 8 p.m., but she didn't know if Markhasev was arrested at that time. Some residents at the Villa Valencia apartments had seen the mother and son around, but few knew anything about them. ``He was very polite,'' said Faynshteyn. ``He was smiling. He was nice talking. I never saw anything aggressive.'' The lead detective in the case, Bert Luper, expressed satisfaction in solving the case. ``I feel good,'' he said. ``Both my partner and I feel good, but more importantly, it's for the Robbery-Homicide Division and the guys who worked on this case.'' CAPTION(S): 6 photos, map, box PHOTO (1 -- color) A cross marks the scene where Ennis Cosby was killed. David Sprague/Daily News (2) Police Chief Willie L. Williams releases information about the suspect. David R. Crane/Daily News (3) The suspect in Ennis Cosby's death was arrested at an apartment on Magnolia Boulevard in Valley Village. Michael Owen Baker/Daily News (4) Ennis Cosby His family expresses gratitude Map: Site of Jan. 16 shooting, area where gun found, suspect's Valley Village home Box: Suspect profile |
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