Local News in Brief : 4 Men Arrested in Probe of 6 Murders

Four men were arrested Thursday in an investigation of six San Fernando Valley murders, including a quadruple slaying in which a mother and her 28-month-old daughter were hit with shotgun blasts while sitting in a car outside a drug house, Los Angeles police said.

A team of nearly 200 police officers, including members of the Special Weapons and Tactics Team, raided three fortified drug houses and 12 other locations in the northeast Valley while searching for the suspects, police said.

Lt. Fred Nixon identified the suspects as Stanley Bryant, 30, of Pacoima and Antonio Johnson, 28, of Lake View Terrace, both arrested on suspicion of murder; and Nash Newbil, 52, of Lake View Terrace and Levi Flack Jr., 24, address unknown, both arrested on suspicion of accessory to murder.

Detectives said the arrests stemmed from an investigation centered on a shooting Aug. 28 in Lake View Terrace that left four people dead. Two St. Louis men, Andre Armstrong, 31, and James Brown, 43, were killed after they went inside a drug house in the 11400 block of Wheeler Avenue.

A man later ran out of the house with a shotgun and fired into the car Armstrong and Brown had driven to the house. The blasts killed Lorretha Anderson English, 23, of Seaside and her daughter, Chemise, 28 months, who were sitting in the back seat. English’s 1-year-old son, whose name was not released, was slightly injured.