Police say Virgil Tyrone Tate, 30, stabbed mother and daughter to death Sunday night in Torrance. (Booking Photo) |
TORRANCE, Calif. (KTLA) -- Prosecutors charged a 31-year-old man with murder Tuesday, two days after he allegedly stabbed his girlfriend and her mother to death and wounded a man.
Virgil Tyrone Tate is expected to be arraigned tomorrow on two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.
The charges include a special circumstance allegation of multiple murders.
The victim were identified Tuesday as Tracie Ann Brooks, 32, and her mother Carol Susan Brooks, 58.
L.A. County sheriff's deputies received a call about an assault with a deadly weapon around 8:15 p.m. Sunday at the Torrance Villa Apartments, located in the 21800 block of South Vermont Avenue.
When deputies arrived at the scene, they found a man outside who had been stabbed several times.
He was taken to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center with non life-threatening injuries.
The deputies made their way inside the apartment and found a woman lying on the floor in a front room.
Tate was found hiding in a back room.
He was eventually taken into custody, and was led out of the apartment complex naked and in handcuffs.
Once inside the back room, deputies found a second woman with multiple stab wounds.
Paramedics pronounced both women dead at the scene.
KTLA spoke exclusively with a relative of the two female victims, who said Tate was her sister's live-in boyfriend, and that the male victim was renting a bedroom.
"I got a call from my mom's husband around 11:30 and he was in a panic and told me something happened," she said.
She also said she has no idea what might have happened.
"I'm not sure," she said, when asked what police had told her. "I haven't heard anything. I have no idea."
Tate is being held on $1 million bail.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500.
If you prefer to provide information anonymously, you can call "Crime Stoppers" by dialing (800) 222-TIPS (8477), or texting the letters TIPLA plus your tip to CRIMES (274637), or by using the website http://lacrimestoppers.
Virgil Tyrone Tate is expected to be arraigned tomorrow on two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.
The charges include a special circumstance allegation of multiple murders.
The victim were identified Tuesday as Tracie Ann Brooks, 32, and her mother Carol Susan Brooks, 58.
L.A. County sheriff's deputies received a call about an assault with a deadly weapon around 8:15 p.m. Sunday at the Torrance Villa Apartments, located in the 21800 block of South Vermont Avenue.
When deputies arrived at the scene, they found a man outside who had been stabbed several times.
He was taken to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center with non life-threatening injuries.
The deputies made their way inside the apartment and found a woman lying on the floor in a front room.
Tate was found hiding in a back room.
He was eventually taken into custody, and was led out of the apartment complex naked and in handcuffs.
Once inside the back room, deputies found a second woman with multiple stab wounds.
Paramedics pronounced both women dead at the scene.
KTLA spoke exclusively with a relative of the two female victims, who said Tate was her sister's live-in boyfriend, and that the male victim was renting a bedroom.
"I got a call from my mom's husband around 11:30 and he was in a panic and told me something happened," she said.
She also said she has no idea what might have happened.
"I'm not sure," she said, when asked what police had told her. "I haven't heard anything. I have no idea."
Tate is being held on $1 million bail.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500.
If you prefer to provide information anonymously, you can call "Crime Stoppers" by dialing (800) 222-TIPS (8477), or texting the letters TIPLA plus your tip to CRIMES (274637), or by using the website http://lacrimestoppers.
