Long Beach police detectives are investigating a “horrific” murder pinned to a homeless man who allegedly burned a 63-year-old man to death inside his SUV parked in a convenience store lot along Pacific Coast Highway. Cops, hoping witnesses will come forward, have released surveillance footage from around 5:30 p.m. Friday in front of the 7-Eleven
near PCH and Clark Avenue.
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Click here for NBC4 of LA video (after an ad).
All police know is Raymond Sean Clark, a 34-year-old transient, allegedly set Jerry Payne of Long Beach on fire while the victim sat in his SUV in broad daylight. Witnesses have told the media, but not cops, that Payne had refused Clark's request for money.
According to Sgt. Aaron Eaton of the Long Beach Police Department, those are the kinds of details his agency hopes to get from witnesses, because they establish a motive to a crime that is unusual for the city and “just horrific.” Eaton urged people with such information to call his detectives at 562.570.7244.
Clark, meanwhile, is being held in Los Angeles County Jail and had been set to be arraigned today on attempted murder charges. Because Payne died in a hospital Monday from his injuries, a murder charge is now being sought by police, which is delaying Clark's arraignment date, Eaton noted.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.