Police Release Suspect’s Sketch in Cosby Slaying

Seeking the public’s help in solving a slaying that has stunned the nation, Los Angeles homicide investigators Saturday released a composite sketch of the man suspected of killing Ennis Cosby as he changed a flat tire on a darkened road.

Police also released a composite drawing of a potential witness who was seen driving a blue hatchback in the area about the same time Cosby--son of entertainer Bill Cosby--was slain. That person is wanted for questioning and is not considered a suspect “at this time,” LAPD Cmdr. Tim McBride said.

The suspect was described as a white male of average height and weight between 25 and 32 years old. He was wearing a light-colored knit cap and was seen approaching Cosby on foot.

“We are nowhere near ending our leads and have lots of directions to go, [but] it would certainly make it a lot easier if somebody knew the identity of the suspect,” McBride told a packed news conference late Saturday. “We’re not by any shape desperate at all.”

In contrast to the protection police have shown to their principal witness--a 47-year-old woman--investigators took the unusual step of seeking to expose the second potential witness with the hopes that he will come forward or be recognized. He was described as a white male in his late 20s to mid-30s with dark hair, a mustache and goatee. He has a possible mole on his left cheek and was wearing a beret.

The Los Angeles Police Department also provided a rendering of the potential witness’ car, which was described as a blue hatchback with a possible out-of-state license number of GRH 921.

Although McBride said the second person is not a suspect, he refused to rule out the possibility.

“I’m not going to go there,” he said. “At this time, we have no information linking any of these people together.”

As police put the finishing touches on the composite drawings, detectives pressed forward Saturday in their investigation on other fronts, checking Cosby’s cellular phone records and examining his car for evidence of sabotage.

Homicide investigators still believe robbery is the most likely motive, but they have been unable to rule out other possible scenarios, including that the attack was planned.

Cosby, a Columbia University graduate student who was finishing a two-week vacation in Los Angeles, was shot once in the head early Thursday morning as he attempted to change a flat tire on his Mercedes-Benz on a darkened roadside above Bel-Air.

The female witness, who was at the scene when Cosby was confronted by a gunman, is the primary witness and the main source for the composite sketch of the suspect. Police said it took until Saturday to complete the sketch because she had been so traumatized by the slaying and by the crush of news media attention.

The information about the potential witness police are searching for was provided by another person who happened to be in the area around the time of the slaying.

The woman, identified by police as “an acquaintance” of Cosby whom he had met only recently, told investigators that she had driven out to meet Cosby after he called her to ask for help in changing a flat tire.

She said she came to illuminate the area with her car’s headlights. As the woman sat in her Jaguar and watched Cosby fix the tire, she told investigators, a white man believed to be the gunman appeared and she fled the scene, police sources said.

When she returned a short while later, she found the 27-year-old Cosby fatally wounded.

Police on Saturday released relatively few new details about the slaying, but department sources said that detectives were moving forward in a number of areas. Investigators continue to suspect that the incident was a random act of violence during an attempted robbery, but they are troubled by the fact that nothing was obviously missing from the car or Cosby.

Still, McBride said, “we have a $100,000 vehicle out there, we have somebody who is changing a tire and is very vulnerable, very easy to rob . . . what other possible motivation would be the most likely?”

Investigators are interested in tracking Cosby’s cellular phone records to help them verify aspects of the key witness’ story, including that he called her for assistance.

Detectives are also carefully examining the Mercedes and the flat tire to determine whether somebody deliberately disabled Cosby’s car as part of a planned attack.

Several witnesses have called police saying they saw a Mercedes with apparent mechanical troubles limping along the road before the shooting, which occurred shortly before 1:45 a.m.

Other witnesses have come forward, some who reported that they may have seen Cosby beside the road while alive. Police continued Saturday to sift through the statements of various people, including a number of recorded 911 calls.

To assist themselves in solving the case, police are trying to learn more about Cosby’s whereabouts in the hours before his death, particularly the time after he left a West Los Angeles health club Wednesday.

Meanwhile, as detectives sought to focus on a consistent theory in Cosby’s slaying, his father and other family members remained in seclusion, a spokesman for the Cosby family said.

A dozen bouquets marked the murder scene Saturday, many with handwritten cards offering sympathy to the Cosby family.

“E, may you rest with angels,” read one card. “I want you to know my prayers are with you,” read another.

Elina Perez, who was visiting from Albuquerque, stopped at the site after seeing several television crews and photographers there.

“It’s so sad,” she said of the slaying.

David Brokaw, a spokesman for the Cosbys, said family members “are genuinely touched by the outpouring of condolences from the public as well as from major figures.”

“The Cosby family extends their hearts and deep appreciation to those who have come forward to help lighten the load of the Los Angeles Police Department,” Brokaw said.

Brokaw said that Bill Cosby had spoken by phone to the mother of 17-year-old high school senior Corie Williams, killed Thursday--allegedly by a gang member--while riding a city bus here.

At the family’s request, Ennis Cosby’s body was released from the county morgue, said a spokeswoman with the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.

Brokaw said arrangements for a private funeral were pending.