(6 of 6)
The investigation must now track several apparent leads. The police have not confirmed newspaper reports that the female witness was the person that Ennis called from a cell phone at 1:15 a.m. for help illuminating the area with the headlights of her car, the better to fix his flat. According to those stories, the witness supposedly left the scene because she saw a man with a pistol, who tapped on her car window. She then returned and found Ennis dead on the pavement next to his Mercedes. She supposedly saw a car fleeing but could not identify the make. The police have announced that something was taken from the crime scene, but Williams would not be specific. On Saturday the L.A.P.D. announced that the motive for killing Cosby was probably robbery. They also released a sketch of a suspect: a white man of average height, 25 to 32 years old. The police also put out a sketch of another white male whom a security guard saw driving away in a blue hatchback. He was being considered a witness. The police said there may be more witnesses.
All murder mysteries get tawdrier with the telling. And probing the netherworld of Los Angeles for Ennis Cosby's killer is unlikely to produce an exception. In the end, the tale of fathers and sons that made it so compelling may be merely a small part of some endless legal epic. But that facet may prove to be the most enduring one. Ennis Cosby was Bill Cosby's legacy. And his son's legacy may be a young man in New York City. When Walter Stephen Douglas heard of the murder, his heart was not really with the celebrity dad most Americans were mourning with. "I cried the whole day. I put a picture of Ennis on the bed and cried myself to sleep. He just went away, and a part of me went with him." Thinking of the man who was like a father to him, Douglas says, "I understand why his dad said he was a hero to him. He was a hero to me too. I wanted to be like him. The way he thought. The way he got over his problem. I thought I could do the same thing. I want to do what he wanted to do--open a school for kids like me. I figure if I put myself to it, I could be a teacher and make it fun." He pauses, in reflection. "Just like Ennis."
--Reported by Sylvester Monroe and Patrick E. Cole/Los Angeles, Edward Barnes, Elaine Rivera, Jennifer Steil and Richard Zoglin/New York, Dan Goodgame and Jack E. White/Washington and Tammerlin Drummond/Atlanta