Cosby’s murder may have witnesses

Jennifer Bowles

Friday, Jan. 17, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

LOS ANGELES -- The gunman who murdered Bill Cosby's son was at the crime scene only momentarily, and investigators are preparing a composite sketch of the attacker, the police chief said today.

Police say Ennis William Cosby, 27, may have been the victim of a roadside robbery attempt after he pulled his Mercedes-Benz convertible off a freeway to fix a flat tire, although nothing apparently was taken.

A woman who found the body with a gunshot wound to the head provided a description of a white man as the attacker.

"The perpetrator was only there for a few moments or a few seconds, but we don't know what was in his mind," Los Angeles Police Chief Willie Williams said on ABC's "Good Morning America."

He said police hoped to release the composite sketch today.

The woman, Stephanie Crane, 47, told police that Cosby was on his way to see her when he telephoned to say he would be delayed because of a flat tire, the New York Daily News reported today, citing unidentified police sources.

Crane drove to Cosby's disabled car, spoke briefly to him and waited in her car to stay warm, the newspaper reported. She told police that she became nervous and drove away when she saw a suspicious man walking toward Cosby's car.

When Crane, a screenwriter, returned a few minutes later, she found Cosby's body. The News said the two had met at a Los Angeles party Saturday, but police have not identified the woman or confirmed whether she knew Cosby.

The Daily News also said a second witness was in the area at the time of the killing.

If not for his famous last name, few would know of the younger Cosby.

The entertainer's only son, he had a dream far removed from the spotlight: to educate children with learning disabilities like himself. Cosby had overcome dyslexia.

That dream came to an abrupt halt early Thursday when the Columbia University doctoral student was gunned down while fixing the flat tire near Bel-Air, one of the city's most exclusive and safest neighborhoods.

Before ducking into his home in New York City, a grim-faced, puffy-eyed Bill Cosby told reporters: "He was my hero."

Los Angeles police cordoned off the Cosby home in upscale Pacific Palisades. A man who identified himself as Bill Cosby's brother-in-law allowed detectives to enter the house despite no search warrant, said Detective Roseanne Parino.

Police barred anyone from entering the house -- including family -- for fear of contaminating possible evidence, Parino said.

Cosby was driving his dark green car on the San Diego Freeway when a flat tire forced him to pull over.

In the cold, still night, he threw on the car's emergency lights and put the spare tire on the car, which was registered to Cosby Productions. He was replacing the lug nuts when he was shot dead with a single gunshot.

Tire-changing equipment was beside the car. The trunk and passenger door were open, and the emergency flashers were still blinking.

Cosby, the third child of Bill Cosby and wife Camille, had four sisters. Like their brother, all their names begin with E: Erika, Erinn, Ensa and Evin. Their father said the E stood for excellence.

The elder Cosby is one of the world's richest entertainers, a man for whom fatherhood was the wellspring of his stand-up comedy, a best-selling book and the most popular TV series of the '80s, "The Cosby Show."

He was in New York, where CBS' "Cosby" is produced, when Police Cmdr. Tim McBride broke the news by telephone.

In a statement, Cosby said: "Our hearts go out to each and every family that such an incident occurs to. This is a life experience that is truly difficult to share."

Cosby and other family members left their Manhattan home Thursday night with a police escort. The entertainer's Los Angeles publicist, David Brokaw, declined to say where they went, but said Cosby was not en route to Los Angeles.

Born on April 15, 1969, in Amherst, Mass., Ennis Cosby graduated in 1992 from Morehouse College. In 1995, he received a master's degree at Columbia University's Teachers College and was seeking his doctorate in special education there.

It was a path his father also had taken. Bill Cosby received his doctorate in education in 1976 from the University of Massachusetts.

The younger Cosby was a student teacher at the Alfred E. Smith School, a public elementary school on Manhattan's Upper West Side. He was in Los Angeles while on winter break.

"His special commitment was to poor children who needed special help and who might not have the resources to get that on their own," said one of his university advisers, Margaret Jo Shepherd. "He had a passionate desire to teach, to be useful and to improve conditions for children, especially in urban areas."