Youth Fatally Stabbed in Fight; Mother Held

A 37-year-old Panorama City woman was arrested after the fatal stabbing of her son, a suspected gang member, in an argument over money he owed her, Los Angeles police said Sunday.

Bluefus Davis, 18, was stabbed Saturday evening by his mother, Sammie McGee, Sgt. Craig Rungaitis said. The fatal argument occurred shortly before 7 p.m. in an apartment in the 14600 block of Parthenia Street, where Davis apparently lived with his mother, Rungaitis said.

McGee was being held without bail in Van Nuys Jail on suspicion of murder, police said. Davis was found lying in the apartment’s living room and was pronounced dead a short time later at Panorama Community Hospital.

Investigators on Sunday disclosed few details of what led to the stabbing.

“Part of the altercation was over him being a gang member,” Rungaitis said.

McGee and her son were arguing about money she had loaned him on Mother’s Day, Sgt. John Rygh told United Press International. Davis told his mother he belonged to a gang that “nobody messed with,” Rygh told the news service. Then, Rygh said, “He apparently began assaulting her, she pulled out a knife . . . and stabbed him in the chest,” UPI reported.

A murder complaint will be sought against McGee this week when detectives present the case to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, Rungaitis said.

Melvin Johnson, 29, who said he shared the apartment with McGee, described the events leading to the stabbing as “a confused situation.” He would not elaborate.

He and McGee lived in the apartment with Davis and McGee’s 6-year-old daughter, but Johnson and the daughter were not home at the time of the stabbing, he said.

In the hours before the stabbing, “Something just told me to take the daughter to play with her friends,” Johnson said.

McGee had been arguing with her son for at least two days, according to a neighbor who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution from Davis’ friends. The resident said she overheard McGee tell police that Davis “came over here yesterday (Friday) and jumped on her, and then he came back today (Saturday) and jumped on her.

“She said she was just trying to protect herself,” the resident said.

McGee was in the process of being evicted from the apartment for not paying her rent, according to another resident, who would not disclose her name. McGee had lived there for about a year, but Davis was seen there regularly for only about the last month, that resident said.

The neighbor described McGee as “always very pleasant . . . you could say meek.” But of Davis, the resident said, “They were a bad-looking bunch that were his friends. They were all very sloppy, and they just looked to me like they were on drugs.”

Before Johnson arrived outside the apartment Sunday afternoon, three men and a woman were seen there.

One identified himself only as “Keith,” said he was the victim’s brother and said he saw the stabbing. “She tripped out on him,” he said from the apartment’s balcony. “She murdered him, stabbed him in his heart with a steak knife. Stabbed him in his heart.”