iStock/Thinkstock(LOS ANGELES) — A Los Angeles man has been charged with murder after a fire killed two people and seriously injured two others at a music studio on Saturday.
The Los Angeles Police Department said Eferem Demery, 28, was arrested Saturday and charged on Sunday with murder. Police said in a news conference on Monday afternoon that Demery bought gasoline at a local gas station and doused the building in flames before setting it on fire.
LAPD Capt. William Hayes said Demery was involved in a dispute with the two men who were killed in the fire. The two people injured in the fire, a 20-year-old man and a 15-year-old girl, were not involved in the dispute. They remain in critical condition, authorities said.
About 15 people were in the studio when the fire started, Hayes said.
The fire broke out Saturday morning at Top Notch Recordings, a music studio across the Hollywood Freeway from Universal Studios Hollywood amusement park.
“At this point in time we don’t know the cause of the fire, but we will investigate it, which will probably take several days to determine,” Hayes had said on Saturday.
Los Angeles ABC station KABC identified one of the people killed in the fire as Devaughn Kemar Carter, 28, of Los Angeles. Michael Pollard Jr., 30, was identified as the second victim on Monday.
Singer L.A. Pryce, who was in the studio at the time, said he was nearly killed, but thankfully woke up in time to get out.
“I could have died,” Pryce told KABC. “If I wasn’t in the light sleep that I was, I could have died. Period.”
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