Compton : Council Candidate Caught in Gang-Related Shoot-Out

A Compton City Council candidate was caught in a shoot-out earlier this week as he waited in his car for a traffic light to change, but escaped injury, police said.

Candidate Basil G. Kimbrew, his fiancee and his 5-year-old daughter were in the car Sunday at Rosecrans Avenue and Alameda Street in Compton when a gunman on foot began shooting at a car that sped out of a nearby Arco gasoline station. According to police, the incident was gang-related. One bullet struck Kimbrew’s car on the driver’s side just below the window, he said. “It’s the scariest thing that ever happened to me,” Kimbrew said.

Police later arrested a suspect in the shooting incident, Avery Verdell Miller, 18, of Compton. He has been charged with three counts of assault with a deadly weapon and several other charges. He is being held in the Los Angeles County Jail.

Kimbrew is an announced candidate for the council election in April.