Abducted Baby Dies as Crash Ends Chase : Crime: Child was taken as ‘collateral’ by six gang members seeking money from her father, officials say.

A 7-month-old girl who was taken as “collateral” by gang members seeking money from her father was killed in a fiery crash as Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies gave chase early Wednesday, authorities said.

Jainah Alexis Spencer was taken from her mother’s apartment in Inglewood on Tuesday night by six men, two of whom are still at large, authorities said.

They already had abducted the baby’s father, Robert Lewis Davis, 29, who they claimed owed them money, according to family members.

With Davis and the baby as captives, the men searched sites from South-Central Los Angeles to Lancaster, hoping to find money they believed Davis had stashed, authorities said.

In Lancaster, more than 100 miles north of where the incident began, sheriff’s deputies who had been tipped off by a relative of Davis saw the abductors at the home of Davis’ mother, Esther Thompson, authorities said.

They gave chase, said sheriff’s Lt. Ray Peavy, for about 11 miles, until the fleeing car spun out of control and crashed into a tree, bursting into flames.

Deputies pulled the baby from the wreckage and rushed her to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead about 15 minutes later, at 1 a.m., Peavy said.

“My little baby is dead,” Thompson sobbed during an interview Wednesday morning. “They had no intention of letting her go. I can’t believe someone would come 100 miles to do this. It’s just terrible.”

The incident began about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday when the men stopped Davis at 130th Street and Avalon Boulevard as he drove through Willowbrook, Peavy said.

Davis later told authorities he got out of his car, not suspecting he was about to be abducted. “Apparently he knew the people,” Peavy said. Davis said he did not owe the men--whom deputies identified as gang members--any money, Peavy said.

One of the men held a knife to Davis’ side as the others pulled a towel over his head and beat him with a pistol butt, Peavy said. Pushing Davis into the driver’s seat, they forced him at gunpoint to drive to his nearby former address, even though he protested that he no longer lived there, Peavy said.

When the men realized this was true, Peavy said, they ordered Davis to drive to the Inglewood home of his girlfriend, Sonja Spencer.

Spencer was at home with her three children when Davis and four of the abductors came into the house, Spencer said Wednesday. The abductors held a knife to her throat and a gun at her head as they searched the house, she said.

The abductors came up empty-handed, and Davis suggested he take them to his mother’s home in Lancaster to get money, Peavy said.

Spencer said the abductor with the gun ordered Davis to take the child with them.

“They wanted to take me first, and then the one with the gun said, ‘No, take the baby,’ ” Spencer said.

They warned her that if she called police, they would kill her baby, Spencer said.

“They then took the baby as collateral,” Peavy said, “and proceeded to Lancaster.”

Two of the abductors squeezed into Davis’ compact along with the baby and Davis for the trip, authorities said, with the other four men following in another car.

After they left, Spencer called the baby’s grandmother, Thompson, to warn her that the abductors were on their way, Peavy said.

The cars stopped in a parking lot in Lancaster near Thompson’s house and the abductors transferred the baby to their car. Peavy said. One of the abductors remained with the baby, and the other five followed Davis into his mother’s house and ordered her to empty her purse and show them to her safe, according to accounts given by Thompson and Peavy.

As the robbers barked orders at Thompson, her daughter slipped away to call sheriff’s deputies in the Antelope Valley, Peavy said.

The abductors saw an unmarked sheriff’s car when it arrived at the house, and three of them dashed to their car and drove away, leaving two accomplices and Davis, Peavy said. Several patrol cars joined the chase. The car spun out of control at 90th and J streets, smashing into a tree and catching on fire. Deputies pulled the baby and two men from the wreckage, and the other two men crawled out, Peavy said. The two robbers who remained at Thompson’s house fled and were still at large, Peavy said.

Arrested and booked on suspicion of murder were Kenyon Pitts, 20; Calvin Robinson, 29; Dave Brian, 28, and a 28-year-old man whose name was not immediately available, Peavy said. All are from the same South Los Angeles neighborhood, Peavy said.

A grieving Thompson recalled her granddaughter as a lively child: “She was a friendly baby.”