Todd Bridges Held for Investigation of Attempted Murder
LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Todd Bridges, a star of the ″Diff’rent Strokes″ television show, was held for investigation of attempted murder Friday, just days after a drug possession arrest.
Bridges, 23, and Harvey Duckett, 30, were arrested late Thursday at a residence a block from a vacant house linked to narcotics activity where Kenneth Clay was shot five times and stabbed, said Sgt. Doug Tantee.
Clay was in critical but stable condition at Martin Luther King Jr.-Drew Medical Center. Police had no other details about the victim, including his age or residence.
Duckett was also held for investigation of attempted murder.
Police said Bridges was arrested at the same vacant house Jan. 25 for investigation of possession of cocaine. Deputy District Attorney Richard Weber said that case was rejected but the file was not immediately available to determine why.
Bridges, best known for his role as Gary Coleman’s older brother on NBC’s ″Diff’rent Strokes″ from 1978 to 1985, has had several brushes with the law, including a no-contest plea to making a bomb threat several years ago.
Clay told police he confronted Bridges and Duckett late Thursday in the vacant house after an unidentified person told him someone was breaking in.
An argument ensued and Bridges allegedly pulled a gun and shot Clay five times, and Duckett allegedly slashed Clay with the knife, Tantee said.
After Bridges and Duckett were taken into custody, a .22-caliber handgun and a shotgun were seized shortly afterward at the arrest site, Tantee said.
Tantee said police reports note that the house were Clay was shot was the site of “numerous calls over the past few weeks regarding narcotics.”
In 1983 Bridges paid a $240 fine after being arrested for carrying a concealed firearm.
He received a suspended sentence in January 1987 after pleading no contest to a charge of making a bomb threat that stemmed from the bombing of an auto customizer’s car during a dispute over work on the actor’s Porsche.
Bridges also appeared in court in January 1988 to answer a reckless driving complaint in which police said he was driving about 80 mph in a 35-mph zone in San Fernando.