Robert Anderson Cotton has been charged with killing his mother and his uncle last week, the LA County District Attorney's office announced.
Cotton, 32, faces two counts of murder with an allegation of using a knife as a deadly and dangerous weapon, according to an LA DA press release. He is charged with fatally stabbing his mother, Carol Brown, 67, and his uncle, Kenneth Preston, 69, on March 22, at the house they all shared.
“This is a horrific case in which the mother’s work colleagues witnessed part of the attack while on a Zoom call and called the authorities,” District Attorney Gascón said in a press release. “Unfortunately by the time police arrived they discovered both victims.”
Carol Brown, a coordinator at Pasadena City College’s Black STEM program, was talking to a colleague via Zoom when a man came into view and dragged Brown’s brother outside. According to a news release from the LA County Sheriff’s Department, “The Zoom caller witnessed the attack on both the male and female and called 911 to report the crime.”