LOS ANGELES police are seeking a white male suspected of involvement in the shooting dead of Ennis Cosby, son of the actor Bill Cosby, who plays the leading role in the popular television comedy series about a middle class black family.
Ennis Cosby was shot early on Thursday morning as he was changing a tyre on his Mercedes convertible in the wealthy Bel Air district. Police say the likely motive was robbery, and that the victim may have been followed by his killer.
Bill Cosby (59) was in New York when he was informed of the murder. "He was my hero," the actor told reporters outside his Manhattan home.
In a statement, the Cosby family said: "We have every confidence in the Los Angeles Police Department. Our hearts go out to each and everybody who has suffered a loss like this."
Rev Jesse Jackson, who is a close friend of the Cosby family, said "Such a tragic loss diminishes all of us."
Ennis Cosby was a 27 year old Columbia University doctoral student. He was planning to set up a school for students with learning disabilities when he had finished his doctorate, according to one of his teachers.
Ennis was the only son of Bill and Camille Cosby. They also have four daughters. All the children have names beginning with "E", which their father said stood for "excellence".
. Both sides in O.J. Simpson's civil case rested on Thursday, ending the evidence phase of the trial. The judge told jurors they would be able to start their deliberations next Thursday following closing arguments.
The last witness for the plaintiffs was FBI shoeprint expert Mr William Bodziak, who testified that the shoes Simpson was seen wearing in 30 photographs taken at a football game in September 1993 were uncommon Bruno Magli Lorenzo shoes.
Mr Bodziak had previously testified that it was the distinctive sole of the shoes that left the bloody shoeprints leading from the scene where Simpson's ex wife, Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman were stabbed and slashed to death on June 12, 1994. Simpson has denied ever owning a pair of Bruno Maglis.
After Mr Daniel Petrocelli, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said he was resting his case, Simpson's chief defence attorney, Mr Robert Baker, said he too was resting. Jurors, who have sat through two and a half months of evidence, smiled and looked relieved.
Earlier on Thursday, two expert witnesses attacked the defence theory that blood in the case was planted by police and the evidence contaminated in a botched investigation. One expert said it was "absolutely ridiculous" to suggest that evidence had been contaminated, and a second said there was no evidence that blood had been planted.
Defence lawyers have claimed that blood from samples taken from Simpson and from the body of his ex wife was planted by police to incriminate the former American football star.