Sunday Daytime Shootings in Los Angeles Leave At least One Dead, Two Wounded

The drastic rise of homicides in the LAPD's Southwest Division continued in the early morning hours of Sunday when a man was shot to death near Coliseum Street and La Brea Avenue.

Shortly after 4:30 a.m., a 36-year-old black male was driving southbound on La Brea when a burgundy vehicle (no further information currently available) followed him and opened fire. 

The victim was struck in the back and was transported to Centinela Hospital where he was pronounced dead. 

The killing was at least the 8th of the years in the Southwest Division. In 2015, there were no homicides in the division in the first two month of the year,

In the neighboring 77th Street Division, a man was shot four times near Western Avenue and 70th Street minutes after high noon. The victim, a male black age 37, had been involved in verbal altercation at Florence Avenue and Western with the suspect, a male black of unknown age. The suspect left the scene, but returned to the area of 70th St. and Western, approached the victim who was in a brown, 4-door sedan, and opened fired. . The victim sustained  four gunshot wounds to the upper torso. He was transported to California Hospital in a serious, yet stable condition. 

Another shooting in the 77th occurred at 10 a.m. on 84th Street and Broadway when a male black in his mid-20s, was wounded in the forearm.  The victim walked in to 77th Station suffering from the wound and stated that he was in the passenger seat of his friend's vehicle when a silver Infinity approached and stopped. The suspect, also a black male in his mid 20s, exited the passenger side of the Infinity and fired 5 shots at the victim. The victim was transported to California Hospital in stable condition.

1 Dead, 10 Injured During Sunday Shooting in Compton

At approximately 1:35 a.,m Sunday, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies responded to the 900 Block of West Victoria Street in Compton, to investigate the circumstances surrounding a shooting with multiple reported injuries.

Upon their arrival on Victoria near Wilmington Avenue, deputies discovered there was a large party with numerous gunshot victims at the location.  One victim, a male black adult, was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. 

Eight other victims sustained gunshot wounds and were also transported to local hospitals where they are currently being treated. Two others were also injured, but apparently did not require hospitalization. 

The investigation is on-going. The homicide detective on the case, Det. Richard Tomlin, was unavailable for comment. 

Anyone with information can call the L.A. County Sheriff's Homicide Bureau at (323) 895-5500 

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Man Killed Monday Afternoon at 57th Street and Denker Avenue While Sitting In His Car

A 25-year-old black man sitting in his car near 57th and Denker Avenue was shot and killed Monday afternoon, the latest in a string of shootings in South Los Angeles at people in their vehicles.

Around 2 p.m., two black male suspects drove up to the victim, a shooter exited and fired several rounds. The man was struck multiple times in the chest. He was transported to California Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. 

Anyone with information can call the LAPD's Criminal Gang Homicide Division at (323) 786-5100

Last week at least four people were shot while in their vehicles.

Friday morning, just after midnight, a man and woman were shot as they drove in their car along Western Avenue near 42nd Place. They were transported to a local hospital where the man was pronounced dead.   

Friday evening, a male black, 36, was sitting in his car in front of 3443 8th Ave - south of Jefferson - when unknown suspects drove by in a black BMW and fired several rounds at him. The victim was struck once in the head and three times in the torso. He was transported to a local hospital in (luckily) serious condition. 

Last Tuesday, shortly before 4 p.m., at least two black males exited a vehicle nears Harvard Recreation Center on 62nd Street and Harvard Boulevard and approached Kenneth Burden, 50, as he sat in the driver's seat of his car. The suspects fired multiple rounds, striking Burden in the head and upper torso.  The shooters fled in their car, possibly a white Chrysler. 

The Burden was taken to California Hospital where he was pronounced dead. 

Burden was a 6-Deuce Brim who went by the name of Kev Dog. At the site where he was shot, a makeshift memorial was set up with murder candles, a painted Brims hand sign and a near record amount of "Drank in his Honor" liquor bottles.

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Saturday Morning Shootings; 1 Dead South of Downtown L.A. at 14th Street and Long Beach Avenue, 1 Wounded 64th and Hoover

(Excuse the cold, impersonal tone of the following sad story. There were few details available and a trip to the crime scene produced next to nothing.)  

Savoy Niece Anderson was walking home 

Saturday, around 3:20 a.m., a man snatched a purse from a woman at the corner of 14th Street and Long Beach Avenue in a desolate area south of downtown Los Angeles. A man chased after the thief who turned around and shot him, perhaps with the aid of an accomplice. 

The man, whose name was not released pending the notification of his family, was described as black and 37-years-old, He was transported to a local hospital and pronounced dead.

By 10 a.m, at 14th and Long Beach Avenue, there was no sign of the violence. No murder candles, no obvious blood on the sidewalk or street. No crime tape. A half block away, on Long Beach near Newton Street at a small homeless encampment, no one claimed to know the victim or had even heard shots. A clerk at a 14th street marijuana dispensary was stunned to hear someone had been a homicide victim this morning. Same for a delivery driver. It was like it never happened.  

Anyone with information can call call LAPD's Newton Division detectives at (323) 846-6556

In a gang related incident,  shortly after 11 a.m., a 40-year-old black male was walking near 64th Street and Hoover Street when a man exited his vehicle and began shooting. The victim was hit in the thigh and transported to California Hospital. 

The suspect, who fled in a black Infinity with paper plates,  was described only as a black male somewhere between 20 to 25 years of age. 

Anyone with information can call call the LAPD's 77th Street Division at (213) 485-4164.

Friday, a man and woman were shot as they drove in their car along Western Avenue near 42nd Place. They were transported to a local hospital where the man was pronounced dead. 

Anyone with information can call LAPD's Southwest Division at (213) 485-2582

Friday Shootings; One Dead, One Wounded While Driving On Western Avenue and 42nd; One Shot 8th Ave near Jefferson

Friday morning, just after midnight, a man and woman were shot as they drove in their car along Western Avenue near 42nd Place. They were transported to a local hospital where the man was pronounced dead.  The condition of the woman was not immediately known. That is all the detail available at the current time.

Friday evening, a male black, 36, was sitting in his car in front of 3443 8th Ave when unknown suspects drove by in a black BMW and fired several rounds at him.   The victim was struck once in the head and three times in the torso. The victim was transported to an unknown area hospital in serious, but, as of the latest report, stable condition. The suspects fled there is no further information at this time.   

Anyone with information about either attacks can call LAPD's Southwest Division at (213) 485-2582 

In an incident Thursday night, two Hispanic men were shot in a drive-by on Denver Avenue and 111th place. One victim, age 30, was struck in the stomach and the other, age 24, was hit in the arm and leg. Both are expected to survive.

Anyone with information can call LAPD's Southeast Division at (213) 972-7828  

Two Homicides Tuesday Afternoon: Western Ave. and Venice Blvd; 62nd and Harvard Blvd.

Details are few as of now, but two men were shot to death in separate incidents Tuesday afternoon and police are seeking the public's assistance in finding the assailants.

In the first deadly encounter at 1570 S. Western Avenue near Venice Boulevard, two men became involved in a verbal dispute which quickly escalated. The suspect, a male Hispanic approximately 18-years-old, produced a handgun and shot a male Hispanic, 24,  in the back. The shooter immediately fled the scene on foot. 

The victim was transported to Cedars Sinai Hospital where he later died. 

The incident is likely gang-related. Anyone with information can call the LAPD's Olympic Division detectives at ( 213) 382-6628

In the other killing, shortly before 4 p.m., at least two black males exited a vehicle nears Harvard Recreation Center on 62nd Street and Harvard Boulevard and approached a male black seated in the driver's seat of his car. The suspects fired multiple rounds, striking the victim in the head and upper torso. 

The shooters fled in their car, possibly a white Chrysler. 

The victim was taken to California Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. 

This was a gang related killing.

Anyone with information can call the LAPD's Criminal Gang Homicide Division at (323) 786-5100

Woman, 64, Shot 4 Times in Nickerson Gardens; Man, 32, Strangled to Death in San Pedro; Man, 50, Stabbed to Death by Son in NoHo

A 64-year-old African American woman was shot four times early Saturday morning  in Nickerson Gardens, but is expected to survive, according to the LAPD.  

Shortly before 5 a.m., the woman was struck in the stomach, right thigh, right calf and right arm shortly.  She was transported to St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood.

Anyone with information can anonymously call the LAPD's Southeast Division  at (213) 972-7828.

Earlier, in San Pedro, police officers received a radio call of a possible homicide on the 100 block of South Gaffey Street. When they arrived, they found a male Asian, 32, deceased in a vehicle. A Coroner's investigator responded and determined the victim had died of strangulation.

Anyone with information can anonymously call the LAPD's Harbor Division at (310) 726-7700.

In North Hollywood, shortly before noon Saturday, a domestic dispute escalated and, when it was over, a black male, 50, was dead from knife wound, allegedly inflected by his 25-year-old son. The son is in custody.

Nickerson gardens

2 People Killed Saturday In Separate South Los Angeles Shootings

Two homicides occurred today in South Los Angeles, one in Hyde Park and the other in the Broadway-Manchester area.

Shortly before 1 p.m. Saturday,  a black male approximately 25 to 30 years old was shot multiple times near Brynhurst Avenue and 67th Street, a decades-long stronghold of the Rollin' 60s Crips.. The victim somehow made it over to Crenshaw Boulevard where he was pronounced dead at the scene.  

About three hours earlier, officers from LAPD's Southeast Division responded to a "shots fired" radio call at 93rd Street and Broadway, Upon arrival, they found a  44-year-old black male laying face down, gunshots wounds to his back and neck. He was pronounced dead at the scene.  Officers searched the area for the suspected shooter, said to be a black male between 20 to 25 years of age..

Anyone with information can anonymously call LAPD's Criminal Gang Homicide Division at (323) 786 -5100.

More details when they become available.

The Death of Gerrik Thomas; Just Another South L.A. Killing?

Los Angeles Times Opinion  Op-Ed February 4, 2016

It was the fourth time in two days last week that a young black person was killed by other blacks in South Los Angeles. It didn't make much of a news splash. Like the 16-year-old girl and 20-year-old man at 81st and Avalon, like the 17-year-old boy at 83rd and Main Street, Gerrik Thomas' shooting death, on Jan. 25, was to everyone other than his family, friends and the homicide detectives, just another L.A. killing.

Why isn't [Gerrik Thomas'] excessive and unnecessary death a story? Why are the community, the hashtag leaders, the media and the politicians mostly silent?-  

Thomas, 21, had gone to the market to buy a soda. As he walked back to his great-grandmother's blue-and-white house eight doors down from the corner of West 54th Street and 9th Avenue, he was hassled — maybe asked, threateningly, “Where you from?” — by two males about his age driving by. He didn't answer; he called his mom. Moments later, according to police, at the corner, in front of the M & J 100% Hand Car Wash, the car stopped. The two guys got out. One grabbed Thomas, and the other shot him in the head. Thomas was pronounced dead at California Hospital.

There will be no protest marches organized in Thomas' memory. No downtown streets will be blocked; the entrances to the Harbor Freeway will remain open. No angry citizens will demand the arrest, trial and conviction of those responsible for his killing.

I get the outrage when a cop kills an unarmed civilian, I get the fury when a video shows what looks like an unnecessary, excessive police shooting. But what I don't get is why Gerrik Thomas' death barely signifies. Why isn't his excessive and unnecessary killing a story? Why are the community, the hashtag leaders, the media and the politicians mostly silent?

Is it that Thomas' death is acceptable? Does it just come with the territory in South Los Angeles?

I've been writing about gang killings in Los Angeles for well over 25 years, and I know these deaths are not acceptable to the families on Grape Street, on Success Avenue, on Brynhurst Avenue. Their pain is as deep as it gets. I know the answer is “no” to the question Reggie Sims, gang interventionist at Jordan Downs, asked about the lack of uproar over the killing of his son several years ago: “Just because he was shot by another black kid, that makes it OK?” I've heard that question from at least 100 different relatives of the slain.

By way of an uproar, I'll tell you a bit about Gerrik Thomas.

If you ask 20 of his friends and family about him, every one will say something about his smile.

Some might describe the tattoo on his right forearm — “Demicha”— his mother's name. Others will talk about how he took the bus to work as a security guard near the airport or at Los Angeles County Museum of Art. About how respectful he was. That he went to Daniel Webster Middle School and Crenshaw High. That he dreamed of being a doctor and was enrolled at Los Angeles Trade Tech to learn nursing. But all of them will bring up his smile.

“Who would do this to him?” asked his friend Shonda Smith, staring at dozens of “murder candles” set on the sidewalk where he was shot. “He wasn't the type of kid to even have the slightest confrontation with anyone. He was a good kid. A nice lovable young man. And that smile of his. His smile would brighten a whole, gloomy day. I can't believe it that he's gone.”

“Even when Gerrik had a rough day, when I could tell something was bothering him, he still had that beautiful smile of his,” said his great-aunt Karon Stinson. She was on the porch of his great-grandmother's house two days after his death. “Granny,” in a wheelchair, agreed about the smile, in her whisper of a voice.

LAPD homicide Det. Christopher Barling, head of the 77th Division squad, said Thomas was not a gang member; he had no record. It is unfortunate that when a killing happens south of the 10 Freeway, it is often assumed the victim was a gang member.

On Thursday, Demicha Lofton-Thomas, Gerrik's mother, posted a statement on Facebook. This is some of it:

“On Monday, January 25, 2016, at 6:30, my biggest fear came to reality. My son Gerrik Thomas was the victim of a violent crime. [He] had just called my phone at 6:24 and said that a dude banged on him. I talked to him for a couple minutes not knowing it would be the last time I'll ever hear [his] voice. At 6:33 I received a call ... I heard all the crying in the background.... I felt it in my heart. My stomach started to hurt. My legs were getting weak like they were going to collapse.”

Anyone with information about Thomas' killing can call the Criminal Gang Homicide Division anonymously: (323) 786-5100. Thomas' family has set up a Go Fund Me account to help with his funeral expenses: www.gofundme.com/long-live-gerrik. If you haven't figured it out for yourself, Gerrik Thomas' life mattered.