Dispatch: Kevin Ramos, 23

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Practically everyone in the Martinez house wears some kind of uniform. Norma Martinez, the mother, wears a light green shirt and pants to her job on the janitorial staff at LAX. Her husband, a truck technician, has a blue jumpsuit with his name embroidered on the lapel. Her son Jeffrey, 19, wore the uniform of a baggage handler at LAX. A daughter-in-law is a dental hygienist. A son-in-law has a white shirt and badge like a police officer's for his job as a security guard.

Family members take public transportation across very long distances, split housing, share the work of caring for various children. Into this archetypal L.A. working-class immigrant family came a phone call last February with news of the murder of the eldest son, Kevin Ramos, 23.   

Ramos had been helping his father-in-law throw a house party for extra money that night in the 18000 block of Northam Street in Valinda, and was shot by would-be guests who had been turned away. "We thought he'd been shot in the arm or the leg," said Kevin's sister, Jacqueline. At the Harbor-UCLA medical center, they were taken into a room and told that he had died. "It's the worst feeling," Jacqueline said. "It grabs you and tears you apart."

"I sat there with his body and it's still hard to accept it," said Jeffrey.

As the weeks passed and the case was no closer to being solved, the family struggled. Jeffrey suffered from depression and stopped working. Jacqueline kept calling the detectives over and over, to no avail.

Norma Martinez, an evangelical Christian, prayed for strength. Her worst moments, she says, come at work while cleaning the floors and bathrooms, when her thoughts wander to Kevin.

Martinez, 44, is a quiet, broad-faced woman with hair parted straight down the middle and pulled back into a plain ponytail. As her grown children talked in a babble of English about Kevin, Martinez sat to one side, head bowed, hands clasped, her feet pulled under her out of view. Her posture is straight out of rural Guatemala--the pose of a first-generation immigrant, long used to remaining in the background, the kind of person one might see with a cleaning bucket in an airport restroom--working invisibly in plain sight.

Kevin Ramos' niece at home with a photo of her with her uncle.

. . .

Sheriff's investigators are seeking information about the case. Call (323) 890-5500.

(Photos by Brian Vander Brug/LAT)

Comments

[Belinda]

To the Martinez family my sympathy goes out to you, I know how his mother feels. I walked in her shoes June 22, 2004 when I lost my only son to the plague of violence here in this so called, City of Angels. This city is gang infested and it is out of control, laws need to change and get tougher for those gangsters who prey upon our innocent children. These are young vital people who are losing their lives to this widespread of violence. Why? are guns too easy to get to on the streets. Who? & What? is going to protect us from dieing in the street of Los Angeles, more than half of these criminals have police records from here to China, how come the laws don't keep them in prison once they commit an offense. There are Too! Too! many gangbangers in Los Angeles, Wake up! people and start protesting for quicker results to protect you , your family and your neighbors. I will pray for the Martinez family, I will asked God to shine some light into their lives once again, remember the great things about your son and know that he is with the LORD, one day we will be where they are at. I AM SICK OF THIS! SICK OF SEEING PARENTS BURYING THEIR CHILDREN BECAUSE OF THIS GANG AND GUN PROBLEMS THAT THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD FIX, NOW! NOT LATER! The police departments hands are tied they cannot fight this type of crime on their on, it is too heavy a burden, they need special forces to help them. Remember, police officers are only human and they have families also, they want to be able to go home and be with their families and not die in the streets of Los Angeles, you see gang bangers shoot at police officers too, not just civilians.

[I feel your pain]

I feel your pain. My brother was a victim of street violence. He was shot 5 times and left for dead in our own backyard. I remember seeing him as he tried to escape by climbing a fence that broke and seen how he crawled desperately in search of help as he was covered in blood. I remember telling him to never close his eyes for me. Thankfully he survived, but his mind did not. He now suffers from paranoic schizofrenia and lives everyday as if he were in a horror movie. The young, happy, and sily person that my brother used to be ceased to exist behind the shadows of the evil of violence. Ever since then, everyday seems like a torture because everyone else in my family is also afraid and we all seem to be stuck in a black hole. Things like this should show the teens out there that you never know when something might happen if you are doing the wrong things, but sadly, even if they are doing the right things, they get their share on violence.