‘He’s going to be missed’

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Christopher Sloan was born early, and weighed only two pounds. His family did not know whether he would survive. He did.

At 16, while attending Centennial High School in Compton, his mother died of a heart attack.

His aunt, Yvonne Edwards, 55, said Sloan took his mother’s death hard. He was the only child, she said, and his father had left him at an early age.

Life went on for Christopher Sloan, though. Long enough for the aspiring music producer to father a son, attend college and land a job as a security guard, Edwards said.

But it came to an end July 14 when he was killed by gunfire. Sloan, 22, had just placed his 8-month-old son in his girlfriend’s car outside his home in the 2400 block of East 108th Street, near Watts.

He was about to kiss his girlfriend, Robyn Jackson, goodbye when a Latino man walked out of an alley behind his home and began shooting at Sloan, said officials with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Sloan ran to divert the bullets from his son and girlfriend, Edwards said. A second shooter standing at the intersection fatally shot him, she said. Sloan staggered to a neighbor’s house and collapsed on the sidewalk. Jackson, 21, said she ran to him.

‘He was trying to gasp for air,’ Jackson said. ‘I held his hand and I prayed to God.’

Sloan was pronounced dead at St. Francis Medical Center.

Sheriff’s homicide Det. Philip Ferguson said he had not confirmed the second shooter. Sloan had no criminal history, said Ferguson, who did not know the motive for the shooting.

‘He [Sloan] definitely knew people who were in a gang,’ Ferguson said. ‘But we don’t know if he was a specific target because of his association with a gang or whether he did something that caused him to get shot.’

Sloan, a budding rap artist, was attending college to become a music producer, Edwards said. He recently had been hired as a security guard, a job that gave him time to be with his son during the day, she added.

Three days after the shooting, relatives sat in the front yard. Family members began sharing stories of Sloan’s bad luck with cars and his goofy laugh.

‘He’s going to be missed,’ Edwards said. ‘But he’s with his mama now.’

Photo: Sloan, Jackson and their 8-month-old son. Bottom right, Balloons, candles and flowers were placed outside a neighbor’s home, where Sloan collapsed. Credit: Ruben Vives / Los Angeles Times