Travelle Hamblett, 31

Travelle Hamblett, 31, and Markeith Wilson, 25, both black men, were shot in a drive-by shooting at 88th and Bandera streets in the Florence area about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 12.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said Hamblett and Wilson where standing on the sidewalk when two Latino men in a dark-colored vehicle pulled up next to them. One of the men in the car shot Hamblett and Wilson. Hamblett was pronounced dead at the scene. Wilson was taken by ambulance to St. Francis Medical Center, wher he was pronounced dead three days later.

Authorities said deputies later arrested two Latino men on suspicion of murder; their vehicle had been spotted in the area moments after the shooting.

That same day about 11:30 p.m., a mile away, Marco Gonzalez, 16, a Latino youth, was shot and killed at Florence and Graham avenues. Gonzalez, listed above, was the third person to have been shot that day in the Florence area.

Anyone with information about the shootings can call detectives from the sheriff's homicide bureau at (323) 890-5500. Callers can remain anonymous.

(You have reached the end of the weekly listing of homicide victims in Los Angeles County, Aug. 12-17, 2008.)

—Ruben Vives / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Ekisha Wilson]

They did not only take my friend they took my husband.(Markeith Wilson)

[jaevaunghie cramer]

travelle was my uncle and i loved him with all my heart.
all he wanted was to see me graduate from high school,
and now he'll never get to. those murders didn't just take the lives of two innocent men, they took a part of our family that can NEVER be replaced. i love you uncle

[A.Garcia]

Well.... I'm a latino and my mother lives a couple of blocks away from here. I lived in this hood for about 25 years before I moved out and all the 25 years I have had a really good relations ship with Black people, which i really cared and continue to care for. Blacks are so close to me as I have a really good brother in law and nephews that are black. My prayers for these guys and their families, whether they were up to no good or not. No one deserves to go out like this. Let's fight the cancer, Aids, other deadly diseases, not each other.

May we not forget... There are black angels!!!

[Ms. Black]

You will be missed Pint and I will keep your family in prayer.

[Peace]

I live in this area where the shooting took place, it is sad that several lives where destroyed by senseless violence. But it is historic that blacks and latino have been feuding over the pass 2 decades over various things from turf to drug selling. This issues between blacks and hispanic hopefully will come to an end, because families and neighbors hoods are being destroyed. It is not a conflict with all blacks and latino only the gangs. The two young men that lost their life, I pray that you did not suffer, and to your family I pray that GOD will have his healing and consoling hands upon in this time of sorrow. God bless you and please people stop the senseless violence.

[mixmastrshake]

rip fellas luv yah

[mixmastrshake]

f-13 are racially motivated, what i dont get is others know this?

[A white guy]

Blame the police for not stopping crime and then complain for them pulling people over? Usually the police use traffic stops to run people through the computer and search them to keep the streets safe.

[What gives?]

Biz,

I don't think the white man is responsible for these so called divide and conquer tactics when 2 Latino men shot these 2 black men on their own volition without the help of the white man.

And like the poster below me was saying, this is just another attempts by the Florencia 13 gang that's stirring up tensions between blacks and Latinos. Let's attack the true problem and not a homicide blog.

[syscom3]

ThaBiz, read the reason behind the Times policy of listing the race of the deceased, and of the suspects.

Before we as a society can make informed decisions, we need honest facts to ponder over.

Homicides are to serious matter to worry whether someone will be upset over the reporting of the facts. I would even bet that one the main reasons the black and latino area's are hit hard by violence, is because of the inability of the community to honestly deal with its problems, and to blame "the white man" for all of their self inflicted problems.

[black woman]

I stay n the area and it was racially motivated. I know it for a fact. Aint no white man to blame. Blacks and latinos need to unite but this has nothing to do with any other race. Me personally I blame the police. They can ride around the streets. Every street with the exception of the sts where many of these gangbangers stay. I just don't get how they let this happen. They wanna pull ppl over for half stopping at a stop sign rather than watch out for these florencia members. I know a lot about one of these stories an its really stupid because so many random INNOCENT people get killed. Never the person that committed the crime. This was indeed retaliation

[Truth hurts sometimes]

Biz,

The Times isn't trying to stir up anything. Florencia-13 *does* have a history of racially motivated gangbanging and racial intimidation in the Florence-Firestone area. It's well documented.

Law-abiding citizens of all races typically don't behave this way. But if Florencia-13 is up to their old tricks again, the residents of the area, as well as law enforcement, need to know about it.

[ThaBiz]

Come on. See that's the white man trying to create tensions between blacks and latinos. It goes like this: Two black men were killed and one injured by two latino men and a latino man was killed one mile a way. The two incidents are 12 hours apart, to the minute! Wooow! Stfu.
You should just write that 2 people were killed and 2 suspects were apprehended and that a 3rd person was killed in the vicinity.
We BLACKS and LATINOS must unite. My best friend is HISPANIC, I am BLACK . Stop the Sh@$%t talking about this so called racial tension.
Honestly, This is Shi$#%tty journalism. Shame on you LA times. Shame on you.