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Thomas Eugene Pearson Jr., a 29-year-old black man, was shot in the head and died July 20 in the hospital. Pearson was shot at the corner of Leimert Boulevard and Sutro Avenue July 16 in Leimert Park, according to the Los Angeles County coroner's office.
Pearson, of Compton, was found on a bus bench about 4 a.m. after someone saw him and called 911, said Ed Winter, a spokesman for the coroner's office.
David Isaiah Medina, a 45-year-old Latino, was shot in the 1700 block of South Mesa Street in San Pedro on Tuesday, July 21, according to the Los Angeles County coroner's office.
Ed Winter, a spokesman for the coroner's office, said the incident was a walk-up shooting. Medina died from blunt force head trauma as well as a gunshot wound to the chest, Winter said.
The shooting happened at midnight, and he was pronounced dead at 11:15 p.m. the same day, nearly 24 hours after he was shot, Winter said.
Kevin Polinskey a 29-year-old white man, was stabbed in the 1600 block of East Avenue I in Lancaster on Thursday, July 23, according to the Los Angeles County coroner's office.
Polinskey, of Palmdale, got into an argument in the parking lot of a trailer park which escalated and led to his stabbing, said Ed Winter, a spokesman for the coroner's office.
The incident happened about 9:30 p.m. and he died at the hospital at 11:44 p.m., Winter said.
Akop Aduryan, a 46-year-old man whom the Los Angeles County coroner's office identified as Armenian, was shot several times July 23 in the 7500 block of Goodland Avenue in Sun Valley.
Los Angeles Police Det. Kirk Patrick said witnesses told police that Aduryan, of Van Nuys, was involved in an argument with a few other Armenian men when he was shot. Patrick did not know what the argument was about or if Aduryan knew the men who shot him.
Patrick said the shooting happened in a dark, secluded area at 11:10 p.m. Witnesses were unable to provide descriptions of the suspects, and Patrick said he knows of no motive in the killing and has few leads to go on.
-- Anthony Pesce in North Hollywood
Photo: A street memorial for Akop Aduryan, a 46-year-old Armenian man who was shot in the 7500 block of Goodland Avenue in North Hollywood. Credit: Anthony Pesce / Los Angeles Times
In recent days, several readers commenting on different victims have questioned why the Homicide Report includes race. Some have suggested that the blog's authors must be ignorant or are in need of more education. Frequent readers of the Homicide Report know that from its inception the report gave the race of victims, as well as those suspected and/or convicted of the homicides. It seems worth revisiting the reasons that decision was made.
The following is from the Homicide Report's FAQ, first published by the blog's originator, Jill Leovy, in February 2007, the month after the report was launched:
The Homicide Report includes information on race or ethnicity in its weekly lists of homicide victims issued by the Los Angeles County coroner, as well as the name, gender and age of each victim, and the time, place and manner of death. A number of readers have asked why race is included. Some have criticized the practice.
Racial information was once routinely included in news stories about crimes, but in recent decades, newspapers and other media outlets stopped mentioning suspects' or victims' race or ethnicity because of public criticism. Newspapers came to embrace the idea that such information is irrelevant to the reporting of crimes, and may unfairly stigmatize racial groups.
The Homicide Report departs from this rule in the interest of presenting the most complete and accurate demographic picture of who is at risk of dying from homicide in Los Angeles County.
Race and ethnicity, like age and gender, are stark predictors of homicide risk. Blacks are vastly more likely to die from homicide than whites, and Latinos somewhat more likely. Black men, in particular, are extraordinarily vulnerable: They are 4% of this country's population, but, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, they represented 35% of homicide victims nationally in 2004. Local numbers mirror these national disparities. According to an analysis for The Times by county health officials of homicide data between 1991 and 2002, Latino men ages 20 to 24 were five times more likely than white men the same age to die, and black men were 16 times more likely.
The Homicide Report recognizes the peril of dehumanizing victims by reducing their lives and deaths to a few scant facts--particularly racial designations which provide only the roughest markers of ancestry and history. But given the magnitude of difference in homicide risk along racial and ethnic lines--and the extremity of suffering which homicide inflicts on subsets of the population--we opt here to present information which lays bare racial and ethnic contours of the problem so conspicuous in the coroner's data. The goal is to promote understanding, and honor a basic journalistic principle: Tell the truth about who suffers.
As you read The Homicide Report, keep in mind the racial breakdown of the population of Los Angeles County. We are, according to the Census Bureau, about 47% Latino, 29% white, 12% Asian and 9% black. If homicide were distributed equally among racial groups, not quite half the victims included in The Homicide Report's weekly listings from the coroner would be Latino, and fewer than one in 10 would be black.
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Gerson Rodriguez was shot to death in the parking lot of a Burger King in the 1000 block of North Western Avenue in East Hollywood about 1 a.m. Sunday, July 12. It was his 33rd birthday, and his family had planned a small celebration for him later that day.
Rodriguez, a Latino, was born in Guatemala, and when he was a child he moved to the United States with his brother, sister and mother.
His father had died and his mother — who had previously lived in the U.S. — hoped to start a new life in California, said Evelyn Medina, 38, Rodriguez’ sister.
Rodriguez was raised by his mother and sister in their home in Sylmar. He attended Kennedy High School but left before graduating. He later earned a GED.
Medina said her brother then did odd jobs and took classes off and on at Mission College until enlisting in the Navy in his late twenties.
“He was having trouble finding himself, so he tried a bunch of things,” Media said. “He didn’t know what to do, so he joined the Navy."
Since his childhood Rodriguez had dreamed of joining the military. In Guatemala, Medina said, it is common for children to dream about becoming U.S. Marines, but she and her mother never imagined he would enlist. In fact, he kept his decision to join the Navy a secret from his family.
“We only found out about it on the day he left,” Medina said. “If [his mother and I] knew we would have protested day and night.… Then I changed my mind. He became more like an adult rather than the child we used to pamper a lot.”
Dae'von Bailey, a 6-year-old black child, died July 23. Dae'von was found in the 800 block of East 87th Place in Green Meadows.
His injuries suggested blows or other trauma over an extended period of time, said Lt. Vincent Neglia of the Los Angeles Police Department's Abused Child Section. Police are searching for the boy's stepfather, Marcas Fisher, 36, as a "person of interest" in the case.
Dae'von's death appears to fit a pattern in which children have been killed after their cases had come to the attention of county child welfare officials.
Department of Family Services Director Trish Ploehn, who since taking office two years ago has made better accountability of social workers a top priority, said she's launched "a full and comprehensive internal investigation."
"This was a tragic and senseless death," Ploehn said. "I've had a full team of people looking at it all day."
On Friday, neighbors on South 87th Place tried to make sense of what had happened to Dae'von, whom they described as a sweet, well-behaved child. Relatives found him dead on the floor after being alerted by a frantic call from an unidentified person in his home. Fisher was not in the house when officers arrived. Neglia said that Fisher has "no history of violent crime" but that he does have a history of property crimes. The coroner's office had not determined the cause of death.
The county official, who was not authorized to comment on the case and therefore spoke on condition of anonymity, said the dozen calls reporting abuse or neglect occurred at various times in Dae'von's life. The source said county officials had opened an investigation after each call. But it remained unclear Friday whether social workers had concluded that abuse had occurred or whether the county had an active case file on Dae'von at the time of his death.
The boy's mother, Tylette Davis, 28, said Fisher had been with her when she was pregnant with Dae'von, but he wasn't the boy's biological father. She separated from him some time ago.
Davis said she never witnessed Fisher abuse Dae'von, but she said that about three years ago, Fisher "whipped" one of her older sons until "his butt was all red."
Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, whose district includes South Los Angeles, called on the Board of Supervisors on Friday to appoint an independent investigator to thoroughly review Dae'von's case. Thomas said the probe should include looking at the boy's contact with Family Services and any other government agencies to identify any breakdowns that might have contributed to his death. The inquiry, if approved, would be the first of its kind since 2006.
"We need to get to the bottom of this," Ridley-Thomas said. "To have a county that has a stain on its image, to have children dying under these circumstances, is very, very difficult to bear.... The public has a right to have confidence that we are taking care of these matters competently."
The Times had previously reported that 14 children who had been evaluated by the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services died last year. Some of those deaths involved breakdowns in the system in which some agencies knew about potential abuse but had failed to share the information with other agencies. In other cases, investigators found that poor decisions by social workers had contributed to the deaths.
The county Board of Supervisors has repeatedly been warned by auditors and other experts that the child welfare system lacks efficient ways to share information about risks faced by children. After the reports in The Times, the board last month voted to approve a new effort to ensure that agencies share information.
--Hector Becerra and Garrett Therolf
For full times coverage see: South L.A. boy died after previous reports of abuse
Photos: Top: Dae'von Bailey was found beaten to death in his South L.A. home. “He smiled when he would see me,” a neighbor said (Los Angeles Times). Bottom: Stuffed animals and votive candles sit at the front door of the house where Dae’von Bailey died (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times).
Lily Burk, a 17-year old white girl, was found slain in her car in a parking lot surrounded by warehouses near downtown Los Angeles on the morning of Saturday, July 25, authorities said.
Burk, a student at Oakwood School in North Hollywood, had left her Los Feliz home Friday afternoon about 2:30 p.m to run an errand. More than an hour after picking up exams for her mother, who is an attorney and an adjunct professor at Southwestern University School of Law on Wilshire Boulevard, Burk made separate calls to her parents.
She asked them how to get cash using her credit card at an ATM, police said. Her parents told her to come home.
When she had not returned by 5 p.m., her parents became worried. They contacted Los Angeles police that night. Her body was found in the front passenger seat of her black Volvo shortly after 6 a.m. on Saturday.
Sgt. Miguel Arana of the Los Angeles Police Department said there were signs of a struggle inside the car. Burk appeared to have head injuries from striking the passenger side of the front windshield, but the car did not show signs of having been in a crash, he said.
Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz said that the cause of death appeared to be blunt-force trauma and that there was "strong evidence" that Burk was killed by 5 p.m. Friday. He declined to disclose more details.
Updated 11:30 a.m. Monday: Los Angeles police arrested Charlie Samuel, a 50-year old black man in connection with Burk's slaying. Sources, who spoke to The Times on the condition that they not be named because the investigation was ongoing, said detectives believed the motive was robbery and that Burk appeared to have been abducted from that area.
Samuel was arrested at 5:30 p.m. Friday on suspicion of possessing drugs and drug paraphernalia on 3rd Street in downtown Los Angeles -- at least 12 hours before Lily's body was discovered nearby in her black Volvo at 5th and Alameda streets. While in custody, he was arrested again Sunday at 9 p.m. in connection with the homicide, according to sheriff's jail records. He is being held without bail.
-- Margot Roosevelt and Ruben Vives
Read more: Girl, 17, found slain in car near downtown L.A.
Police continue search for killer of 17-year old Lily Burk
Suspect in Lily Burk's slaying has history of violent crimes, drug problems, police say
Photo: Lily Burk. Credit: Sarah Faulk
[Update: Authorities identified the woman who killed Lars Sanchez before taking her own life as his mother Yolanda Tijerina, 43. Tijerina had come to the attention of Los Angeles County social workers nine months earlier when the principal at her son's preschool called the child abuse hotline to report her erratic behavior.
Read more Times' coverage about this case: Boy's death shows weaknesses of L.A. County's child welfare system]
Lars Sanchez, a 4-year-old Latino boy, was stabbed to death July 18 in the 300 block of Vista Place in Highland Park, officials said.
Sanchez was apparently killed by a woman, who was also found dead in the home with her wrists slit, authorities said.
The woman, who has not been identified, and child were pronounced dead at the scene, a home on a narrow alley across the street from Garvanza Park, said Los Angeles Police Department Officer Rosario Herrera.
-- Ari Bloomekatz
Photo: A Highland Park neighbor of Yolanda Tijerina reacts upon hearing the news of the deaths of Tijerina and her son, Lars Sanchez. Lars had been decapitated and Tijerina had a knife wound to her wrist. Credit: Christina House/For The Times
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