Inglewood: Antonio Tavarez, 25

Antonio Tavarez, a 25-year-old Latino, was shot and killed  Sunday, Nov. 1, in the 400 block of Edgewood Street in Inglewood, authorities said.

Tavarez and Claudia Marroquin, 23, were standing with a small group of people outside a home when shots were fired from a passing car, said Inglewood Police Sgt. Mike Bolliger. Tavarez was struck in the head, and the woman was hit in the chest.

Bolliger said the suspect or suspects fired randomly into the group.

Tavarez and Marroquin were taken to separate hospitals, where they died.

Bolliger said detectives believe the shooting was gang-related. He asked that anyone with information about the killings call the department’s homicide detectives at (310) 412-5246.

-- Jack Leonard

Follow The Homicide Report on Twitter @latimeshomicide.

Map: The location where Antonio Tavarez was shot. Credit: Google Maps

Inglewood: Claudia Marroquin, 23

Claudia Marroquin, a 23-year-old white woman, was shot and killed Sunday, Nov. 1, in the 400 block of Edgewood Street in Inglewood, authorities said.

Marroquin and Antonio Tavarez, a 25-year-old Latino, were standing with a small group of people outside a home when shots were fired from a passing car, said Inglewood Police Sgt. Mike Bolliger. Tavarez was struck in the head, and Marroquin was hit in the chest.

Bolliger said the suspect or suspects fired randomly into the group. The victims were taken to separate local hospitals, where they died.

Bolliger said detectives believe the shooting was gang-related. He asked that anyone with information about the killings call the department’s homicide detectives at (310) 412-5246.

-- Jack Leonard

Follow The Homicide Report on Twitter @latimeshomicide.

Map: The location where Antonio Tavarez was shot. Credit: Google Maps

Inglewood: David Mikes, 28

David Mikes, a 28-year-old black man, was shot and killed on Thursday, Oct. 15,  in the 100 block of West 64th Place in Inglewood, authorities said.

Mikes was found in the carport of an apartment building  about 10:44 p.m. after Inglewood police received a shots fired call, authorities said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Inglewood Det. Jack Aranda said there were few witnesses to the shooting, but he did have a potential lead on the case.

Aranda said he was still investigating the motive in the killing. A news release from the Inglewood Police Department called the killing gang-related, but Aranda said it also could have stemmed from a dispute.

-- Anthony Pesce

Follow The Homicide Report on Twitter @latimeshomicide.

Map: The location where David Mikes was shot. Credit: Google Maps

Inglewood: Victor Rosales, 25

Victor Rosales, a 25-year-old Latino, was shot and killed Tuesday, Oct. 6, in the 3900 block of West 112th Street in Inglewood, authorities said.

Witnesses told Inglewood police detectives that Rosales was sitting in his parked car when two people approached him and shot him, according to a police statement. 

Though the statement said authorities initially believed that robbery was the motive in the killing, Detective Kevin Lane said they were still investigating other possibilities. Lane said Rosales was affiliated with a gang. The criminal complaint filed against his alleged killers charges that they had planned the killing and lay in wait for Rosales.

Ed Winter, a spokesman for the coroner's office, said Rosales was shot while sitting in the passenger's side of the car. The driver took him to a friend's house and called 911, Winter said.

Rosales was shot at about 2:35 p.m. He was later taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead at 3:27 p.m. 

Two people have been charged with killing Rosales: Jorge Gonzales, a 36-year-old Latino, and Erica Estrada, a 24-year-old Latina. They are scheduled to be arraigned at Inglewood Municipal Court on Oct. 28.

-- Anthony Pesce

 

Follow The Homicide Report on Twitter @latimeshomicide.

 

Map: The location where Victor Rosales was shot. Credit: Google Maps

Inglewood: Cory Smith, 29

Cory Smith, a 29-year-old black man, died Thursday, Oct. 1, after he was shot at Arbor Vitae Street and 10th Avenue in Inglewood, authorities said.

Smith was standing on the sidewalk near a parked car when several people approached him and one or more people shot him several times, police said.

Smith was shot just before midnight Sept. 30 and was pronounced dead at the scene seven minutes after midnight, said Ed Winter, a spokesman for the L.A. County coroner's office.

Anyone with information about this killing is asked to call the Inglewood Police tip line at (888) 41-CRIME or Inglewood homicide detectives at (310) 412-5246.

-- Anthony Pesce

Follow The Homicide Report on Twitter @latimeshomicide.

Map: The location where Cory Smith was shot. Credit: Google Maps

Dispatch: 'I put some water on my socks and tried to wipe up the blood. I wiped up as much blood as I could' [Updated]

After her son was shot and killed Sunday, Sept. 20, Kathryn Harris was so consumed with grief she did not eat for days.

“My arms and fingers are starting to take on a skeletal appearance,” she said. “I can’t eat and I can’t sleep. And I cry.”

Kevin Harris, a 21-year old black man, had been sitting in his parked car in front of a music studio on the 3300 block of West 118th Place in Inglewood when he was fatally wounded, authorities said.

His mother wept as she described the phone call that came that night from her son’s father. She spoke of her frantic trip to the studio where the aspiring music composer and producer had been shot several times shortly after 8 p.m.

“I put some water on my socks and tried to wipe up the blood. I wiped up as much blood as I could,” she said. “I got down on my hands and knees and used my hands like they were a broom to sweep up the glass.”

Inglewood Police Department officials have described the shooter as a possible gang member. Harris, however, was not involved in gangs and had no criminal history, said Inglewood police Det. Jose Becerra.

The night her son was killed, Kathryn Harris said, she knew something was wrong. She texted him and called him repeatedly and there was no response. Then, she said, she got the call from his father.

Harris was pronounced dead at the hospital about 40 minutes after the shooting. No witnesses have come forward and police have not named any suspects in his killing, authorities said.

“I was kind of on the verge of suicide,” his mother said. “But there’s no way I would do that because then I would never see God. I would never see my son.”

Inglewood: Kevin Robert Harris II, 21

Kevin Robert Harris II, a 21-year-old black man, died on Sunday, Sept. 20, after he was shot in the 3300 block of West 11th Place in Inglewood, according to the Los Angeles County coroner.

Harris, of Westchester, was sitting in his car when a vehicle pulled up next to him and someone shot him, said Ed Winter, a spokesman for the coroner's office.

The incident happened at about 8 p.m., and Harris was taken to a hospital, where he died at 8:41 p.m., Winter said.

-- Anthony Pesce

Follow The Homicide Report on Twitter @latimeshomicide.

Map: The location where Kevin Robert Harris II was shot. Credit: Google Maps

Dispatch: 'I wanted him to do beautiful things with his life'

Jasson Estrada made friends easily. He was friends with the smart kids, the kids who ditched school and the kids who were in gangs.

When some of those friends wanted to initiate him into a local gang, his sister told him that if he joined a gang, he would be asked to do “bad things.” He resisted their efforts.

But on Tuesday, May 26, authorities said it was Estrada's friendship with gang members that led to his death. Estrada, an 18-year old Latino, was shot multiple times in the chest just after 7 p.m. in what Inglewood police Det. Lloyd Waters describes as a gang shooting at La Lumbre, a taco shop near 107th Street and Prairie Avenue.

Police have no suspects in the shooting. Their primary witness, Adrian Alejandro Dimas-Maya, a 23-year old Latino, who had gone with Estrada to La Lumbre, was found dead four days later in a car near Castaic Lake. His body was burned, wrapped in a rug and left in the trunk of a car.

On the evening that Estrada was shot he was taken to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.

He was the first of his siblings to be born in the United States. Before he was born, his mother, Santos Hercules, emigrated from El Salvador with his older brother and two sisters. She had high hopes for her second son.

In the living room of her Inglewood home months after his death, Hercules caresses Estrada's photo and weeps at the mention of his name. "I wanted him to do beautiful things with his life," she said in Spanish.

Inglewood: Otis Owen Williams, 32

Otis Owen Williams, a 32-year-old black man, was shot several times in the 2600 block of West 109th Street in Inglewoodand died Friday, Aug. 21, according to Los Angeles County coroner's officials.

Williams was sitting on his front porch when he was approached by a person and shot several times, said Ed Winter, a spokesman for the coroner's office.

The incident occurred about 2:55 p.m., and Williams was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead at 4:32 p.m., Winter said.

-- Anthony Pesce

Inglewood: Yaw Obenge-Amponsan, 32

Yaw Obenge-Amponsan, a 32-year-old black man, was shot July 3 at 11:14 p.m. in the 500 block of East 97th Street in Inglewood. He died in a hospital July 12 at 4:02 a.m., according to the Los Angeles County coroner's office.

Obenge-Amponsan was in a garage with friends when two people entered and started shooting, said Craig Harvey, a spokesman for the coroner's office. All of the people in the garage were shot, but the others did not sustain life-threatening injuries, Harvey said.

-- Anthony Pesce

Inglewood: Crystal Crawford, 24

Crystal Crawford, a 24-year-old black woman, was shot in the head at 95th Street and 8th Avenue in Inglewood on May 31. She died in the hospital at 10:47 a.m. on Monday, June 1, according to the Los Angeles County coroner's office.

Crawford, of Los Angeles, was sitting in the driver's seat of a parked car with three passengers, said Ed Winter, a spokesman for the coroner's office. Another car pulled up alongside Crawford's, and someone from the other car yelled something at Crawford and began shooting, Winter said.

Crawford was taken to a hospital and died, the other three occupants survived the incident. The killing may be gang-related, Winter said.

-- Anthony Pesce