15-year-old fatally shot during theft of his bicycle; gunfire wounds girl standing nearby [Updated]

Homicide detectives are searching for two men who stole a bicycle from a 15-year-old boy in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood, then fatally shot him and wounded an 11-year-old girl.

Miguel Machuca of Los Angeles was riding his bike with a friend on North Mission Road near North Broadway about 7:30 p.m. on Saturday when he was approached by two men, according to Los Angeles Police Sgt. Kristin Hagerty and a Los Angeles County coroner’s investigator.

After demanding the boys’ bikes, one of the men opened fire and shot Machuca in the chest, Hagerty said. The gunfire also struck the back of a girl standing nearby.

The two victims were taken to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. Machuca was pronounced dead at the hospital; the girl, whose name was not given, was in stable condition.

[Updated at 12:40 p.m.: Since January 2007, at least five homicides have taken place within a mile of Saturday's fatal shooting, according to data collected for The Times' interactive Homicide Report.]

-- Corina Knoll

Comments

[jay]

This is why we need to stop illegal immigrants from entering this country. I bet the shooters were born from Illegals!

[fedupvoter]

crime is supposed to be down. go figure. where is all the police we paid for? behind some desk or doing things other than patrolling my streets. right on mayor. crime is not down because you keep hiring police officers. crime is down across the nation.

[Tahler]

Ugh this is terrible. I sure hope they find those responsible for this awful crime!

[Chris Miss]

Monsters in our midst. These scum deserve the death penalty.

[Chris Miss]

Who gets killed riding their bike? It's insanity.

[Luvheat]

When I grew up in LA it was violent but mainly guys fighting after school in the park. And that was Paramount Junior High...I can't even imagine what's it's like now...killing kids for bikes, sneakers etc...it just shows the level that city kids and adults have sunk. 15 and 11 year olds for a BIKE?!!! my god

[luvpolitics1]

we killin people over bikes now #really

[ambrosiathe1]

How deplorable....that poor child and his grieving family.
I know times are hard now, and that may drive some to commiting certain actions out of desperation. However, this act is so disgustingly brazen, I cannot find the words.
Yeah, City of Los Angeles, state of CALIFORNIA, now is NOT the time to reduce the number of peace officers patrolling our streets. Now is the time to get with the program and get our society rolling again-before more tragedy fill our streets and our hearts yet again.
Otherwise, it's time for us rally and rebel to reclaim our homes, lives, and loved ones!
Overpaid and underworked Schmucks in political office: the choice is yours-make it a good one.

[confused]

At what point in their development do these young black and latino men become killers? At what age are they already lost to a culture of fear and hate?

[Oflife]

This is awful, but not surprising. England is starting to become like the US with regards crime. I just read about a car hijacking in London - a first. And more and more crimes here are accompanied by extremes of violence. And you know what the connection always is? Liberal local authorities who just love the sort of values that decimate the family unit therefore breeding hardened criminals. The sooner both countries learn that draconian attitudes to crime work, the sooner innocent people will stop being killed or injured.

[Eddie]

If these morons are caught, they should be placed in front of a big tall wall & shot!!

[Greg Minor]

Why do we have all these problems in LA's beautiful multicultural neighborhoods?

Oh wait, most of the city is now monoculture. Coincidentally, most of the city is also quite ugly and dangerous.

How much lower can you go after grown men murder a 15 year old and shoot an 11 year old girl over what must have been a cheap Target bike.

[bob cuomo]

These two guys are cowards and punks. There was no reason to shoot the kid. I hope they're caught and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

[Eric]

Greg Minor and Jay, this is what I love about tragic stories like these -- they always bring out the racist morons like you. Next time there's a news story about a white serial killer or white rampage shooter (and those two classes are almost always white males), will you post something about their culture, or place of birth, or residency status? Of course not, because you're racist morons and that absolves you of any need for logic or thoughtful dialogue.

[Cyndy Greger]

to CONFUSED who wrote "At what point in their development do these young black and latino men become killers? At what age are they already lost to a culture of fear and hate? "

The point in their development where their parents didn't care enough to mold them into fine, upstanding young men who have respect for others.

Don't tell me this is an economic issue, that the family lived there because they couldn't afford to live somewhere else.

The state, country and WORLD is full of places where you can live for very little, yet parents continue to settle (or simply not move) away from places where there is a strong gun culture and violence outside their door. Of course it's sad on both sides, the parents who didn't bring their kids up right...in a safe environment...and the parents who brought their kids up right (the ones riding their bikes) who ALSO were not in a safe environment.

The overriding principles are founded on parental responsibility AND intelligence. By intelligence I don't mean education. People can be intelligent and be uneducated. All the parents and the gunmen involved were neither intelligent OR educated. That's why they still lived somewhere so very unsafe. Sad that the new generation of kids (the ones who were shot) are paying the price.
It's beyond belief that this continues to happen.

[John Doe]

Greg Minor who are you to say that his bike came from target. You do not know this kid. For your information it was not a target bike. It was a nice bike that was given to him as well as other kids by donations to the community. All of you people are quick to judge people just by what the press reports but have no idea who a person really is. But I really do hope these 2 guys are caught and put to death. What kind of coward shots a kid over a bike. The press reported it wrong, Miguel was shot in the back as he tried to get away and the girl was an innocent bystander. RIP Miguel you will be missed, it was sad to see how your sisters cried when they found out the sad news. There was a lot of tears and sad hearts throughout the gym when the news of your passing was broke out. Miguel was 15 going on 16 next month...

[Greg]

More police officers on the city payroll WILL NOT stop these things from happening. The same crimes will occur, but will just result in more officers on the scene standing around after the fact.

It takes a community coming together and getting involved to clean things up. If you have no communication with neighbors or choose to stay out of the way then you will have what you see right here. "Neighborhood Watch" programs need to be put in place, but it requires that people care enough to maintain the program and it requires involvement from law enforcement to respond when these organizations call on them to do so.

[WITS]

This is the type of news story that makes me want to weep. Murder and mayhem of course have been around as long as there have been human beings on this planet but it does seem like things are taking a turn for the worse. Or is it just that the media focus on bad news because they know it attracts readers and thus advertising dollars?

Is the image of carefree kids riding bikes simply an idealized Kodak moment that was never truly real? Or have things become uglier indeed? I somehow doubt that a teenage boy would have been shot over a bike 20, 30, 40, 50, etc. years ago. Now it seems children in poor neighborhoods (spare me the political correctness - poor is poor, no need to sugar coat it) are living a nightmare resembling a violent video game or Hollywood film where they get killed over a bicycle.

[rikinla]

Im hispanic immigrant, came here as a kid, grew up in East Hollywood, graduated college, avoided getting into gangs, avoided getting into drugs, avoided dropping out of school, granted, in the 80's things weren't as bad, guns weren't so prevalent, but the school system wasn't as taxed and overburdened, survived some awful teachers, had some great teachers, and through it all, the one thing that kept me in the straight and narrow, that kept me from getting into major trouble was my parents. Both my parents were educated, and from early on expected me to do well in school, and succeed. I think most kids can survive and thrive, even if a system is not perfect, but it all starts at home. Unfortunately, most immigrants parents are poor and uneducated, with very low expectations from themselves and their children, many come from highly dysfunctional families, alcoholic abusive parents, and although a few kids survive their terrible childhoods unscathed, most are just filled with anger, fear, feelings of inadequacy, low self-esteem, etc, etc. It starts at home people, and some people shouldn't have children, but they are too ignorant to use contraceptives, some realize they can be "rewarded" by the state the more children they produce. My family was poor, my parents had to work hard, low-paying jobs to survive, never once asking for welfare or abusing the system, as many of our Eastern European neighbors did, driving cadillacs in furs, paying with food stamps, getting welfare, even financial aid at lacc, for classes they never went to, but I digress. The point is, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

[William]

Killing over a bike, how lame can these kids get?

[Joe]

Some say that Mexico is dangerous?

What about here in own back yards. Killing a young man for a bike, for God sakes, these criminals are animals indeed.

[Mercedes]

I don't live too far from where this happened and I can tell you, this area is not good. It's not as bad as the more infamous areas in L.A., but it's probably not somewhere you'd want to live if you could choose.

There's usually no homicides but I can't say I'm not surprised. However, I do sometimes hear police helicopters and police sirens going code three more than I'd like to.

Lincoln Heights is full of poor people from mostly third world countries. Therefore, you're going to get third world people, with third world mentalities, and probably no education or meaningful/high-paying jobs. I'm not going to say which countries, but most readers here probably could guess. Many parts of L.A. are becoming like this, it's sad.

It's just upsetting to hear about this kind of thing so close to where I live. One day though, I will move out of here and that goal grows closer with each day.

[John]

That's just horrible and chilling. Condolences to the boy's family.

I ride my bike in the area a lot and have never felt threatened or unsafe. I'll feel more nervous next time I'm in the area, for sure, but crime is down overall and it's a freak thing that you shouldn't plan your life around.

[BLINDR]

sorry to hear all this

[Muir Woods]

God bless Miguel and this 11 year old girl. Desperate times produce desperate actions. But this makes us so sad. 15 years old and riding a bike... how many of us rode our bikes 30 years ago with no fear or idea of being shot or accosted? An occasional weirdo but .... this sort of thing never entered my consciousness.

You want your children to be self reliant and capable, you want them to be free to roam the world of their neighborhood, city; then this ugly underbelly of humanity creeps in and ruins the landscape.