The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved or renewed rewards Tuesday in hopes of tracking down the assailants in a 2018 fatal shooting in Compton and a 2016 gang attack in Lynwood in which a teenage girl was killed by a stray bullet.
Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas recommended a $10,000 reward in the killing of 43-year-old Demetrius Bracken, who was gunned down about 1:35 p.m. on Dec. 30, 2018, while saying goodbye to family in Compton.
Bracken was standing with his 26-year-old nephew, Devion Cox, outside another family member’s home in the 2000 block of North Parmalee Avenue when a man stepped out of the rear passenger door of a black Chevrolet Tahoe parked at the corner of Parmalee and 134th Street. The gunman walked up and fired several shots before jumping back into the SUV, which sped off east on 134th.
Both Bracken and Cox were struck by bullets and taken by neighbors to St. Francis Medical Center, where Bracken died. His nephew’s injuries were not life-threatening, according to Ridley-Thomas.
Detectives believe neighborhood witnesses may have seen or know the gunman or others who were sitting in the Tahoe, and are hoping that a reward may encourage residents to come forward.
Ridley-Thomas also asked his colleagues to renew a $20,000 reward — set to expire Tuesday — in the killing of 16-year-old Danah Rojo-Rivas, who was shot on Nov. 23, 2016. Two residents have contributed additional funds to raise the reward to $30,000.
Danah was sitting in the back seat of her family’s Ford Mustang with her dog on her lap, riding home with her mother and 18-year-old brother from an evening function at the New Horizons Missionary Baptist Church. While the Mustang was stopped at a red light on eastbound Euclid Avenue at Long Beach Boulevard, the family was caught in the line of fire of a car-to-car shooting.
The intended victim, a passenger in a burgundy Saturn SUV, jumped out of the vehicle and ran behind the Mustang. The gunman continued to fire and a stray bullet pierced the rear of the Mustang and fatally struck the teen. Her mother and brother were not injured, but the family dog, a white poodle mix, bolted out of the car and was killed by oncoming traffic.
Anyone with additional information on either crime was urged to call the Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500 or Crime Stoppers, 800-222-TIPS (8477).