The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Tuesday renewed $10,000 rewards in hopes of solving three unrelated fatal shootings, one in Compton and two in Long Beach.
Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas recommended extending the reward for information leading to whoever fatally shot a 23-year-old former star football player at Compton High School and wounded two others. The offer was set to expire Sunday and will now be available for at least the next 90 days.
On April 16, 2013, Iyshun Dionte Tornero Bennett was attending a birthday barbecue with family and friends in the front yard of a Compton residence at 1734 W. 151st St. when someone opened fire from the street with a semiautomatic rifle, spraying the crowd with about three dozen shots shortly before midnight.
Bennett died in surgery at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. The two other victims, a 39-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy, survived their injuries.
Sheriff’s homicide Detective Ralph Hernandez said the teenage victim sustained significant intestinal injuries and faces a prolonged recovery.
None of the partygoers had gang ties, according to detectives, who believe someone in the neighborhood saw the suspects fleeing the area.
The city of Compton has also put up $10,000, doubling the reward to anyone who comes forward with information that leads to the killer’s arrest and conviction.
Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Ralph Hernandez at (323) 890-5500 or Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-8477.
Supervisor Don Knabe recommended extending rewards, set to expire shortly, in two Long Beach homicides.
About 4 a.m. on Jan 11, 2012, Lashown Fils was shot in the chest and left lying in the street near 14th Street and Cedar Avenue. The 26-year-old Long Beach man was pronounced dead at a hospital a few hours later.
Investigators do not believe Fils was a gang member and don’t have a motive for the shooting.
Anyone with information on who shot Fils is asked to call Long Beach Homicide Detectives Terri Hubert at (562) 570-5735 or Mark Bigel at (562) 570- 7244.
Seaborn Mason, 50, was standing in front of a convenience store in the 400 block of East South Street just after 11 p.m. on July 23, 2012, when someone shot him several times in the chest.
Investigators said several people were in the area at the time of the shooting, but no one reported hearing an argument or seeing a fight before the shots were fired.
Mason’s family members passed out fliers to alert neighbors to the reward when it was first approved, but no one has come forward with a description.
Long Beach homicide Detectives Malcolm Evans and Todd Johnson, at (562) 570-7247, are handling the Mason case.
—City News Service