A portion of the San Bernardino (10) Freeway in East Los Angeles will be dedicated in memory of Joseph Gatto on Wednesday — the one-year anniversary of the still-unsolved killing of the 78-year-old former educator and father of Assemblyman Mike Gatto, D-Los Angeles.
The elder Gatto was fatally shot Nov. 12, 2013, in his home in the 2800 block of Bright Lane in Silver Lake. A $50,000 reward offered by the Los Angeles City Council in January for information that leads to the killer or killers remains in effect.
A section of the I-10 between the Long Beach (710) and Golden State (5) freeways will be called the Joseph Gatto Memorial Highway. The dedication ceremony will be held in front of a mural of Joseph Gatto at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, which Gatto co-founded in 1985.
Authorities said the senior Gatto died of a single gunshot wound and his body was discovered 24 hours after he was shot.
At the time the reward was offered, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said detectives were seeking a “person of interest,” described as a man 18 to 25 years old, who was involved in a car burglary and an assault with a deadly weapon the same day Gatto was killed.
Witnesses described the man as 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighing around 180 pounds. He wore a multi-colored hooded sweatshirt and tan pants, a tan backpack and carried a handgun.
Police said he threatened witnesses with death when he was caught breaking into a vehicle in the 2300 block of Moreno Drive on Nov. 12, 2013.
When the first of two witnesses confronted the him, he pointed a gun and threatened to kill her. When another witness confronted the him, he repeated the threat. He then fled on foot down public stairs on Tesla Avenue.
— City News Service