On Sunday, a 16-year-old boy was shot and killed in the Westmont area of Los Angeles. According to ABC 7, authorities responded to a report of a young man pointing a handgun at a motorist, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department say deputies saw the armed teen who matched the suspect's description.
"When the deputies went to contact him, they saw he had a handgun tucked in the waistband of his pants," per the sheriff's statement. The teen allegedly fled, and a foot pursuit ensued. However, as of Monday morning, a weapon has yet to be found. One least one neighbor disputed the account that the boy fired shots at deputies.
“Weren’t nobody shooting back and forth," one neighbor said, according to CBS Los Angeles. “They was just shooting.”
Weber, who was the father of a 9-month-old daughter, was killed Sunday evening around 8:20 p.m. where an angry crowd gathered at the scene of the shooting. His mother was heard screaming after learning her son was dead and another man had been detained for yelling at deputies, according to CBS Los Angeles. Weber's family were also angry because they said his body had been left uncovered on the street for hours.
According to an Instagram post by Patrisse Cullors-Brignac, the young man was killed in his own neighborhood. The teen was struck several times in the upper body and pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.
An angry crowd swarms the scene where a 16-year-old boy was shot & killed by LA Co sheriff deputies last night who said he had a gun & ran. Neighbors say they heard a barrage of gunfire on 107th St @CBSLA
pic.twitter.com/YrMQ8UaM2C— JASMINE VIEL (@jasmineviel) February 5, 2018
One of the most hurtful parts of this situation is that it occurred on the eve of Trayvon Martin's birthday. George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, fatally shot Martin, a black 17-year-old, in Sanford, Florida, in February 2012.
As this story develops, the tragedy remains that young, black men are still being killed.
