Suspect in custody after Hollywood nightclub shooting
Candlelight vigil held for Andre Lowe
A Los Angeles man was in custody in Las Vegas on suspicion of fatally shooting another man at a Hollywood nightclub.
Robert Earl Thomas III, 22, was charged with murdering 19-year-old Andre Lowe, who was gunned down about 2 a.m. Sunday outside the Empire Club at 1716 N. Cahuenga Blvd.
Thomas was taken into custody and legal proceedings were pending to return him to Los Angeles, said Richard French of the Los Angeles Police Department.
The shooting occurred after a fight inside the nightclub spilled outside. A woman who was crossing the street near the club was slightly grazed by a bullet, but did not require hospital treatment, said LAPD Sgt. Mark Ro of the Hollywood Station.
A 2011 graduate of Etiwanda High School, Lowe lived in South Los Angeles with his father and was not affiliated with a gang. According to his family, the 19-year-old had just recently passed the test to receive his security guard card and was looking forward to getting his first job.
Family, friends, community activists and a coalition of clergy held a candlelight vigil in remembrance of Lowe outside of the nightclub in Hollywood.
In addition to the vigil, family and friends made a plea for stricter gun control laws.
Video of the shooting was captured and posted on the TMZ.com website. Detectives followed a number of leads, including those generated by the posting of video showing the shooting, according to French.
Andre’s family, meanwhile, is devastated, and having video of Andre’s murder online, replete with nearly 1,000 comments from TMZ users, “makes grieving in peace practically impossible,” according to Jason Andrews, Lowe’s uncle.
After days of desperately trying to get TMZ to take down the footage Andrews launched a Change.org petition begging TMZ to remove the video and apologize to his family. “These people have no regard for the loved ones affected by this tragedy,” said Andrews. “I understand freedom of press but the line has to be drawn somewhere... What they did is wrong and they need to be held accountable. No one wants to see their loved one in this position, having this event viewed by millions of strangers is disgusting.”
The petition can be seen at www.change.org/petitions/tmz-remove-the-video-of-my-nephew-being-murdered.
City News Service contributed to this article.
Trayvon Martin’s family marked the anniversary of his death with a candlelight vigil in Manhattan.
Martin’s parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, were joined by actor Jamie Foxx and a crowd of about 200 people on Tuesday evening in Manhattan’s Union Square Park. They lit candles and held a moment of silence at 7:17 p.m., the time Martin was fatally shot on Feb. 26, 2012.
ORLANDO, Fla.—"Murderer," one e-mail's subject line said.
"Please shoot yourself, you racist piece of sh-t," read the body of another e-mail. "You killed an unarmed teen that you stalked."
And several dictated the same, succinct line: "Hope you die in prison."
These venom-drenched words are just a smattering of at least 400 e-mails and letters, all sent to George Zimmerman over the past 10 months.
Feb. 26 will mark one year since then-17-year-old Travyon Martin was gunned down by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch coordinator in a gated community of Sanford, Fla.
Martin was visiting family in the area and was walking back from the store when, despite requests by local police not to do so, Zimmerman began following Martin because he appeared “suspicious.”
The two ended up in a physical confrontation, and the unarmed Martin was shot in the chest and killed.
COMPTON, Calif.—A man who was shot to death in a Compton neighborhood was identified by the Los Angeles County’s coroner office today as Wendell Lashawn Prince, 50, of Long Beach.
The shooting was reported at 1:31 a.m. Monday in the 1350 block of East Schinner Street near Compton Community College, said Deputy Irys Alvarez of the Sheriff’s Headquarters Bureau.
The man was pronounced dead at the scene, Alvarez said. No suspect information was released.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Authorities have identified a man who was found fatally shot in an alley in an unincorporated area abutting South Los Angeles.
The man identified by the coroner’s office as Richard Backner, 23, of Los Angeles, was discovered in the 9400 block of Normandie Avenue in Westmont at 7:36 p.m. Sunday, and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Deputy Mark Pope of the sheriff’s headquarters bureau.
