SOUTH LOS ANGELES, Calif.–An autopsy was pending today on the body of a 5-year-old boy who was shot by two suspected gang members while he showed off his Spider-Man trick-or-treating costume in his yard in South Los Angeles.
The City Council today may also consider offering a reward for information that leads to the two gunmen who killed Aaron Shannon Jr.
Aaron died late Monday at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, 77th Street Station police said.
He was shot and critically wounded at about 2 p.m. Sunday in his yard on the 1000 block of East 84th Street, along with his grandfather and uncle, 77th Street Station Homicide Detective Eric Crosson said.
Two apparent gang members walked through the alley, hid behind bushes and fired shots into the yard, grazing the grandfather in the arm and the uncle in the leg, but hitting the boy in the back of the head, Crosson said.
The shooting is linked to a gang rivalry between the Kitchen Crips and Swan Bloods, investigators said. The neighborhood where Aaron lived is an active gang area, but his family had no ties to gangs.
Councilwoman Jan Perry, whose 9th District includes the block where Aaron was shot, was expected to ask the City Council today to offer a reward of up to $75,000 for information leading to arrests and convictions of the two gunmen.
Fox11 reported two Crips members crossed Central Avenue on Sunday looking for Bloods to target when they opened fire on Aaron and his relatives.
“Every homicide angers me, but a 5-year-old on Halloween getting ready, that just tears at my heart,” Los Angeles police Capt. Dennis Kato of the 77th Street Station told Fox11.
