Man fatally shot while sitting in vehicle in South Los Angeles, LAPD says
LAPD officers investigate the scene of a fatal shooting in the South Los Angeles neighborhood of Cesar Chavez.
LAPD officers investigate the scene of a fatal shooting in the South Los Angeles neighborhood of Cesar Chavez. (Al Iaquinta, Los Angeles Times)
Al Iaquinta / Los Angeles Times
A man believed to have been involved in the fatal shooting of a man sitting in a parking lot in South Los Angeles is dead, the Los Angeles Police Department said Tuesday.
The man, identified as Kevin Lee, was found dead in an alley about 5 p.m. Tuesday at 2411 W. Sycamore St., according to Lt. Paul Vernon, a police spokesman. Police said Lee was the only person in the parking lot in the area.
A woman in the alley called 911, saying Lee was lying in the parking lot with a gunshot wound to the head, police said. She said he was sitting next to his 2004 Honda Civic along the curb in the parking lot, the police spokesman said.
Lee was hit in the back, police said.
The woman said he was likely on his cellphone and that she thought he might be trying to call someone to come pick him up or take him to the hospital.
“This is so out of character and so much a stranger,” the woman said, according to the police spokesman.
Officers found Lee in the alley along with three other men. He was pronounced dead at the scene, Vernon said.
Police believe the incident stemmed from a drug deal gone wrong.
The motive for the shooting is under investigation, but Vernon said the men involved in the shooting appeared armed.
Police said they do not have a motive for the shooting and that none of the involved people were known to them.
The investigation is continuing, and police said they have not determined a suspect in the shooting.
“We had a lot going on in there,” Vernon said. “We don’t want to have a shooting like this. Nobody wants that, nobody wants to see that happen. It was completely out of character.”
The parking lot, which is adjacent to a Wal-