Store Shooting Brings More Calls for Black-Brown Unity
By Gene Johnson, Jr., Wave Newspapers
SOUTH LOS ANGELES — In an effort to quell more brown-on-black
violence — most recently a 16-year-old girl wounded allegedly by a
Latino gang member — some area activists have called for an immediate
cease-fire and neighborhood unity.
The 16-year-old girl was shot in the leg by an occupant in a passing
car last Friday as she was getting out of a vehicle to console the
mother of Courtney Whaley, 17, who with William Armistead, 23, was
killed by a Latino storeowner at the Super Discount Store, 6728 S. San
Pedro St. on Sept. 25.
“To my understanding, [the girl is] doing well,” said activist Najee
Ali, during a Tuesday morning news conference in front of the store
where Whaley and Armistead were killed.
The store owner, Rovidio “Ruben” Espana, has been charged with murder
in connection with the shooting deaths of Whaley and Armistead.
Detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Newton Division
could not be reached for comment on the shooting incident that left the
teen-aged girl wounded.
“This neighborhood has seen an increase in gang graffiti,” Ali said,
standing with a coalition of black and Latino activists with a backdrop
of the newly yellow painted storefront once littered with gang graffiti.
“We’re very fearful that racial violence will explode at any moment.”
Ali added that even though Espana allegedly shot the two unarmed
victims, the shooting was not racially motivated.
“No matter what happened [on Sept. 25], it was not a black against
Latino issue,” Ali said. “It’s a right-and-wrong thing, first and
foremost.” He also called on Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to become more
involved in the black/Latino issue. “Certainly, blacks and Latinos have
to get along.”
Armistead reportedly made an off-color comment to a female store
clerk the day of the shooting. The insults led to an argument with
Espana, who was cooking something in the family store. Armistead and
Whaley left the store for a time and then returned.
By then, investigators said, Espana had armed himself with a pistol
and shot them. Armistead and Whaley died later at California Hospital
Medical Center.
Espana has pleaded innocent to the killings and is being held on $4
million bail. He was also charged with being a felon in possession of a
handgun.
Espana has sold his business, according to Francisco Cortez, a
laborer hired on Saturday by the new owner to paint over the gang
graffiti in front and remodel the inside of building. Cortez said
another discount store will be housed inside the store, but would not
disclose who the new store owner was.
In response to the Sept. 25 shooting, Hector Marroquin, executive
director of Networks Organized for Gang Unity and Neighborhood Safety (NOGUNS),
a gang intervention group, said “we got our people out in the field
daily. What they do is go out and talk to gang members, trying to
diffuse the situation.”
“There are some other forces out there that are trying to keep blacks
and Latinos at each other’s throats,” he added. “We have to accept each
other and learn how to do things together.”
Meanwhile the family of Armistead, who had recently enrolled at
Compton College to study criminal justice, have began soliciting funds
throughout the community to help pay for his funeral expenses.
So far, according to Charles Tolliver, a family friend, about $200
has been raised. Donations can be made, Ali said, by contacting the
Simpson’s Family Mortuary.
An official with the city attorney’s Victim Assistance Program said
that it will be providing funds for Whaley’s funeral expenses, but could
not do the same for Armistead, who was on probation when he was killed.
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