The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors today approved a $10,000 reward for information leading to the gunman who fatally shot two high school athletes in Willowbrook.
Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas recommended the reward in the killings of 17-year-old Jamele Hill and 16-year-old Millyon Colquitt, who were fatally shot around 11 p.m. Oct. 15 while traveling in a vehicle on the 12200 block of Maple Avenue.
A family member told CBS2 that a group of five teens were riding in the car, driving slowly down the street searching for an address, when someone walked up and opened fire. The other three teens were not hurt, according to the family member.
Deputies responding to the report of an accident found the vehicle crashed into a parked car and the two teenagers, who were cousins, dead at the scene from gunshot wounds.
Jamele, also known as “Dubi,” was a senior at Gardena High School and being scouted by colleges as a stand-out varsity football player, Ridley- Thomas said.
Millyon was an 11th-grader and outstanding varsity basketball player at Centennial High School in Compton. Ridley-Thomas said the teen, who was just shy of his 17th birthday, was a good student known as kindhearted, humorous and generous. He had recently lost his mother in an car accident, according to Ridley-Thomas.
Krystal Jackson, a relative of the victims, urged an end to violence while fighting back tears.
“Please stop this senseless violence … We have to do better as a community,” Jackson told KTLA5. “People’s response is `Black lives matter’… if it matters, make it matter. Make it matter.”
Sheriff’s investigators said they believe a reward might encourage witnesses to come forward.
Anyone with more information was urged to call the Sheriff’s Department Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500 or Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).