A California teen with special needs was fatally shot in front of his mother because he refused to take off his red shoes, his family said.
Tavin Price, 19, and his mom, Jennifer Rivers, were heading to the beach when they stopped at a South Los Angeles car wash Friday, KABC reported.
When Price went to buy cigarettes, a man demanded he take off his shoes because the color red was associated with a gang in the area.
Price told the man he was not in a gang and went back to the car where Rivers was vacuuming.
As the pair rushed to get back in the car, the gunman shot Price four times in the back and chest, KTLA reported. Price later died in surgery, Rivers said.
Rivers chased after the gunman, but he got away. Authorities are still searching for him.
“All I can see is my son’s eyes rolling to the back of his head, grabbing my arm right here saying, ‘Mommy, I don’t want to die. Mommy, please don’t let me die,'” Rivers told CBS Los Angeles.
A vigil was held for Price on Monday — what would have been his 20th birthday — at the car wash. People sang “Happy Birthday” and released balloons in his memory.
But Price looked much younger than his age at 4 feet, 11 inches tall and 99 pounds, his family said.
“(It’s) senseless,” his sister Nisha Canson told KABC, crying. “He looked like a kid. He looks like a 13-year-old kid. Why would you do that?”
LAPD detectives are reviewing surveillance footage from the car wash and have not released the tapes.
They confirmed that Price was not in a gang.
A woman who was with the gunman is charged with aiding and abetting, the Los Angeles Times reported. Her name was not released.
Price’s family wants the gunman to turn himself in.
“I want him to live miserably for the rest of his life,” cousin Ceritha Daily said with her arms around Canson. “Because we going to live miserably for the rest of our lives.”
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