What covering hundreds of homicides taught me

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A reporter reflects on years spent covering killings in Los Angeles County and what that's taught her about people and human nature.

Many times, people asked how I could write about such a sad topic. It’s because through people’s worst days, I witnessed their strength. They wanted to tell their loved ones’ stories; I just had the privilege of listening.

That August, an 18-year-old aspiring firefighter was killed while riding in a white Buick Electra with two friends. Detectives told me that there was no indication that Bijan Shoushtari was a target. The next year, Autumn Johnson, a 1-year-old girl, was killed in Compton with a bullet meant for her father. I couldn’t get the image of her small white casket out of my head. I still can’t. Tears fellDarrell Johnson and Blanche Wandick release doves at Angeles Abbey Memorial Park.But no matter how difficult the reporting, I always felt that the mission of the Homicide Report — to give victims a voice — mattered.

The night before, in February 2016, four men drove to what prosecutors called “enemy gang territory.” One man got out of the vehicle and shot at a house. Autumn was shot as she lay in her crib. For Lenell Ellis, the sight of butterflies will always remind her of her slain son Robert. In March 2016, I met Ellis in her Torrance apartment after a man sprayed gunfire into a crowded South L.A. strip mall that included a toddler. The gunman could have been aiming for rival gang members, but he killed Robert, 27, who had just gotten a haircut.

 

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