Malcolm Mency, 18, was gunned down on the 2200 block of Broderick Avenue around 12:30 a.m. as he walked home from his shift at a nearby Sonic drive-in chain. Family members say Mency worked two jobs and was the father of a 4-week-old son.
It was an emotional night filled with tears and questions as Mency's loved ones gathered at the scene of the crime Monday. The shooting occurred just around the corner from his home in a neighborhood notoriously known for gang violence.
Mency's family says he was not a gang member. They say the 18-year-old was focused on finishing school and being a father to his newborn son.
No suspect information was available following the shooting. As of Monday night, detectives had very little information regarding a possible suspect or suspects.
Mency's mother, Alberta Lockhart, says all she wants is justice.
"Like I said before, you're cowards, you should turn yourself in," said Lockhart. "If anybody knows anything, I'm quite sure he'd been talking, they need to tell them."
Family members say all Mency was looking forward to was his first Christmas with his infant son. Instead, they are now planning his funeral.
Authorities have stepped up patrols in the area following a second shooting Sunday afternoon in the same neighborhood.
In that incident, deputies found a Hispanic man suffering from a gunshot wound to his lower back in the 2300 block of Bloomfield Street. The victim was transported to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Authorities are now investigating whether the incidents are connected.
As Mency's family mourned his death, local residents and community leaders held a mediation meeting on the 1600 block of Huntington Drive Monday to discuss the gang violence plaguing the city of Duarte.
Anyone with information on either incidents was asked to call the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department at (323) 890-5500.
