The Los Angeles Police Department is stepping up patrols in a Mid-Wilshire neighborhood where a popular gang intervention worker was fatally shot after confronting a tagger on West Pico Boulevard.
Ronald Lamonte Barron was leaving a bar in his old neighborhood Sunday night with his
girlfriend when he noticed a tagger defacing a wall on Pico. Detectives
said he confronted the tagger, who fatally shot
him as his girlfriend and others looked on.
[Updated at 8:39 a.m.: A previous version of this post dropped Barron’s last name on first reference.]
LAPD Cmdr. Andy Smith said officials were beefing up patrols in the area to help ensure the safety of the community and to prevent retaliatory violence.
“From what we can tell it looks like he was trying to do the right thing and senselessly shot because of it," Smith said.
The LAPD said surveillance video from nearby
businesses captured the killing in the 5000 block of West Pico
Boulevard in the Mid-Wilshire district.
The footage appeared to show a gunman wearing dark-colored clothing
arguing with Barron in front of "numerous witnesses," LAPD detectives
said.
The suspected gang member, a Latino 20 to 25 years old, approximately 6
feet tall and 180 pounds, then pulled out a pistol and shot Barron
multiple times at point-blank range before calmly walking off.
Shot in the head and chest, Barron fell in the middle of the busy
thoroughfare. The 40-year-old was pronounced dead at a local hospital a
few hours later.
His slaying stunned colleagues at Amer-I-Can, where Barron had worked for more than a decade.
The loss was also felt at City Hall and LAPD headquarters, where
officials rely on gang interventionists like Barron to help reduce the
grip of gangs in some neighborhoods.
Barron was considered a veteran in the field. A former member of the Mansfield Crips gang that claims territory around
Pico Boulevard and La Brea Avenue, Barron was one of a few gang outreach workers who
was trusted enough by Los Angeles authorities to counsel young offenders in the
jails.
"Very few people reach that level," said attorney Connie Rice, a
prominent civil rights attorney and leader of the Advancement Project,
which is providing formal training for gang outreach workers.
"There are a lot of con artists who claim to be interventionists," Rice
said. Barron "was one of the genuine ones. He was dedicated. He was
trusted enough to go into the jails. That’s a pretty rare status."
Authorities don’t believe his work in gang intervention played any role in the killing.
— Andrew Blankstein
Photo: A memorial lies in the 5000 block of West Pico Boulevard, where Ronald
Lamonte Barron was killed Sunday night after arguing with a tagger
outside a bar. Surveillance tape captured the slaying. Credit: Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times