Author: Megan Garvey

The organizers of a massive free clinic scheduled to return to Los Angeles later this month announced Monday that they will distribute color-coded wristbands in advance of their opening at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, a change they hope will reduce patient lines.

“This way, people can come on their designated day and not worry about long lines just to get in. The wristband is the ticket into the clinic,” said Don Manelli, an organizer with Knoxville, Tenn.-based Remote Area Medical, the nonprofit sponsoring the clinic.

The clinic will be held April 27 to May 3 from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and is expected to draw thousands of uninsured and under-insured patients. Organizers plan to distribute wristbands starting at 9 a.m. April 25 outside the arena at 3939 South Figueroa St.

Those seeking treatment on a particular day can get in line to receive a wristband color-coded for that day. Each family member seeking medical, dental and vision care must get in line to receive a wristband, although parents and caregivers may claim wristbands for their children and charges. Wristbands are not interchangeable or removable.

Volunteers at the first clinic, held in August at the Forum in
Inglewood, treated more than  6,300. Scores more were turned away because of
a shortage
of medical volunteers.

For more information, visit www.ramfreeclinic.org.

— Molly Hennessy-Fiske

About 40% of births in Los Angeles County each year are the result of
unplanned pregnancies, which can endanger the health of babies, according to a study released Wednesday by the county’s Department of Public Health.

The figure was based primarily on a county survey completed in 2006 of
more than 5,200 women ages 13 to 56 who had recently delivered. The
percentage of unplanned pregnancies was about the same among women who
gave birth and those who suffered stillbirths and miscarriages,
according to Dr. Susie Baldwin, chief of the department’s health
assessment unit, which produced the study “Healthy Women, Healthy
Children.”

The study did not include women whose latest pregnancy ended in
abortion, who earlier studies show have a much higher percentage of
unplanned pregnancies, Baldwin said.

Although state
studies show that for the same time period as the county study about 43% of
births were unplanned statewide, the county numbers still trouble
public health experts because women who do not realize they are pregnant
are likely to delay prenatal care and may smoke or drink alcohol. Women
who have had another child within six months of an unplanned pregnancy
are at even greater risk, and are more likely to have a child born prematurely
with a low birth weight, researchers found.

Statewide and nationally, the number of unplanned pregnancies has
remained relatively unchanged in recent years experts said, despite
efforts
by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to reduce all
unplanned pregnancies to 30% by this year.

“All pregnancies should be planned. An unplanned pregnancy should be a
rare thing,” Baldwin said. “It goes back to education and access.”

A lack of health insurance and regular access to care may have
contributed to the number of unplanned pregnancies, Baldwin said.

Researchers found 23% of women of childbearing age lacked health
insurance, and 20% said they did not have a regular source of health
care. Those percentages were even higher among women who had recently
delivered babies — 36% lacked insurance, 33% lacked regular health care.

The lack of regular care may affect women’s ability to plan for
pregnancy.

About 80% of those at risk for pregnancy reported using a regular form
of birth control the last time they had sex, although that percentage
varied by ethnicity — 87% of whites compared with 81% of Asians, 80% of
Latinas and 67% of African Americans.

About 82% of women who had recently delivered a baby said they had
received information about the importance of prenatal vitamins
containing folic acid, but only 57% of them had taken the vitamins
before becoming pregnant.

Researchers proposed developing minimum preconception care requirements
and extending Medi-Cal benefits for mothers with high-risk pregnancies
for two years postpartum.

“The opportunity to impact the health of a baby starts before
conception, and the health of a potential mother should be a priority
long before pregnancy,” said Jonathan E. Fielding, the county’s public
health director.

Worldwide, the rate of unintended pregnancy declined by 20% between 1995
and 2008, from 69 to 55 per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44. The decline was
greater in the more developed world, where the rate fell by 29% (from 59
to 42 per 1,000 women), than in the less developed world, where it fell
by 20% (from 71 to 57 per 1,000), according to a study by the
Guttmacher Institute.

— Molly Hennessy-Fiske

Photo: Los Angeles Times

Leaders of L.A. Care Health Plan, one of the country’s largest public health plans, voted this week to donate $500,000 to the nonprofit that will run the new Martin Luther King Jr. hospital in Willowbrook scheduled to open in 2012.

“King Drew was a central component of the healthcare delivery system in South Los Angeles. It has been missed, and we are very pleased to be able to provide the initial critical support needed to help the new MLK hospital get on its feet,” said Howard Kahn, the health plan’s CEO.

The donation is a grant from L.A. Care’s Community Health Investment Fund.

The Martin Luther King Jr. hospital nonprofit was created under an agreement approved by University of California Regents in November. It will be governed by a seven-member board of directors — two appointed by the UC president, two by L.A. County officials and three jointly. The directors, whom officials hope to name within a year, must have at least 10 years’ experience in healthcare. It will be up to them to decide whether to operate the hospital themselves or hire another company. L.A. County officials have promised to seek a $100-million letter of credit to underwrite the hospital for up to six years. The county will also contribute $73 million annually to cover expenses and operating costs.

They have already received several donations in support of the hospital.

Los Angeles pharmaceuticals billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong has offered a $100-million guaranty to underwrite reopening the hospital. Bob Ross, president and chief executive of the California Endowment, announced a $5-million gift in November. County officials are seeking more grants and donations, according to the chief executive’s staff.

“When the request came from L.A. County to help with establishing this nonprofit, it was something we knew was the right thing to do,” said Dr. Thomas Klitzner, a pediatric cardiologist at UCLA and chairman of L.A. Care’s Board of Governors. “L.A. Care staff will work closely with the county to share our experience to make the hospital a success starting Day One,” Klitzner said.

Founded in 1994, L.A. Care Health Plan now serves about 800,000 Medi-Cal recipients, uninsured children and others in need of healthcare throughout the county.

— Molly Hennessy-Fiske

More breaking news in L.A. Now:

Recent killings in L.A. nearly erase gains in
city’s homicide rate

Questions over police firing at chase suspect
in rush-hour traffic; investigation launched

L.A. County supervisors terminate relationship
with foster care agency

Serial killer Rodney Alcala sentenced to death

Rain to return to L.A. area as early as
Wednesday

Bus, tanker crash ties up westbound 210
Freeway

L.A. man who set beloved homeless man on fire
with flare pleads guilty to murder

A large-scale free mobile medical clinic that treated more than 6,300 uninsured and under-insured people last summer is scheduled to return to Los Angeles next month, volunteers and lawmakers said Wednesday.

Remote Area Medical, a Tennessee-based nonprofit known by the acronym RAM, plans to hold a clinic at the Los Angeles Sports Arena near USC from April 27 to May 3. The previous clinic was staged at the Forum in Inglewood.

[Updated 5:30 p.m.: An earlier version of this post gave the dates of the clinic as April 25 to May 3. RAM officials are scheduled to begin setting up on April 25, but the clinic will not open to the public until two days later.]

At a news conference Wednesday held at the new location, lawmakers, joined by RAM founder Stan Brock, RAM sponsor and A&M Records co-founder Jerry Moss and Los Angeles Coliseum Commission President Barry Sanders, emphasized the continued need for healthcare services despite the recent vote in Washington.

“The historic health reform legislation will mean many of the county’s 2.1 million uninsured residents will qualify for free Medicaid and federal subsidies to buy health insurance. However, the bill is just a beginning. Implementation will take place over four years,” said Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas. “We will continue to need events like RAM/LA to fill in the gaps and provide services to our uninsured throughout the county.”

The eight-day clinic at the Forum last August, the largest and most urban in RAM’s 25-year history, attracted 3,827 volunteers, including dentists, doctors and other healthcare workers who provided more than $2.8 million in free services.

But organizers failed to attract enough medical volunteers and had to turn away thousands of patients, treating about 700 a day compared with an expected 1,600, Brock said. At the Sports Arena, RAM is trying to attract enough dentists, doctors and food donors to treat and feed 1,200 patients a day, he said.

“When you turn away as many thousands of people are we did, and I was unfortunately the person who had to go out and give them the bad news, you want to go back and say, ‘Let’s try it again,’ ” Brock said in an interview with The Times. “These were nice folks. It never ceases to amaze me, every time we do one, the condition of people in this country and how many cannot get the basic care they need.”

Officials also said they have made changes that they believe will ensure more follow-up care for those seeking medical help at the upcoming clinic, including the use of electronic records that will be bar-coded with a unique number for each patient.

Moss, who visited the Forum clinic with his wife and saw the empty dental chairs and patients being turned away, said RAM organizers have had more time to plan the next clinic and he believes they will be better equipped to meet the local need.

“With the time we have, I believe we’re going to get much greater support from the medical community,” Moss said.

Last month, California Assembly Speaker Karen Bass sponsored legislation that would allow out-of-state doctors and other medical professionals to assist at short-term events such as RAM clinics that treat the uninsured and underinsured without losing their liability insurance.

“Maybe in a few years as we implement health reform this event will no longer be needed," Bass said Wednesday at the event.

In a written statement, Bass called Los Angeles County “ground zero for the uninsured in this state. It simply doesn’t make sense to make good Samaritans jump through regulatory and legal hoops when we have thousands of people that need care"

Brock, who has testified before Congress in support of legislation similar to what Bass has proposed, said it would, “Make a big dent in the problem” of attracting qualified doctors.

Additional information about attending the clinic or volunteering to provide medical services is available on Remote Area Medical’s website www.ramusa.org.

— Molly Hennessy-Fiske

Photo: Volunteers provide free dental care during an event at the Forum in
Inglewood held in August. Credit: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday ordered a thorough vetting of the troubled probation department, including written reviews of the department’s $700-million budget, internal affairs investigations and schools.

"The department has very serious, chronic problems in virtually every aspect of its operations,” Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said. “We’re going to have to demonstrate to the Department of Justice and everyone else who is watching that we’re going to get this department back on track.”

Supervisor Gloria Molina said she was particularly concerned about finances, given recent reports that the department is over budget.

“This is a department that is in crisis,” Molina said. “I’m just not willing to put more money on the table until we know what’s going on.”

The demand for increased accountability, including an investigation by the Office of Independent Review, which oversees investigations into alleged misconduct by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies, comes a week after a former teacher at a probation detention camp, Stephen Wesley, was charged with child endangerment for allegedly organizing boxing-style fights between students during class.

Earlier this month, probation officials admitted that at least 170 probation employees have committed misconduct — including cases of excessive force and abuse — but that they have so far escaped punishment because there are not enough staff to discipline them. Most are sworn officers who remain on the job, and about half face allegations of abuse of juvenile probationers.

A Times investigation found that another 112 misconduct investigations are pending, some going unresolved for nearly a year. Of those, 51 involve employees accused of abusing probation youths, department officials said. Many involved complaints of excessive force.

During the last decade, probation officials submitted to federal monitoring of first the juvenile halls, then the camps as part of agreements with the U.S. Department of Justice to avoid lawsuits by improving, among other things, internal affairs and child abuse investigations. Recent county reports found that department officials had failed to improve internal investigations, citing little coordination among investigators and no central tracking of complaints or allegations.

Federal officials are aware of the department’s recent troubles, but have yet to recommend followup investigations, according to Justice Department spokesman Alejandro Miyar.

Probation officials have said they need more investigators in order to discipline problem staff members quickly.

“We have been underresourced in that area so the investigations were taking too long to complete,” said Interim Probation Chief Cal Remington. “In the long run, what we need to do is fix the system” for investigating misconduct, Remington said.

Remington said he is consulting former probation chiefs from Orange and Riverside counties about possible improvements.

With 14 internal affairs investigators and 4,400 sworn staff, Los Angeles County has about one investigator for every 300 staff. Last year, they investigated 211 charges of abuse and misconduct at the camps and halls and sustained 32. Staff could not say the average length of misconduct investigations, but many have languished for months and some have taken nearly a year.

By law, most internal affairs investigations of peace officers expire after a year if the officer is not disciplined.

— Molly Hennessy-Fiske

California parole officials issued new rules this week that will increase monitoring of thousands of sex offenders already required to wear global positioning system tracking devices, a move that comes after sharp criticism of high-profile lapses by the department.

Parole agents must now track the whereabouts of the state’s nearly 5,000 low-level sex offenders through ankle monitors at least four days a month. Previously, no policy mandated how often low-level offenders had to be tracked.

An additional 2,000 high-risk sex offenders, who already are supposed to be monitored daily, must be visited by a parole officer at their homes twice a month, up from one monthly visit.

“We’ve never claimed that GPS monitoring is a cure-all — it can’t prevent a crime from happening or tell us what a parolee is doing," said Gordon Hinkle, press secretary for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. “But it can tell us where they are.”

The changes, issued in a Thursday policy memo, were spurred by a review of the parole agency in the wake of the Jaycee Lee Dugard case. The review found that parole agents for Phillip Garrido, who has been charged with Dugard’s kidnapping, missed numerous clues over the course of a decade that could have led them to Dugard far sooner.

Dugard was 11 when she disappeared in 1991 from outside her South Lake Tahoe home. She was 29 when she was found last year in Garrido’s Antioch backyard, where he allegedly confined her to a ramshackle set of buildings and tents.

The new parole policies also require agents to investigate and document each time a device is unable to acquire a signal or is detected in a prohibited zone. The more stringent reporting requirements are designed to alert authorities to misbehavior that might signal a crime is in the works, officials said.

Parole agents also must notify local law enforcement when an offender is released from parole.

The supervision of sex offenders came under renewed scrutiny this month after it was reported that the man charged with killing 17-year-old Chelsea King of Poway had violated parole in 2007 by living near a school. But state officials decided not to send John Albert Gardner III — who was on parole after serving five years in prison for molesting a 13-year-old girl — back to prison because he complied with orders to relocate.

King’s body was found in a shallow grave this month, just days after Gardner was arrested in connection with her disappearance.

San Diego state Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, with the backing of King’s family, has said he will propose a new law in Chelsea’s name, which could include extending sentences and upping parole requirements for sex offenders.

–Tony Barboza

Photo: Jaycee Dugard as a child. AP

Expressing deep concern over allegations that a teacher arranged fights between students in a classroom at a Los Angeles County juvenile probation camp, Supervisor Mike Antonovich said Wednesday that he wants the education agency responsible for hiring and supervising the teacher held accountable.

Antonovich said he planned to submit a motion at next week’s board meeting demanding Los Angeles County Office of Education Supt. Darline Robles report back April 6 with details on the hiring and screening of Stephen Wesley, 43.

Sheriff’s investigators arrested Wesley on Tuesday for allegedly allowing and refereeing five boxing-style bouts — recorded by a security camera — during his class at Camp Karl Holton in San Fernando on Aug. 8, 2008. He’s been charged with six counts of child endangerment.

Antonovich said he wanted school officials to explain to the Board of Supervisors any breaches in their hiring procedures, as well as corrective actions taken as a result of Wesley’s case. School officials said they began investigating Wesley five days after the report of the fights and that he had not been assigned to teach in the interim. He resigned Sept. 29, 2008, before he could be disciplined, said education agency spokeswoman Margo Minecki.

“While the safety and security of probation youth is a county responsibility, the screening, hiring and disciplining of teachers is the responsibility of" the education agency, Antonovich wrote in the proposed motion. “This incident raises serious concerns over that entire process, including what, if any, discipline would have been imposed had the teacher not resigned.”

Robles released a statement Wednesday saying, “The safety and well-being of our students are always a top priority for" the education agency.

“I feel sure the incident at Camp Holton was promptly investigated and properly handled to protect the safety of students,” Robles wrote. “Fortunately, each classroom had a surveillance camera in place to promote safety of students and staff. The recording from the video surveillance system helped us to take swift action in this case.”

In her statement, Robles referred to Wesley’s case as “an isolated occurrence.”

Steve Whitmore, spokesman for the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department, said Tuesday that the fights apparently took place after students from rival gangs argued in Wesley’s class. Over the course of the day, Wesley allegedly permitted six youths from rival gangs to face off in his class, instructing them on rules for the fights and telling them not to bloody each other, Whitmore said.

A probation official who has seen the tape said Wesley stood inside the classroom door as students — who apparently told him that the security camera was broken — cheered on shirtless fighters. Wesley appeared to be on the lookout for passing probation staff or fellow teachers and can be heard urging the students not to tell anyone about the fights, the source said.

Probation staff monitoring video feeds saw students fighting in Wesley’s classroom late in the day, broke up the fight and then realized some of the youths had minor injuries, according to interim Probation Chief Cal Remington. At that point, they reviewed the day’s footage and notified sheriff’s investigators, Remington said.

Wesley worked for less than two years for the education agency, which employs about 200 teachers in the juvenile camps and halls.

Robles expressed confidence that the agency has “effective procedures in place to screen, hire, supervise and discipline all employees. Many of these procedures are mandated by state and federal laws, including criminal background checks for all public school employees.”

— Molly Hennessy-Fiske

Read more about the case: Former probation camp teacher held in fight probe

Photo: Stephen Wesley, 43. Credit: Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department

After a bungled computer system caused Los Angeles County to lose millions of dollars, the information technology company that created the system is expected to pay the county $1.5 million under the terms of a settlement approved Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors.

The dispute stems from a computer system, created by Sierra Systems, that processes claims for reimbursement by mental health clinics. Once received by the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, the billing requests are supposed to be forwarded to the state of California, which oversees Medi-Cal, the government insurance program for the poor.

But when the system was turned on in 2004, problems started immediately. Mental health clinics complained they weren’t getting paid by the county and state. Billing problems continued through 2006.

Eventually, 18 mental health clinics sued the county and state, accusing them of owing $25 million. In the summer of 2009, a settlement was reached in which more than $12 million was paid to the mental health clinics. The county paid out $5.8 million and forgave outstanding debt the clinics owed to the county, and the state chipped in $3 million for the settlement.

The extensive litigation was costly, and the county paid more than $800,000 in attorney fees before the initial settlement with the clinics was reached.

Los Angeles County officials, in turn, sued Sierra Systems, resulting in the proposed $1.5 million payout to the county.

“County and Sierra have now successfully mediated the matter to their mutual satisfaction,” according to a document prepared by the County Counsel’s office.

In a corrective action plan, county officials blamed the problem on errors resulting from rushed implementation of the system to comply with federal law, design errors by Sierra Systems, problems with the state’s computer system to receive and process claims, and inaccurate data entry by healthcare providers.

Sierra Systems won a contract in November from Los Angeles County to create a new property tax system — eTax — that is designed to help manage and collect property taxes.

— Rong-Gong Lin II at the L.A. County Hall of Administration

Los Angeles County officials Tuesday rebuffed demands from an AIDS activist group that the county’s public health officials take immediate action to require performers in porn films to wear condoms.

County officials said the California Legislature would need to approve legislation that would require condom use for pornography shoots. They said it would be difficult to try to regulate the porn industry through the county’s Public Health Department.

"It is very, very difficult to implement. There are roughly 200 production companies with about…1,200 actors,” said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, the county’s public health chief. “All you need is a room and a camera and a bed, basically, to do this kind of shoot, and we have no ability to police this.”

Fielding said that it would be difficult for public health officials to prove if the movies were produced in L.A. County or elsewhere, as producers often do not apply for filming licenses. In a memo to supervisors on Sept. 17, health officials warned such an effort would be costly, as the public health department would need to identify filming sites and monitor compliance, which would require significant staff time.

"We worked closely with county counsel trying to see if there’s some other way that we could effectively do this under existing authority, and what we’ve come up with is, basically, we’re unlikely to to have an effective approach to prevent them from acquiring preventable STDs,” Fielding said Tuesday. “It’s very disturbing to come to that conclusion, but we also have to be realistic.”

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, whose district includes the San Fernando Valley, agreed that adult film performers are vulnerable to sexually-transmitted diseases and said they deserve some kind of protection through the law. But he said the state’s legislators would need to act.

“I think the only answer to this at the end of the day is a statewide approach to this, which would also empower law enforcement, and you run sting operations,” he said.  “All you’ve got to do is make one or two arrests and the rest of the…industry will understand pretty quickly that there’s a risk."

Yaroslavsky said, however, that not a single California lawmaker has been willing to sponsor such legislation.

Fielding’s department testified to California lawmakers in 2004 asking the Legislature to approve a law that would regulate the adult film industry; require condom use during filming; implement STD screening requirements, which would be paid by the industry; and have film companies pay for the local cost of monitoring compliance.

Brian Chase, assistant general counsel for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, accused the county of having “done nothing” to protect adult film performers during Tuesday’s meeting.

In December, an L.A. County Superior Court judge dismissed the foundation’s petition seeking a court order to compel county health officials to require condom use on porn sets or take other reasonable steps to stem the spread of disease. The court ruled that the county has broad discretion in how it oversees public health.

— Rong-Gong Lin II at the L.A. County Hall of Administration

Los Angeles County supervisors tapped Cal Remington, the former head of Ventura County’s Probation Department, to be the acting leader of their troubled department.

The temporary appointment comes as the current chief, Robert Taylor, retires Friday. Taylor’s relationship with the board has been severely strained in recent weeks after a series of management lapses.

Remington has been asked to conduct a top-to-bottom assessment of the department before the permanent chief is appointed later this year, according to William T Fujioka, the county’s chief executive.

Supervisors approved Remington’s as acting chief for 60 to 90 days at an annual salary of $184,000, plus a $7,000 housing allowance.

The department’s 6,200 staffers oversee 60,000 adult probationers and 20,000 youths, including about 3,600 in county-run detention halls and camps. The juvenile operation has been the subject of U.S. Justice Department oversight for misuse of force.

— Garrett Therolf reporting from the L.A. County Hall of Administration

Los Angeles County supervisors Tuesday approved the donation of hundreds of surplus bulletproof vests, helmets, batons and other supplies to Mexican police agencies.



“This equipment will be used to outfit the poorly equipped Mexican agencies,” Sheriff Lee Baca said in a letter to the supervisors, referring to the drug wars plaguing the country. “Currently, many Mexican agencies lack the necessary safety equipment to fulfill their mission.”

Baca said the equipment has outlived its service life to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

The county is able to donate supplies if the gift serves a public purpose, according to Baca’s letter. The public purpose in this case, Baca said, is to supply Mexican authorities who arrest criminals and seize drugs before they reach Los Angeles County.

The donations include more than 2,600 bulletproof vests, more than 300 helmets, more than 400 batons, more than 1,000 handcuff cases, and more than 1,000 pepper spray holders.

Last year, Baca asked supervisors to approve a similar donation to Mexican and Thai authorities.

— Rong-Gong Lin II

For complete coverage of the drug war in Mexico, visit The Times’ interactive Mexico Under Siege series.

The Los Angeles Times and USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism today announced a collaboration to produce stories for The Times’  Homicide Report blog.

Under the partnership, students from USC will write dispatches for the Homicide Report. Among the goals is to provide more content for the blog and to offer crime-reporting experience to student journalists from Neon Tommy, the publication of Annenberg Digital News.

This partnership coincides with the re-launch this week of the Homicide Report, which now features a searchable database and an interactive map of the more than 2,600 killings in L.A. County in the last three years.

“Since the first days of the Homicide Report in 2007, our goal has been to tell two stories about violent death in Los Angeles – the overall statistical portrayal of who dies, how they are killed and where, as well as the individual portraits of the human beings behind those numbers,” said David Lauter, assistant managing editor at The Times. “Collaborating with USC will allow us to tell far more of those human stories and, at the same time, help develop the next generation of L.A. journalists.”

Annenberg Digital News director Marc Cooper called the move “an important step in redefining the future of journalism. “

“A partnership between the largest newspaper and the largest journalism school in Los Angeles can only produce good things. And the homicide blog is one of them,” he said. “ It’s important for us at Annenberg that the capacity of our students to produce professional work be recognized and we thank The Times for the opportunity.”

Alan Mittelstaedt, Annenberg Digital News’ managing editor, will be working closely with Times editors on the student dispatches.

"Our reporters are hungry for real-world experiences, and this collaboration gives them a chance to put their best work on a crucial topic before a huge audience," he said. “The days when students’ best work lands on a professor’s desk and stays there are over."

— Megan Garvey

The following in an excerpt from the inaugural post from first year graduate student Andrew Khouri:

Charles Montgomery was born in the back room of his grandparents’ house on the 400 block of E. 104th St. in the Green Meadows neighborhood of South Los Angeles.

Twenty-four years later he died on that very street, a few houses down, shot on his way home from the store in the early afternoon, his family said. He was on an errand for his grandfather, Willie L. Byas.

"It happened right out there, on the street," Byas said as he looked out the window toward the location where his grandson was killed. "I heard the noise and everything."

"I am really hurting…. I’ll never forget him," he said.

Montgomery, a 24-year-old black man, was shot several times in his upper body about 2 p.m. Friday, Jan. 15, by a man who approached him on foot, police said. Montgomery died at the scene. Police believe the killing was most likely gang-related due to recent gang-related incidents in the area, said Det. Sal LaBarbera of the LAPD’s Criminal Gang Homicide Unit.

Montgomery was not a known gang member, LaBarbera said. Police said they have no suspects and no witnesses have come forward.

"It was broad daylight — it just don’t get more blatant," said Kali Kellup, Montgomery’s cousin. "Somebody saw something."

Read more: Dispatch: ‘It was broad daylight — it just don’t get more blatant’