Eric Lorenzo, 20

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Eric Lorenzo, 20, a young black man, was shot as he was standing in the 2400 block of Lincoln Boulevard in Venice at about 6 p.m. Saturday, July 7. Lorenzo was mortally wounded in daylight as hundreds of cars drove by. The two Latino men or youths who shot him were on foot, at least briefly, said Det. Mike DePasquale of LAPD’s Pacific Division. Lorenzo was transported to UCLA hospital by ambulance and was on life support for two days, before dying July 9. The Los Angeles County Coroner listed his time of death as 9:45 p.m. July 9.

Lorenzo was an LAX employee from South Los Angeles who was giving his mother a ride that day. They had stopped to buy a lottery ticket, said DePasquale--trying to cash in on lucky 7-7-07.

Lorenzo had nothing to do with a gang fight brewing in that neighborhood which stemmed from the killing 16 hours earlier of a 21-year-old Latino young man named David Silva in Santa Monica. Yet police suspect Lorenzo died in retaliation for that earlier murder.

Why? Simply because Lorenzo was young and black and male, and his killers saw him and considered him a close enough approximation for the black gang members they hoped to punish and intimidate. (See the earlier post, ‘Profiling Murder.’) On this list of homicide victims, there are many people like Lorenzo--random victims, usually young black and Latino men, killed not by stray bullets but caught in the remorseless demographics of homicide. Their age, gender, and skin color make them targets.

Police know that possibly scores of people saw this murder happen as they drove down Lincoln Boulevard that evening, and they seek their help to halt a retaliation cycle that already has taken two lives and could take others, if it continues. Pacific Division detectives ask people with information to call (310) 482-6343.