Video: In their own words

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Last week, this page covered a routine news conference at LAPD’s Southwest Division station for detectives to seek help from the public in two July murder cases.

The event took an unusual turn, when the two bereaved mothers, Ora Smith, mother of victim Aric Lexing, and Gwen Presley, mother of victim Michael Presley, delivered impassioned speeches instead of the usual quiet pleas. ‘The best I’ve heard,’ one cameraman quietly told Smith after the event. The speeches were cut from at least one newscast, however, and Det. Vince Carreon, investigator on the Presley case, was so disappointed that he asked if they could somehow get air time. So here, courtesy of KTLA, are what these two mothers had to say.

Background: Lexing, 26, far left, had just gotten his graduate degree and was trying to get hired by the Border Patrol when he was killed in a shooting that also killed his friend Scott Grant, 40, about 3:30 a.m. July 20 in the 4000 block of Stevely Drive in lower Baldwin Hills.

Presley, 19, near left, was shot in the 4500 block of West Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard a short distance away in a separate homicide about 9 p.m. July 15. His mother has suffered bereavement by homicide twice: Michael’s father was shot to death in 1987. The two are buried in the same grave.

Southwest detectives seek tips in both cases. Their number is (213) 485-2417.