Gang Member Convicted in Drive-By Killing of Girl, 10

A Los Angeles street gang member was convicted Thursday of first-degree murder in the drive-by shooting of a 10-year-old girl, who was walking across the dining room of her family’s Inglewood home when she was struck in the head by a random bullet that crashed through a window.

Torrance Superior Court Judge Cecil J. Mills, after a brief, non-jury trial, found David Brooks Cole, 21, guilty of firing the shot that killed young Dominique Blackshear in February of 1987.

Cole, a member of the violent Rolling 60’s Crips gang, faces 30 years to life in prison when he is sentenced Sept. 9 by Mills.

Cole was convicted based on the eyewitness testimony of Blackshear’s brother, Andre Jackson, 21, for whom the shots were apparently intended.

Jackson was standing outside his family’s 77th Street residence at about 9:30 p.m. when about four bullets were fired from an old Chevrolet that slowly passed a few feet in front of him. One of the bullets crashed through a window of the home, striking Dominique, who died hours later on an operating table.

Inglewood police believe that Cole, who had been released from a California Youth Authority facility less than a month before the fatal shooting, was seeking to retaliate against the rival Inglewood Family Blood gang for a previous shooting incident.

The Blackshear home is in the middle of a neighborhood claimed by the Inglewood gang and Jackson was apparently a random target himself, police said.

In his testimony, Jackson said he saw Cole’s face for four seconds as the car passed under a street light.

Defense attorney Alan Eakin sought to discredit the eyewitness identification, noting that Jackson sounded somewhat less than positive that Cole committed the murder when he first selected his picture from a photo lineup.

But Mills, agreeing with the prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Janet Moore, said he believed the identification made by Jackson, who is currently awaiting trial on federal narcotics charges himself.

After the two-hour trial, the victim’s mother, Donna Blackshear, expressed relief.

“I’m just glad it’s over. Now we can go on with our lives,” said Blackshear, who works as a counselor at a shelter for homeless women.