As Teen Lies Dying, 2 Robbers Flee With the Booty--Burgers

As a South Los Angeles teen-ager lay dying in a mini-mall parking lot, holdup suspects robbed him of his $3.10 cheeseburger meal early Friday, police said.

Jesus Velos, 17, and a younger brother had just bought two dinners and returned to their car when two men demanded money and the food, investigators said.

When Velos refused, one of the suspects shot him, his brother said.

Doctors and police, however, were unable to find a bullet wound.

“He had a thin trickle of blood coming from his mouth,” said Detective Richard Simmons of the Los Angeles Police Department. “He might be shot in the mouth and the wound is not visible.”

At least two witnesses besides 14-year-old Antonio Velos said they heard a single shot, and one of the other witnesses saw a gun, police said.

The incident occurred about 2:30 a.m. outside Tam’s Burgers, a restaurant in the 4300 block of South Figueroa Street. Velos’ family said he and his brother were returning home from a party and stopped to get something to eat.

Detective Richard G. Santiago said the brothers bought their food and had returned to their car when two men--one of whom had a gun--approached the vehicle.

The men demanded money, and receiving none, demanded the food, said the detective. Antonio Velos told investigators he heard the gunshot after his brother pushed one of the suspects.

The gunman then reached inside the car, police said, and grabbed the two bags of food.

Antonio Velos bolted and ran back to the restaurant, he said, as the suspects fled, apparently on foot.

Jesus Velos was pronounced dead at California Hospital about an hour later.

The mother of the two youths, Margaret Dozier, sat in her tiny apartment above a storefront Friday with a roomful of relatives. They tried to make sense of what happened to Jesus, a Los Angeles High School student who was the father of a 13-month-old girl.

“The police said he could have had a heart attack from the sound of the gun, but he has never been sick,” said his mother.

Jesus lived with an older sister and came to his mother’s house only late at night, the family said, because he was afraid of being attacked by members of the Bloods street gang who claim the mother’s neighborhood as their turf.

Dozier acknowledged that her son was a member of the rival Crips gang, but said he had been forced to join several years ago when the family lived in a different neighborhood.

“They told him he couldn’t live there if he didn’t join,” said Dozier.

When the other gang members found out one of Jesus’ relatives had been a well-known gang leader, she said, they exempted him from initiation rites that often include requirements to commit crimes.

“He was in the gang, but he didn’t gang bang,” Dozier said. “He was a good kid.”

Santiago said police are operating on the assumption that Jesus was shot.

“If he was shot, it was a small-caliber gun,” said Santiago, “but then he may not have been shot.”

An autopsy, not yet scheduled, will determine the cause of death, he said.

Police said they were investigating the possibility that the suspects were involved in a robbery in the same parking lot a few hours before Velos died.

If it turns out that Velos was shot in the mouth, his family said that would be a tragic coincidence. A cousin who was like a brother to Velos was killed by a gunshot to the mouth two years ago in Pomona, the family said.