Gunman Kills Woman During Robbery Attempt

A production assistant was shot to death during an attempted robbery in front of a co-worker’s Mid-Wilshire home after returning from a party celebrating the completion of a new documentary, police said Friday.

Tamu Bess, 39, was shot shortly after 10 p.m. Thursday, as her co-worker parked her car in front of the home in the 900 block of S. Victoria Avenue, said Los Angeles Police Detective Dan Andrews.

Bess was taken to Midway Hospital Medical Center where she died in surgery, Andrews said. The driver of the car, whose identity was not disclosed, was unharmed.

Before coming to Los Angeles last year, Bess was active in African-American political circles. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) and journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault were among those Friday who expressed sadness over the killing.

“Everybody is the wrong person to be dead, to be killed,” said Hunter-Gault. “But someone with so much life and so much promise and such a gift for commitment and spirit--it’s a waste.”

Bess and a friend had just returned from a restaurant where they and their fellow workers had celebrated the completion of a television program, said Frank Dawson, an executive at Burbank-based S. I. Communications.

As the pair pulled up in front of the home, a man approached the driver’s side of the car and pointed a handgun through the window, demanding that the women hand over their purses, said police.

“The women were startled and didn’t do anything momentarily,” Andrews said. “Then (Bess) said, ‘Oh, my,’ and the bandit extended the gun, pointed it right at the victim and shot her.”

The gunman then fled, empty-handed, Andrews said.

“It sounded like a terrible, unfortunate, senseless shooting--yet another one in Los Angeles,” said Waters, who learned of the killing from a friend.

Bess arrived in Los Angeles last September, giving up a life of grass-roots organizing on the East Coast for a chance at a job in television production, according to friends.

Only hours before the shooting, Bess had met co-workers at the Red Onion restaurant in Marina del Rey to celebrate the completion of “Story Of a People,” a two-hour special documenting the contributions of African-Americans to the arts.