Drawing of Assailant in Youth’s Stabbing Released : Crime: Police say they suspect a member of a Valley gang killed Lamoun Thames, 15, at a bus stop near Taft High School. A $25,000 reward has been offered.

Los Angeles police released a composite drawing Wednesday of an assailant who stabbed a 15-year-old Taft High School student to death while the boy was waiting at a Woodland Hills bus stop.

“We’re appealing to everyone in the community who knows anything about this crime to call us and help us,” said Deputy Chief Mark Kroeker, commander of the Los Angeles Police Department in the San Fernando Valley.

Police investigators said they suspect members of a San Fernando Valley gang may be responsible for the death of Lamoun Thames. But they hope the release of the composite drawing, as well as a $25,000 reward, will persuade more witnesses of the Aug. 5 attack to come forward.

The plea for the public’s help in tracking down the attackers came at a news conference held by police and city officials in a parking lot just 80 yards from the spot where Thames was slain.

Thames was stabbed in the chest several times at the corner of Ventura Boulevard and Winnetka Avenue, where he was waiting for a bus to take him home.

Thames, who had finished a preseason football practice across the street at Taft High School when he was attacked, was a transfer student who lived in South Los Angeles.

The assault began about 10 p.m. when a black, four-door car with darkly tinted windows pulled up next to Thames, homicide Detective Joel Price said.

Two of the five males in the car got out and asked Thames where he was from, a question commonly used to determine a gang affiliation. After Thames told them, “I’m not from anywhere,” one of the males stabbed him several times.

Witnesses who described the youth for the composite drawing told police the assailant looked about 16 or 17 years old, between 5 feet 6 inches and 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighing about 150 pounds, Price said. They said it looked as if the suspect had recently shaved his head and the hair was beginning to grow back.

The other male who got out of the car had curly hair pulled into a 3-inch ponytail, Price said.

Police said they are following several leads in the case, including members of a Latino gang that they declined to name.

Price said it does not appear that Thames was a gang member.

“I think it’s totally random,” Price said. “I think those hoods were just out looking for someone to confront and they found him.”

The funeral service for Thames is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday at Miracle Baptist Church in Los Angeles.

Times staff writer Jim Herron Zamora contributed to this story.