Teen Dies Shielding 2 Others From Gunman at Party

A Lancaster high school senior died shielding two teen-age girls from gunfire that erupted early Sunday after an argument over beer spilled on the gunman’s shoes, sheriff’s deputies said.

Witnesses told investigators that Rayshaun Love, 17, a student at Desert Winds High School, used his body to protect the 14- and 17-year-olds when the shooting started in a garage during a party, said sheriff’s Sgt. Robert Stoneman.

“He told them to stay on the ground and he would try and protect them,” Stoneman said.

“From what we’ve learned, it appears that the young man who was killed was an absolute hero,” he added. “That’s how our investigators consider him.”

Two men, ages 18 and 19, were hospitalized in serious condition with gunshot wounds, Stoneman said.

Love’s mother, Martha Jordan, said she moved her family to the Antelope Valley community three years ago to escape the violence and crime that confronted her son at their old home in Los Angeles.

“I moved from the Wilshire district to get away from crime and gangbanging because my child was not a gangbanger and I was scared for his life there,” Jordan said.

At the party in a garage, where more than 100 people, most of them teen-agers, had paid $3 each to dance and drink beer, an altercation broke out shortly before 1 a.m. Sunday, after someone accidentally spilled beer on the gunman’s shoe, said Stoneman.

The unidentified shooter first fired into the ceiling, sending party-goers running for cover, Stoneman said.

“As the first shot was fired, (Love) grabbed a 14-year-old girl and shielded her with his body,” Stoneman said. After the first shot, as the 17-year-old began to stand up, he pulled her down and shielded her too, Stoneman said, as the gunman fired three more shots. Love was struck once in the chest and died at the scene.

A second suspect stood in the doorway with a handgun, but investigators say he did not fire. Both ran from the party and into a waiting car, Stoneman said. Deputies were searching for both, who were believed to be from “out of the area,” he said.

The host of the party told investigators that he had hired people to act as security officers and frisk guests as they arrived.

Love, who had recently played on the basketball teams at Highland High School in Palmdale and at Antelope Valley High School, had been looking for a job to help his mother, who has been unemployed for more than a year, since the small newspaper she worked for went out of business.

“He was really outgoing, but he would baby-sit even when his friends made fun of him,” said Diann Wright, his aunt. “He liked to do it.”

He planned to try to enroll at Cal State Northridge in the fall, as his family prepared to move again--this time to Las Vegas. “He didn’t want to come with us,” Jordan said. “He wanted to stand on his own two feet, get an education and make something good of his life.”

His girlfriend, Detonya White, said Love “cared about himself, but he cared about others first.”