VENICE : Police Seeking Killer of Man Found Shot to Death in Alley

A 33-year-old man was found shot to death this week, slumped over the wheel of his van in an alley, police said.

The body of Paul Edward Medina was discovered about 4 a.m. Monday by two passers-by, said Detective David Straky of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Pacific Station. Medina was found in a 1985 blue Dodge Caravan pushed into a fence at the intersection of California and Electric courts.

Police said the alley is used as a shortcut by residents and is in a high-crime area, although no motive has been established for the shooting.

“We don’t believe it’s a gang-related shooting,” Straky said. “As for robbery, we just don’t know--the victim’s wallet was found in the vehicle.”

Eloisa Medina, the victim’s mother, said her son was last seen about 8 p.m. Sunday in a Sav-On drug store near the corner of Lincoln Boulevard and Rose Avenue, two blocks from his home.

Medina, married and the father of two children ages 8 and 2, was a Venice High School graduate and an ex-Marine. He worked as an aircraft assembler for Northrop in El Segundo.

“All he cared about was work and his family,” said Eloisa Medina. “All his life we never had a problem with him.”

“I don’t know why they killed him,” his wife said, sobbing. “There was no other man in this world as devoted to his family.”

Anyone with information is asked to call Pacific Station detectives: (310) 202-4506.