Candlelight Vigil Honors Boy 2 Years After His Slaying

Several dozen people gathered at a candlelight vigil honoring the memory of LaMoun J. Thames on Saturday evening, marking the second anniversary of the teen-ager’s death.

Thames was a 15-year-old student at Taft High School when he was fatally stabbed by gang members as he waited for a bus.

“We represent only a small fraction of the number of hearts that have been broken,” said Jane F. Lowenthal, with the group Mad About Rising Crime, as she gathered with others in the parking lot of the Ralphs supermarket near where Thames was stabbed. Thames’ mother arranged the vigil with the help of members of the victims support group.

The teen-ager had been waiting for a bus on the corner of Winnetka Avenue and Ventura Boulevard that would return him from football practice to his South-Central Los Angeles home.

News of the vigil drew Perry Franks, who lives five minutes away.

“It just makes me very sad to see what our times have come to,” said the father of four, as a woman lighted his candle. “A student shouldn’t be forgotten. A young life lost in such a senseless manner. . . . It could have been my kid.”

Last May, Oscar Andres Lopez and a 17-year-old boy were charged with Thames’ murder after an informant overheard them bragging about stabbing him. They are awaiting trial.

Thames’ sister, Shanise Anderson, held up her brother’s freshman football picture as she scanned the crowd memorializing her brother.

“It is good to see different faces,” she said, smiling at the number of people at the vigil who did not know Thames.

Anderson, who graduated from Taft High in 1992, has decided to attend USC in memory of the teen-ager deprived of his own chance to go to college.

“My brother always wanted to play USC football, so I think I will go there,” she said. “I am going to do it for him.”