Former Police Explorer Dies After Shooting Outside Home

Homicide Det. Kevin Hall hadn’t seen Sean Rodriguez for several years when the 16-year-old entered the Pasadena police station on Monday to retrieve his impounded car.

Hall talked to the former member of the Police Explorers at 10 a.m. in the detectives bureau. At 7:35 p.m., at Huntington Memorial Hospital, the homicide investigator saw Rodriguez again.

This time, though, the youth was dead.

“It’s a weird coincidence,” said Lt. Jerry Schultze, who also knew Rodriguez when the boy was a Police Explorer three years ago. “I only have four homicide detectives, but the fact that he was talking to the one who would handle the investigation later was [strange].”

Rodriguez, who was shot once in the back outside his Pasadena home in the 900 block of East Orange Grove Boulevard, was not in a gang but associated with gang members, Schultze said. Police said they believe the shooting was gang-related, but they have no leads.