Public Aid Sought in Finding Boy’s Killers

Detectives declared Thursday that they have exhausted all of their leads in the Sept. 19 shooting death of a 17-year-old boy and need the public’s help in catching the killers.

At a news conference held in the roll call room of the LAPD’s South Bureau homicide station, detectives stood alongside the family of Mark Anselmo Cornelius Jr. to announce a $25,000 reward approved by the City Council for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the boy’s killers.

Mark was an Oakland resident who was spending the summer with his grandmother in Los Angeles.

“There is nothing wrong with saying so-and-so did it,” pleaded the grandmother, Norma King, addressing anyone who might know the identity of the killers. “There is always secrecy. It’s time for that to change.”

Police say Mark was waiting to cross the intersection of Buckingham Road and Exposition Boulevard in the Crenshaw district with a 16-year-old friend about 10 p.m. Sept. 19 when three gang members in a station wagon confronted them.

The occupants of the vehicle yelled gang slogans and then began shooting at the boys, officials said. Mark was taken to UCLA Medical Center, where he died the next day. His friend was unharmed. Neither victim had any connection to a gang, police said.

“They were cowardly acts,” said Mark Cornelius, the slain boy’s father.

Mark aspired to be a biologist or a veterinarian, Cornelius said. The boy used to tell his father that he never felt that he was in danger because he would never hurt any living creature.

Since his son’s death, Cornelius has started Brothers Against Random Killings, an organization he hopes will provide free over-the-phone counseling to youngsters who want to avoid gangs.