$50,000 Reward Offered for Information in Fatal Drive-By Attack

Anthony Campos Cerda Jr. was a good guy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time when he was gunned down on an Inglewood street in February. City officials on Tuesday put up a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the people responsible for his slaying.

Cerda, 20, of Echo Park, went to Inglewood on Feb. 28 to attend a party with two friends, said Det. Tom Chargaff. The group parked on 102nd Street and as they walked up the rundown street shortly after 9 p.m., a group of men in a white car drove by and began firing, fatally wounding Cerda.

Chargaff said Cerda and his friends had never been to Inglewood before. He said they didn’t realize that the street they were walking on was part of a gang’s territory.

Cerda’s mother, Maria, said her only child was a fun-loving man who always stayed away from gangs and worked hard. Cerda worked at the Trader Joe’s in Silver Lake, and police said his co-workers described him as a model employee.

Cerda had a 16-month-old son and was planning to marry his fiance, Adriana Gutierrez, later this year.

“When they killed him, they killed me,” said Gutierrez. “I just don’t know if I can go on.”