Teenager, Man Arrested in Fatal Weekend Shooting

Police are holding a 14-year-old Canoga Park boy and a Woodland Hills man in connection with the weekend shooting death of Francisco Rojas.

Det. Rick Swanston, a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department’s West Valley station, said the motive of the 1:30 a.m. Saturday shooting might have been robbery or a gang initiation. Police were still looking for two suspected gang members in the shooting.

Rojas, 29, of Canoga Park, his two brothers and his cousin were walking in an alley near the 7000 block of Jordan Avenue when a boy approached them and demanded money. The men refused and the boy walked away.

“They knew him because he used to live down the street,” Swanston said. “He was serious, but [the brothers] didn’t take him seriously.”

The boy returned with three gang members who attacked the brothers with baseball bats and at least one gun, Swanston said.

Based on information provided by the victims and witnesses of the attack, police arrested the 14-year-old at his home Saturday afternoon. He was being held at Sylmar Juvenile Hall. His name was not released because of his age.

Brian Keith Thompson, 26, of Woodland Hills, was also arrested Saturday, and was being held at the West Valley Jail.

Neither was offered the option of bail.

The motive for the shooting has not yet been confirmed, but Swanston said one theory is that gang members were initiating the 14-year-old into their group. Police said the shooting victim was not a gang member.