Toddler, Aunt Injured in Drive-By Shooting

At 15 months old, all Jayzon Martinez wanted from life Wednesday night was to be able to step outside his grandmother’s oven-like house in Compton for a few minutes to play in the cool night air with his older brother and aunt.

But nighttime is not that simple anymore along South Claymar Avenue. Before Jayzon could get outside, a bullet tore through the front screen door and pierced one of his lungs.

Jayzon, who was taken to Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, is expected to survive what Compton police described as a drive-by shooting. Hospital officials listed him in stable condition Thursday evening. His 18-year-old aunt, Artreece Thompson, who was hit in the buttocks while diving to protect Jayzon’s 2-year-old brother Tyler, was also in stable condition, hospital officials said.

Jayzon, whose disarming smile moved his mother to get him an audition for a baby food commercial, may not be able to breathe without trouble again, doctors told family members.

And those who live on Claymar, as the Thompson family has for more than 30 years, may not be able to enjoy the night breezes anymore without fearing what many describe as a rise in neighborhood violence.

Jayzon’s uncle Earnest Morrison, 22, who grew up in the same house, remembered when “we used to have block parties here, greet each other over the fence. . . . Man, I don’t think there is a house on this block I haven’t been in. That’s how close we were.” Morrison has fond memories of playing football in the street at night and riding motorbikes in a nearby field.

Morrison was among several family members looking after the two boys Wednesday night while their mother went to a movie.

“All this has changed,” Morrison said. “Something like this has never happened to us before. But it happens in the neighborhood now.”

Compton Police Sgt. Ron Thrash said arrests are imminent. A getaway car was found nearby on North Tajauta Avenue. So far, the motive is unclear, Thrash said, but police are pursuing leads.

Drive-by shootings have increased in Compton as well as in South-Central Los Angeles, he said.