Educator Slain in Mysterious Freeway Attack

A popular, accomplished Lynwood educator was gunned down and killed on the Gardena Freeway in Compton during rush-hour traffic Wednesday afternoon and police said they have no idea what sparked the violence.

Less than 24 hours before his life ended in his wine-colored Chrysler Sebring, Gary Beverly had been promoted Tuesday night to director of student services and special education for the Lynwood Unified School District. At 39, he had already been a high school principal and an administrator and was a fast riser in a hard-knocks school district, said Laurence Adams, the former personnel director of the Lynwood district.

“Gary was a man who had such a great touch with the students, a guy who could really reach people, a real people person and one of the hardest workers I knew,” Adams said. “Without knowing him, you can’t imagine the loss.”

Beverly, of Carson, was driving west on the Gardena Freeway approaching Wilmington Avenue at 4:45 p.m. when he was shot several times with a large caliber weapon, said Frank Wheaton, spokesman for the city of Compton.

The driver-side window was blasted out and several exit holes pocked the passenger-side windows. Beverly was driving alone at the time.

“It could have been road rage, it could have been an intentional hit, it could have been a random act of gang violence,” Wheaton said. “We just don’t know right now why this happened.”

Compton police said there were no eyewitnesses, although a man who was driving a Cadillac several car lengths behind Beverly’s Chrysler heard the shots. That man ducked behind the wheel and peered up moments later to see the victim’s car drift off the freeway into a guardrail just beneath the Wilmington Avenue exit sign, Wheaton said.

No motorists, including the Cadillac driver, were able to give police a description of the vehicle that the suspected gunman was using. No other people were hit.

“We’re hoping somebody else out there has seen something, something they may not have thought was important at the time but will help us solve this,” said Compton Police Capt. Steven Roller.

Because of the traffic, Beverly was most likely driving no more than 10 mph when he was shot, Roller said.

Authorities shut down all westbound lanes of the Gardena Freeway from Sante Fe Avenue to Central Avenue for two hours to comb for bullet casings and other evidence. Little was found and traffic was backed up for miles, Roller said.

Beverly, a father of three and married, was active in his church, well-read and an educator who lived for the moments when he could surround himself with children, Adams said. For three years, he had been principal at Lynwood High School and helped smooth the way for the school to relocate from an aging campus to a $100-million facility that opened in 1998, said Lynwood Board of Education member Cynthia Green-Geter.

In January, he was promoted to director of student services for the 16,000-pupil district and on Tuesday he was given the added responsibility of overseeing the special education department.

“Losing Gary is enormous,” Green-Geter said. “He was able to connect with students and reason with them and reach people. He was one of the brightest and most valued administrators I had ever worked with.”