Praise for the Homicide Report

Re “Unlimited space for untold sorrow,” Column One, Feb. 4

We are grateful for Jill Leovy’s Homicide Report at latimes.com. It is not pleasant work to gather information on these tragedies and write them up.

It is also not pleasant to read about the stories of homicide victims that Leovy reported. However, this information is vital to our community so that we can work together to solve the epidemic of violence. I hope that The Times will continue to support this effort.

Although Leovy tracks only homicides, for many years Women Against Gun Violence tracked all deaths in L.A. County related to firearms -- including suicides and accidental shootings. And, while Leovy identifies primarily black and Latino victims, when you add in suicides, you realize that plenty of elderly white males are also dying as a result of firearms.

We hope that mothers like Althea Mizell and Vicky Lindsey will work to prevent other families from having to endure the pain they have experienced through the death of their children.

Roberta G. Schiller

Board Member, Women

Against Gun Violence

Los Angeles

Leovy’s article about L.A. homicide patterns is truly extraordinary and worthy of consideration for a Pulitzer Prize. How shortsighted of her editors to pull her off this story and the homicide blog she set up. There is so much more she could do with this work.

Claire Segal

Sherman Oaks