Victim was devoted to helping people

Here is a dispatch from the Homicide Report, an latimes.com blog devoted to chronicling every homicide in Los Angeles County:

Antwan Cole loved helping people.

The 19-year-old’s grandmother, Everlean Cole, recalled the day he tried to help a homeless woman on his way home.

The woman was struggling with a shopping cart, and Antwan Cole tried to assist. But the woman refused and nearly hit him, Everlean said. Two police officers pulled over to investigate. He told them he was just trying to help. “I said, ‘Baby, sometimes you just can’t help some strangers,’ ” she said. Antwan’s response was: “ ‘I know. But, Granny, she was struggling so hard.’ ”

Antwan Cole was shot about 11 p.m. Feb. 8. He had just finished his shift as a security guard at the Unocal 76 facility off Broadway and 135th in Athens, and was waiting at a nearby bus stop. He had been taking the bus since losing his driver’s license due to unpaid parking tickets, his grandmother said. As he waited, he chatted on his cellphone with his 18-year-old cousin. He told his cousin a car had passed him and was turning around. The call ended moments later.

Paramedics transported Antwan to a hospital, where he died a few minutes after midnight.

Antwan was one of five children. His grandmother took custody of him when he was 6. He had graduated from Westchester Senior High School, where he played football until he ruptured his rotator cuff. He was enrolled at L.A. Trade Tech College and wanted to become a sports commentator, his grandmother said.

He loved sports, said Everlean Cole, 67. “He could tell you everything, from high school, to college, to professionals; all of it,” she said.

He was a loyal Lakers fan. She recalled telling him that Kobe Bryant hogged the ball too much. Antwan wouldn’t hear anything against him.

“You’ve got to give Kobe time, Granny; he’s just a good player,” her grandson would say.

He tried to get his cousin, Trevalle Cole, 12, into playing football. He and Trevalle would do push-ups, sit-ups and lift weights together.

Friends said he liked to debate a range of topics.

“I’ll miss our debates,” a friend wrote on his memorial poster.

A few years ago, Antwan Cole had been shot at but survived, his grandmother said. He and a friend had stopped at a Burger King on their way to work. Inside the restaurant a group of young men kept staring at them. At the nearby intersection of 108th Street and Western Avenue, the same group of men pulled up next to them and began shooting, she said. Cole sped off, pulled over, and then ran with his friend. Neither of them were hit.

At a vigil at the bus stop on Feb. 12, a woman from across the street came to offer condolences. She told Everlean Cole she had been there the night of the shooting. Antwan had kept saying, “Oh no, not again,” she said.

At his funeral, people packed Simpson’s Family Mortuary in Inglewood. Several stood behind the white double doors; a few peeked through a diamond glass panel to glimpse the service. Those who couldn’t get in waited on the steps. As people lined up to view Cole’s body, several broke down. Others waited until they got outside and screamed. A few struggled for breath through their tears as they walked down the stairs and into the parking lot.

“They destroyed a beautiful life,” Everlean said. Her grandson, she said, “was going places.”

A bonfire was held at Dockweiler Beach on Feb. 16 to celebrate Cole’s 20th birthday. Family and classmates from Westchester and L.A. Trade Tech attended the event.

On Saturday night, family members were told that the college was creating a scholarship in honor of Antwan.

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ruben.vives@latimes.com

For more dispatches, go to: latimes.com/homicidereport