Family mourns a young man who didn’t make it home

A small collection of candles sits near a street lamp outside Lincoln Elementary School in Long Beach, the only indication that Jesus Nava, 23, was shot to death there at 11 p.m. on Dec. 12.

The intersection where he was killed -- 11th Street and Orange Avenue in East Long Beach -- was just seven blocks from where he lived.

“He just never made it back home,” his sister, Rosa Nava, said of that night.

She learned of her brother’s death when Long Beach police detectives visited her home about 3 a.m., as she and her husband were preparing to go to work on their delivery route for the Los Angeles Times.

At the time of the shooting, her brother had been walking home from the Anaheim Metro station on 11th Street after visiting his parents in North Long Beach -- something he did each weekend.

“All the brothers would be there all the time on the weekends,” his sister said.

A recently out-of-work roofer, he had been living with his sister and her family since September. The day before he was killed, he received his unemployment check and gave his sister $150 to help pay for food for her family of six, including his four nieces and nephews.

“He knew we were currently struggling to buy groceries,” she said.

The other part of his unemployment check was going to be devoted to buying diapers for his 2-year-old son, Joseph, who lives with his mother in North Long Beach, where Nava was from, near where the 710 and 91 freeways meet.

People in their North Long Beach neighborhood have known Nava “since he was in diapers,” his sister said.

Most Christmases at their parents’ home are busy, she said. Nava had four brothers and two sisters, and they all take their families to celebrate, filling the home with more than 20 people.

This Christmas, Rosa Nava said, her brother planned to buy games for his son and his ex-girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter, Lucy.

Instead, all Christmas plans for the family were canceled.

Two days before Christmas, services were held for Nava at All Souls Mortuary://stei-23703.tributes.com/show/Jesus-Nava-87408631 in Long Beach. His ashes were entombed last week.

“There’s still that one [present] that’s still there,” Rosa Nava said of a gift for her brother, left unopened.

Nava is the only member of his family to die in recent years, his sister said.

Some of their great-grandparents are still living and were not even told of his death because family members believed it would be too hard for them to learn that they had outlived their 23-year-old great-grandson.

The possibility of Nava’s death being gang-related is being considered, although Det. Patrick O’Dowd said authorities do not believe Nava had any gang involvement and were “still investigating different theories.”

“It’s even harder when the victim has small children, especially around the holidays,” O’Dowd said.

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to contact O’Dowd or Det. Terri Hubert at (562) 570-7244.

lauren.williams@latimes.com

For more, go to latimes.com/homicide report.