15-year-old to face murder charge
Prosecutors plan to charge a teen with murder, accusing him of firing into a crowd in Watts this month and killing a 1-year-old boy cradled in his father’s arms, authorities said Thursday.
Los Angeles police describe the 15-year-old suspect, Donald Ray Dokins, as a Fudgetown Mafia Crips gang member. Prosecutors plan to charge Dokins as an adult with one count each of first-degree murder and attempted murder. The arraignment is scheduled for Friday morning.
Dokins was taken into custody Wednesday after LAPD detectives obtained information linking him to the June 4 shooting that killed Angel Mauro Cortez Nava and wounded the child’s father, Mauro Cortez, according to court documents and law enforcement sources familiar with the case.
Dokins was identified as a suspect within days of Angel’s death, according to the June 13 search warrant affidavit. He also is believed to be “a suspect in previous murders,” according to court papers.
The shooting sparked outrage in South Los Angeles, and $100,000 in reward money was offered for information leading to the gunman’s capture.
On June 4, Cortez, holding Angel, and several people in his extended family were gathered outside their home in the 10500 block of Hickory Street. As they talked, an assailant wearing a gray shirt rode by on a bicycle and fired multiple times into the group.
Cortez been wearing a purple shirt shortly before the shooting. The color is identified with the neighborhood’s Barrio Grape Street gang, a rival of the Fudgetown Mafia Crips.
But LAPD officials said that Cortez is not a gang member and that they believe the shirt did not play a direct role in the shooting.
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