Reward offered in killing of LADWP employee

A $50,000 reward is being offered in the killing of a 30-year-old man who was shot while standing in a driveway in the Harbor Gateway neighborhood over the summer. 

Akeem “AJ” Coburn was shot July 29 shortly after 10 p.m. by a person who walked up to him. Coburn tried to run and collapsed in the backyard of a home, police said at the time. 

Coburn was a hands-on father to two young girls, ages 6 and 10, and worked as a linesman for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, according to his family. He was the type to help others. He volunteered with his cousin's youth football league. He'd help his family move boxes if they needed it. Shortly before his death, he volunteered to help his fiancee’s father paint his house. 

At family gatherings, he was the first to arrive and was always on time, said his cousin Rosie Bishop.

“He loved his family to the core,” she said. 

He once told his mother he wanted to take some classes to be a linesman, so he could take care of her. “He did just that,” said Bernadette Coleman, Coburn’s mother. 

“It just breaks my heart to know they took a promising young man from off the street,” she said. “He had his head together.”

When Coburn was 5 years old, much of his family went to federal prison for years for financial crimes. 

“Even with that circumstance in his life, he didn’t allow that to make him bitter,” his cousin Joel Bishop said. 

And the situation taught him from an early age to stay out of trouble. 

“That kind of helped him and made him grounded,” Bishop said. 

Amy Bishop, also a cousin, said she wants people to know that Coburn was not involved in gangs or other criminal activity. 

“He knew what he wanted in life,” she said. 

Anyone with information is asked to call detectives at (323) 786-5111. Those who wish to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-8477.

Photo: Akeem Coburn Credit: Family photo