Junius Wilson, 49

Oct. 3, 2013

Junius Wilson, a 49-year-old black man, was shot and killed Thursday, Oct. 3, in the 10700 block of South Broadway in Broadway-Manchester, according to Los Angeles County coroner’s records.

Wilson was shot in the chest and collapsed in the courtyard of the 108 Motel, which is two blocks from the LAPD’s Southeast Community Police Station.

Investigators believe Wilson was standing in front of the motel when two men drove westbound on 108th Street in a light-colored compact car and began shooting, said LAPD Det. Supervisor Sal LaBarbera.

A woman who was nearby heard the shots.

“I thought I heard a firecracker,” she said. “You could hear the echo.”

Wilson ran into the courtyard of the motel and collapsed.

He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:18 p.m., according to coroner’s records.

Detectives found a single casing at the scene.

Anyone with information can call LAPD’s Criminal Gang Homicide Division at (213) 485-4341. Those who wish to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-8477.

-- Nicole Santa Cruz

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Gil: The question posed by Anon seems more general than specific to this case, so I thought it worth addressing. Despite a number of high-profile homicide cases in which race was a motive, the vast majority of homicide victims die at the hand of someone of their own race/ethnicity.

From our FAQ (forgive us for the date on the stats but the patterns have remained consistent):

Take the four most violent LAPD police precincts -- Newton, 77th Street, Southwest and Southeast.

These racially-mixed divisions cover Historic South-Central Los Angeles and surrounding areas and consistently rank highest in homicides among the LAPD precincts. In 2006 they accounted for nearly half of all the murders in the city.
But out of a total of 236 homicides in these four divisions in 2006, 22 involved Latinos killing blacks, or blacks killing Latinos.

The vast majority, nearly 90%, involved suspects and victims of the same race. In a few other cases, the suspects are unknown and could represent disparate races. But even in those, a mix of stray-bullet, gang- and narcotic-related killings, race is not believed to be a motive.

In areas patrolled by the L.A. County Sheriff's Department, too, the pattern of killings on the street is “almost the opposite” of the picture lately highlighted in the media, sheriff's Cmdr. Pete Amico says.

The tilt is so far the other way that some homicide investigators say what actually perplexes them is how little racial crossover there is in killings.

Same-race murder predominates even where blacks and Latinos mix the most. In LAPD’s Southeast Division in Watts, for example, the population is at least 56% Latino and 40% black, according to U.S. Census numbers. But of 70 homicides reported there in 2006, only one was confirmed as black-on-Latino. No Latino-on-black killings occurred.

— Megan Garvey / L.A. Times Nov. 20, 2013 at 5:23 p.m.

The Homicide Report

Junius Wilson, 49

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