Reward offered in 2015 shooting of aspiring firefighter

Marquise Lawrence was 7 years old in March 1996 when his father, Kevin, was gunned down in South Los Angeles. Nineteen years later, when his own daughter was 7 months old, Lawrence was shot to death in Compton. 

The 26-year-old El Camino College student was killed March 18, 2015, as he was driving home from work about 5 p.m.

Kevin Lawrence’s killing has never been solved, but investigators and family are hoping that a $10,000 reward will help identify the man responsible for killing Marquise Lawrence, a former football player who was working two jobs while taking classes to become a firefighter. 

The reward, provided by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, was announced Thursday during a news conference that included Lawrence’s now 19-month-old daughter, Jazalyn; her mother, Karen Lee; and members of Lawrence’s family, including his paternal grandmother, Joann Lawrence Haynes, and his paternal uncle Lee Miller. 

“Marquise wanted to be a firefighter so bad,” Haynes said. “He’d go on ride-alongs with firefighters and volunteer to help them. He was just a good person. I’m telling you, if somebody asked him for money, he would give them his last two dollars, even though he needed the money himself. I’d ask him why, and he’d always say, 'Well, he needed it worse than me.'”

Lawrence’s generous nature has made it hard to discover a motive for his shooting, said investigators from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Lawrence was not a gang member and appeared to be well-liked, said Lt. Joe Mendoza.

“We haven’t been able to find anyone who had a beef against him,” Mendoza said. “Was it a random shooting? We really don’t know. That’s why we’re reaching out to the public for help.”

Lawrence was driving home from his job at a Home Depot store in Paramount, heading east on Johnson Street near Willowbrook Avenue, a short distance from his apartment in Compton, when he was shot by someone in a blue SUV heading in the opposite direction, said Sgt. Guillermo Morales. 

Witnesses described the shooter as a black male about 20 to 25 years old, with a heavyset build and an Afro hairstyle about 2 to 3 inches long, investigators said. The suspect was driving a 1990s-era SUV, possibly a Chevrolet Tahoe, and last seen heading north on Acacia Avenue from Johnson Street. 

During the news conference, young Jazalyn romped around the podium as somber family members described Marquise Lawrence's life. 

After his father died, Marquise and his mother moved in with her mother, Dee Henry Lee, who became vice president of human resources at Antelope Valley Community College in Lancaster before her death in 2013.

Lawrence was a football running back at Desert Christian High School in Lancaster and later played football at UC Davis, Orange Coast College and the University of Kansas, family members said. But he came to see football as a dead end, said his girlfriend Karen Lee, and decided to focus on his longtime passion for firefighting.

He completed a wildfire training course at the Antelope Valley Fire Academy and another training course at the Verdugo Fire Academy in Glendale while he was going to college. He also earned a sponsorship from the Stentorians of Los Angeles County, an association that helps young black men become firefighters. 

Lee and Lawrence met through a mutual friend in 2010 and started dating. While he attended El Camino College in Torrance, Lee was working on her master's degree in social work at USC and living with her mother in Monrovia. That's when Jazalyn was born.

Lawrence didn’t have a car at the time, Lee said, but he still made frequent visits. “He’d take three trains at night, just to see his daughter for an hour, and then leave again to go home,” she said. “We were planning to get married before our daughter’s first birthday, after I finished my degree.”

Lee did finish her degree three months after Lawrence was killed, thanks, she said, to the support she received from family, friends and her college professors. “I honestly didn’t know how I was going to take care of our daughter, and handle the grieving while going to school, but my professors were really, really supportive.” 

One of the hardest parts for his family has been trying to comprehend what happened. They hope the reward will flush out information about Lawrence's killer and give them some closure, Lee said after the press conference. “It won’t bring him back,” she said, “but it’s hard knowing [his killer] is running free.”

Haynes, who lives in Long Beach, said she worried about her grandson living in Compton because of the gang activity. “But he’d say, ‘I don’t do anything with those people. I go to work, and I go school, and that’s all I’m doing until I can get out.’” 

She last talked to him the morning he died, unhappy that she hadn’t heard from him in a while. “I said, ‘I love you so much. You have to call me to let me know how you’re doing. There’s just too much going on.’ And he said, ‘I’m all right. I’ve just been studying.’ And that was it. ... I didn't talk to him anymore. He was all I had left from my son, and it hurts. It hurts so bad.”

Anyone with information should call Morales or Det. Steve Blagg at the Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau, (323) 890-5500. Those wishing to remain anonymous should call Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-8477. 

Top photo: Keith Haynes, with wife Joann Lawrence Haynes, grandmother of homicide victim Marquise Lawrence, at the lectern during a press conference announcing a $10,000 reward for information leading to Lawrence's killer. They were accompanied by Lawrence's 19-month-old daughter Jazalyn, a family friend and, far right, Lawrence's girlfriend and Jazalyn's mother, Karen Lee. Credit: Jeanette Marantos / For The Times. Bottom photo: Marquise Lawrence in 2014. Credit: Family photo

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