'When did we start killing mothers and babies?' minister asks at Carson vigil

Jose Love stood in the driveway of his Carson home Thursday night and glared into a wall of lights and cameras, just a few feet from where his son and ex-wife had been gunned down a few days before.

Love's 2-year-old granddaughter sat quietly in his arms, looking a little puzzled at the crowds who had gathered to mourn Love's son, Jordan Love, 27, and Jordan's mother, Michele Kelly-Love, 54.

Jose Love told those who came to seek justice instead of retaliation, and begged anyone with information to come forward. 

Now, looking sternly into the cameras, he had a message for the people who killed Jordan and Michele.

"If you had grown up in a village like Michele and Jordan, there is no way you could have even thought about snuffing out a life," Love said, clutching the tiny girl at his side.

"I want you to see what innocence looks like. It looks like my wonderful granddaughter, who now has to grow up without her father, and without her grandmother."

Jordan Love and his mother were killed about midnight on Feb. 28, as they were returning from a family outing, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. Joe Mendoza.

Michele Love had just parked her compact SUV at the curb to drop off her son at his father’s house. Jordan’s grandmother, was in the front passenger seat, and Jordan was in the back.

A dark-colored sedan drove by and sprayed the car with bullets, Mendoza said, and Michele and her son were pronounced dead moments later.

“Jordan died in his father’s arms, and Michele’s mother ran around the car to be with her,” recalled Love’s long-time neighbor Willie Carpenter. “Jose was saying, ‘My son!’ and she’s saying, ‘My daughter!’ I tell you, it was a mess. This is one of the quietest streets in Carson, and it shouldn’t have happened.”

At the vigil, sheriff’s deputies closed the tree-lined street with manicured lawns as people congregated on foot. City officials and clergy took turns addressing the crowd with a similar message: A line has been crossed, and the killing must stop.

Carpenter’s son, Pastor Cedric Carpenter, said the community had to ensure that Jordan and Michele did not die in vain.

“Somebody knows something,” he said, “and in order for this community to recover, they have to have the courage to come forward.”

Carson Mayor Alberto Robles said the council approved a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer or killers.

“You should come forward because it’s the right thing to do,” Robles said, “but now we have $25,000 to help you come forward.”

Nation of Islam Minister Tony Muhammad urged the men in the crowd to join him in confronting gang members.

“When did we start killing mothers and babies?” Muhammad said, referring to 1-year-old Autumn Johnson, who was shot and killed in her Compton home in February.

“We need 10,000 fearless men to go to the streets and retrieve our sons,” he said.

There is gang activity around the area where the shooting occurred, but not normally on Tillman Street, where Jordan and Michele were killed, said sheriff’s Sgt. Eric Cheatham who patrols the Carson area.

Jordan wasn’t involved in a gang, family and investigators say, and the motive for the shooting is a mystery that has fueled unease in the area.

“I hang out in front of my house all the time late at night, taking phone calls…. This could have been any one of us,” said Jawane Hilton, a Carson pastor and City Council member who lives in the neighborhood.

“It used to be gang members would give a family a pass. Where are the passes now, shooting at a grandmother and a mother in the car?!” Hilton said, his voice rising against murmured agreements from the crowd. “We are angry. You know who you are, and as a councilman and a pastor, I pray you get no rest until you turn yourself in, and I pray the person next to you gets no rest until they turn you in.”

Anyone with information can call the sheriff’s Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500. Those wishing to remain anonymous should call Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-8477.

Contact the Homicide Report. Follow @latimeshomicide on Twitter.

Photo: Jose Love holds his granddaughter surrounded by family and friends during a vigil for his son and ex-wife who were killed Feb. 28. Credit: Jeanette Marantos, For The Times