Hope for New Leads in Cold Case Murder of High School Coach

He had just helped coach Morningside High's football team against a devastating loss to rivals Palos Verdes. Once those Friday night lights went dark, Eddy Lewis drove a friend home to South Los Angeles. That friend would survive his gunshot wounds, Eddy would not.

"I was in the bed and my wife started yelling," recalls Eddy Lewis, Sr. "I couldn't believe it."

It was the night the Lewis family broke.

Eddy Lewis, Jr. was the second of three boys. He wanted to be a registered nurse. Now his brothers nurse the hole left between them.

"No matter how much anger I showed or how many tears fell was never gonna bring him back," his brother Thyrell says, adding that Eddy always seemed to be the life of the party.

"Coolest cat I know and I'm not just saying that just cause he's my brother," he says. "It's just who he was, what he stood for."

"Eddy was a beautiful kid, a beautiful spirit," says his mother Celestine Lewis. She says her son had a yearning to help people.

"Eddy was very kind, very generous. He would help anybody and I would say that night he was doing just that."

911 calls from the area of 84th and Hoover described dozens of gun shots, then a car, still running, that had come to rest against a wall and ultimately two victims -- one who survived and crawled to a nearby home for help -- and Eddy Lewis, behind the wheel, who was pronounced dead on the scene.

"When I saw the white tent," his mother says of the crime scene tent placed over the vehicle where her son's body still sat. "I knew. And I said, Lord, my baby is gone."

It was October 25, 2014. LAPD South Bureau's Criminal Gang Homicide Division Detective Dean Vinluan says he continues to seek out answers into who killed Lewis.

"The suspect approached westbound from Hoover Street, firing. Not saying anything, just shooting," he said. Det. Vinluan says he believes Lewis and his friend were mistaken for gang members.

"He could have easily been misidentified or perceived as a gang members from this area," he said. "They don't recognize you, they're gonna take you as a threat."

Eddy's family says he had no gang ties -- far from it. An assistant football coach at Morningside High School, he grew up near Hawthorne and went to high school in Woodland Hills. His parents say the whole family was pushed to study hard -- all three boys played football, his oldest brother Thyron plays semipro football even now.

"A great person, a great heart, is gone too soon," Thyron said, in a slow and steady voice that still aches from the loss of his little brother. He says he had moments where he questioned God for what happened. "You find it hard not to. But you have to buckle down and don't do it."

The Lewis family says it understands the plight of other families who have suffered loss because of violence on the streets of South LA that continues today.

"People in those areas, they have to be aware that for these things to stop, they gotta come forward," Eddy's dad says. "Take my word that someone knows what happened. They know who done it."

And what they've done, his family says, is taken away someone making a positive impact on the community around him.

Derwin Henderson was head coach at Morningside when Lewis was killed. He's also an LAPD sergeant and was the one who identified Lewis when he was killed and had to give the news to his family.

"He was such a great role model," Henderson said, "Someone that can teach the kids positive things."

Henderson says the night Lewis died, he had given a memorable speech to the team in the locker room.

"After the game he gave a great speech about heart and determination and how the kids fought back and never gave up and how proud he was of them," he said.

Eddy's family says he had a way with words. At his funeral, the kids on the football team made posters with some of their favorite sayings from Coach Lewis:

"I'm proud of ya all, regardless of what the score was."

"What's up, quarterback? Wherever you go, they go."

"I know you can run faster than that, Homie, show me somethin' man."

"Bring your heart and your nuts!"

The loss for the Lewis family still runs deep as they continue to hope for someone to come forward with information on who pulled the trigger.

Eddy's 4-year-old niece Lundyn puts it simply: "Uncle Eddy was my best uncle in the whole wide world and I love him. And I didn't want him to get killed."

With faith, the family says it continues to cope. Thyrell says he believes of everyone in the family, Eddy is the one who's OK right now.

"He's got no worries, he's got no pain," he says, "He's all smiles. Here is where we gotta worry."

The family's worry now is whether police will be able to catch up to the killer.

"There's somebody out there," says Eddy, Sr., "they know who did it. Maybe see this and they'll come forward. I hope so."

This week, the city council approved a $75,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the killer.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to contact LAPD South Bureau Criminal Gang Homicide Division's main line at 323-786-5100. All callers can remain anonymous.