Los Angeles

Teen's Murder in South Los Angeles Remains Unsolved

The panic came through in the 911 call.

"They shot up the whole care, he's bleeding! He's bleeding!"

It was a teenager on the line. He had never made a call like that before, but this night, he had no other choice.

"Where's the ambulance? I need the ambulance here, please!"

Dying in the backseat of the car was 17-year-old Christopher Saucedo.

Paramedics arrived to take him to the hospital and he would survive on a ventilator for only two more days.

"Horrible," is how Saucedo's aunt Rosio Morales remembers those final days. "When the doctor arrived, he told us they couldn't do anything that the boy was brain dead."

LAPD South Bureau Homicide Detective Taaj Mohammad says three teens were in that car on Dec. 9, 2016, just after midnight, at 41st and Menlo in South LA.

"A male Hispanic suspect stepped out into the roadway from this side of the street, walked over to the side of the car and asked them where they were from," she says.

It's a common question among gang members, but these young boys weren't part of any gang. That's when the driver hit the gas and the killer pulled the trigger.

"Pop pop pop pop pop pop!" a neighbor recalled the morning after, preferring to remain anonymous. Crime scene photos released for the first time show the shattered back window of the car and the hole one bullet left in the back headrest before killing Saucedo.

"He just started laying down shots from the back of us," one of the teens in the car remembered, "and our friend turned back and it hit him in the head."

Police say the area of the shooting is known for gang crime.

"There's a lot of gang activity on this street and the next couple of blocks over," Mohammad says, adding that it doesn't necessarily make the local gang a suspect.

More than a year later and gang graffiti litters the landscape – monickers left on street signs, sidewalks and curbs.

It's the reason – maybe – why police have had little help in the case.

"We canvassed this whole area," Mohammad says. "We door-knocked the whole block and we haven't received calls back from anyone."

But Saucedo's family says that's exactly the reason why someone should forward.

"It's OK if they snitch because they're doing the right thing, to help us and to help our family," Saucedo's younger cousin Angel says.

For Saucedo's mother Nancy, she can barely speak of her son without tears streaming down her face and her voice shocked with pain.

Her shrine in the family's home is a constant reminder of what could have been; it's adorned with photos of Christopher and the high school diploma he was just months away from receiving.

"He had so many plans, it's not fair," says girlfriend Diana Reyes, "it's not fair that they took him from us."

Anyone with information is asked to contact LAPD South Bureau Homicide at 323-786-5113. Those wishing to remain anonymous can contact CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-8477. There is a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those involved.

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