Authorities are looking for help to find the shooter who opened fire on 14-year-old Otis Rayjon Williams as he walked to a store nearly two years ago in Los Angeles' Florence-Firestone area.
Otis was killed on the night of July 3, 2020 as he walked alone in an alley near Central Avenue and East 98th Street in the South Los Angeles neighborhood. He died at a hospital, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department reported.
"He was only 14 years old when they took his life walking to the store,'' the teen's mother, Francine Brazil, said at a Wednesday morning news conference at the Sheriff's Homicide Bureau's office in Monterey Park. "Me and my family, we're still mourning. We just can't stop thinking about him, and missing him...
Get top local stories in Southern California delivered to you every morning. >Sign up for NBC LA's News Headlines newsletter.
"He was a good boy, and he was respectful. He respected all his elders, and we just miss him. He was a baby. I have seven kids, he was the baby of the family. ... He was my little buddy, but now he's gone. And I would like to hope the public would help, come forward with any information they have to find my son's killer.''
The shooter was in a blue 2016-2018 blue Dodger Challenger with a stripe on the hood and roof. The driver pulled up to Otis, reached out the window and fired several rounds
The shooter drove away on Central Avenue.
Local
Get Los Angeles's latest local news on crime, entertainment, weather, schools, COVID, cost of living and more. Here's your go-to source for today's LA news.
No description of the shooter was available. A motive for the crime was not known, said sheriff's Lt. Derrick Alfred.
Investigators said Otis, who was tall for his age, might have been mistaken for someone else, possibly an adult, in the dark alley. A reward of up to $10,000 for help in solving the crime is awaiting approval, Alfred said.
Anyone with information on the crime was urged to call the Sheriff's Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500, or Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.