A shooting death reported this week in Boyle Heights brings the total number of neighborhood homicides in 2019 to nine –already surpassing the figure from the previous year.
Police are investigating the early Sunday morning killing of a 37-year-old man found shot to death around 4 am near the corner of First and Matthews Street, about three blocks East of the Hollenbeck Police station. The victim was identified by the Coroner’s office as Enrique Becerra, with no known address.
Police said a motive for the killing had not been established.
Sunday’s killing is the ninth homicide reported this year in Boyle Heights, according to the Los Angeles Times’ Homicide Report. Seven of the nine victims were shot to death; all but one of the victims were Latino males. There were eight homicides reported in Boyle Heights in 2018.
Sunday’s incident is the second shooting death reported this month in Boyle Heights. On June 10 an 48-year-old man was found shot to death inside an RV parked in an industrial zone on Washington Boulevard. He was later identified as 48-year-old Andrés Sánchez.
According to the Times, 12 people have been killed in Boyle Heights in the last 12 months.
