3:00pm | A 17-year old boy who sustained a gunshot wound to the upper body during a Monday night shooting at Pacific & Cypress died from his wounds today.
Jeffrey Jackson was a senior at Reid High School, according to the Long Beach Unified School District. Friends described him as a shy but friendly kid who had to be talked into attending prom. Jackson loved basketball and was a guard on the local Boys & Girls Club team.
He was listed in grave condition following the shooting and authorities say that he succumbed to his injuries Wednesday.
Jackson was standing with two other males when the shots rang out around 10:00pm Monday night. A 20-year old sustained non-life threatening injuries and an 18-year old male was not injured. Police told local business employees on Tuesday that about six shots were fired in the incident. Authorities are investigating the shooting as possibly gang-related.
Police have not established a motive for the shooting, but are looking into the possibility that the incident could be linked to a Sunday night shooting that injured two 15-year old boys on bicycles near 8th & Daisy and also injured a 12-year old Hawaiian Gardens boy as he left a family barbeque at 7th & Magnolia.
Long Beach Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell said Tuesday night that the 12-year old was hit in the neck. “Amazing that he lived,” he told the crowd at a public forum. McDonnell also called for more community outrage after violent events.
“Unfortunately we see [violence] so often and you read about it so often we’ve become numb to it, and we don’t have the sense of outrage that we should have,” McDonnell said. “It’s all about business as usual the day after an 11-year old kid is shot and almost killed; it doesn’t make a lot of sense when you think about it.”
In response to the two shootings in consecutive nights, Police have beefed up patrol units in the surrounding neighborhood and will strictly enforce curfew violations after 10:00pm. In addition, a special task force has been assigned to the area to prevent further violence.
Anyone with information should call Homicide Detectives Malcolm Evans or Daniel Mendoza at 562.570.7244.
