(L.A.) Jose Flores Velazquez Died on a Street
Case Number: 2019-06160
Los Angeles County is reporting the death of a Hispanic male that occurred on a street.
The coroner’s office has identified the man as Jose Flores Velazquez.
Born in L.A. County. Mother’s maiden name is Velazquez.
Manner of Death: Homicide
Cause of Death: Gunshot Wound of Torso
RIP JOSE ANTONIO FLORES VELAZQUEZ (December 5, 1994 – August 14, 2019)
Formal pronouncement of death was made on Wednesday at 7:16 p.m.
The decedent and his childhood friend Alfredo Carrera were victims of a drive-up shooting in the 1100 block of East 68th Street.
They were standing near a parked SUV at around 7 p.m. when a 2004 blue Nissan Maxima pulled up and a passenger opened fire.
Flores Velazquez died at the scene, and Carrera was pronounced dead at a hospital.
A 27-year-old man named Jonathan Charles Johnson was arrested two days later and is suspected of being the vehicle driver.
Flores Velasquez was a physics doctoral student at UC Irvine and had his sights set on a job at NASA. Carrera was about to become a first-time father.
Seventeen-year-old Shanice Dyer, a member of the East Coast Crips, was charged with premeditated murder by then-District Attorney Jackie Lacey and was set to be tried as an adult. However, that changed when George Gascón took office in 2020.
One of the many blanket policies Gascón implemented on his first day in office was that no crime committed by a juvenile — no matter the circumstances — would ever be transferred to adult court.
As a result, Shanice Dyer was tried as a juvenile. Despite being convicted of two murders, she was in custody for less than four years.
The same woman who killed Alfredo and Jose was later accused of murder once again, allegedly aiding and abetting in the killing of 21-year-old Joshua Streeter.