Photo: Victor McElhaney/Facebook
A university student and the son of an Oakland City Council member was fatally shot in what appeared to be an attempted robbery near the University of Southern California campus in Los Angeles shortly after midnight Sunday.
An LAPD spokesperson said the suspects are still at large and it was not clear if anything was taken during the alleged robbery attempt.
Councilmember Lynette Gibson McElhaney
Calling her son’s death a “senseless act of violence,” councilwoman Lynette Gibson McElhaney said in astatementthat her son was at USC to pursue his “lifelong love of music with some of the greats.”
Gibson McElhaney said Victor was “a son of Oakland. He was a musician who drew his inspiration from the beat, soul, and sound of the town and he belonged in every nook and cranny of Oakland.”
According to Annenberg Media, Victorbegan his studiesin jazz at USC’s Thornton School of Music in the fall of 2017. He had previously been a student at California State University East Bay. While at USC, he became a member of the school’s Center for Black Cultural and Student Affairs.
“He believed in the power of music to touch lives, to heal, and to bring hope,” USC Interim President Wanda Austin said in a statement, theAssociated Pressreports. “Victor’s loss will affect all of the faculty and students who knew him.”
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Angela Wellman, the founder of the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music, toldKGOthat Victor “represented our hope for our young people because he had it all.”
“If you have any question about how to be and move through your life as you grow into adulthood, pick up the phone and call Victor,” she said.
Erskine continues, “His drumming had swagger, but he did not. Victor seemed quiet, dignified and somewhat shy. Victor made the world a better place, and he should have had much more time to continue doing so.”
The USC campus area is no stranger to tragedy. Last week, a judge sentenced Albert Ochoa, 22, to a life sentence in the death of 24-year-old Xinran Ji, who was fatally beaten and robbed while walking home, theLos Angeles Timesreports. Xinran Ji was a USC graduate student from China.
Two years earlier, two Chinese graduate schools were killed after a failed robbery attempt near USC, the paper reports.
source: people.com
