2 Dead Teenagers…USC Reporters Insist the Murders Matter

At around 3:30 in the afternoon on March 13, two Franklin High School students—a 15 and a 16 year old—were shot to death on Figueroa Blvd. in Highland Park. The shooting occurred in broad daylight with scores of other kids around. The police described it as a gang related homicide. Yet it was not at all clear that the dead boys were gang members. Friends and family insisted to the contrary. One of the murdered boys, Alejandro Garcia, was even in Franklin High’s ROTC program.

Still, while there was one brief online-only mention in the LA Times about the murder, there was no follow-up. The rest of the LA media also paid scant attention.
Nine USC Annenberg journalism students decided that the murdered boys deserved better.

So they decided to cover the story themselves.

The students happened to be part of an investigative journalism class taught by my pal and colleague Alan Mittelstaedt. Since he likes students to have real world experiences as they learn, one of the subjects he suggested his class cover was the double homicide.

Yet, while the idea was initially his, it was the students, he said, who “totally embraced it.”

Class members brainstormed to determine the best angles from which the story could be covered and listed the results on the classroom white board. Then assignments were made.

Here’s what Alan told me about why the class was drawn to this particular tragedy.

What went down in Highland Park on March 13 is no more or less worthy of coverage by a team of nine reporters than any number of killings in Los Angeles. But three or four things drew us into the lives of Alejandro and Carlos: They were shot dead in the middle of the afternoon, near one of the busiest intersections of the city and the mainstream media mostly ignored it. When the police called it gang-related, as is so common, the media –and public–seem to lose interest as soon a crime is dubbed gang-related. Not this class. You should have heard some of the impassioned speeches about how the death of every teenager in this city is worthy of a story.”

Last night the first of the students’ work was posted on Annenberg’s Neon Tommy:

Kim Daniels and Shannon Pence, put together this excellent and moving portrait of one of the victims, 16-year-old, Alejandro Garcia.

….And there is this report on the police investigation, by Richie Duchon:

The investigation into the murders of two teenage boys in Highland Park in mid-March is close to being solved, the lead detective on the case said.

Alejandro Garcia, 16, and Carlos Hernandez, 15, were shot and killed Mar. 13 on busy Figueroa Street near Highland Recreation Center Park during the afternoon, just as school was letting out for the week. The shootings happened just before 3:30 p.m. when a group of suspected gang members approached the teens and an argument broke out. According to police, one of the members pulled out a gun, shot the two teens and ran away with several others…..

And this story by Samantha Page and Kevin Patra about how gangs are a fact of life in Highland Park— but not all there is to life in the community.

There is still more to come in the team portrait of a double homicide. In the meantime, I asked the two video reporters, Kim Daniels and Shannon Pence, why they thought the Highland Park murders were an important story, and how they’d been affected by the experience of reporting on the victims.

Here’s what they wrote. Be sure to click through the jump, as their response is informative and should serve to reassure you that the future of the news business is in good hands with the new young crop of reporters that these two ably represent.

Yes, there are many many murders in LA County every year — the Homicide Report was great for filling that reporting void. However, usually deaths of minors make the news in some form. So the lack of coverage begged the question as to why the murders went unnoticed… was it because the kids died in Highland Park and may have been ‘gangbangers’ and therefore supposed to die violently?

Did the death of Jamiel Shaw receive excessive coverage because he was a star athlete and college-bound and therefore not supposed to die?

We wanted to know more about these kids. That is why the story mattered.

This was both Shannon and my first experience thoroughly reporting a murder. Speaking to the family of Alejandro Garcia, who desperately want their son’s killer to be found, it was difficult to balance the respect we have for their grief with needing to put together a solid story in a timely manner. Of course, we wanted to spend time with them and give them a chance to express everything they wanted to say. However, in a three minute package, you can only include so much.

It was emotionally exhausting but at the same time, a great motivator to put the story together.

Saying that, we both think it would have been extremely difficult to do a story like this on a one or two day deadline – how do you tell a mother to stop talking about her son because you already have the soundbite you need?

The family thanked us for taking the time to talk with them and for putting the package together — and that felt nice. We feel like we were able to give them a place to express their feelings – even if it was only a few minutes.

We were a bit surprised as to how helpful people were in connecting us with the family and friends of Alejandro. That was a very inspiring aspect of the reporting because the community cared very much about getting this story out.

However, another aspect that we are confronting as young reporters covering sensitive stories such as this are the nuances that one chooses to include and those that we chose to leave out.

The fact is we cannot confirm that what the family said is actually the truth. Alejandro’s friends told us about some events that contradicted the family’s claims.

In the end, this was not an investigative piece that sought to ferret out whether or not Alejandro was involved heavily in a gang (and we don’t think he was), but rather a piece about a 16-year old that was shot and killed in broad daylight on a busy street with his friend. We wanted to give a little insight to this person’s life as a student, a brother, a friend, and a son. So, we decided to include the material that was relevant to the goal.

Making those kinds of judgement calls is not easy at this point – I’m not sure if it ever gets easier. But, it continues to surprise me when I think I can convey a lot of information in a story only to find that there may be an equal amount that I must leave out.

(Additionally, we were mindful of the information we included because we were worried about the safety of the people who talked with us. Most likely, we could have included everything and there would have been no negative consequence – but the volatility with respect to gangs in our communities is real and we didn’t want to take any chances with that.)

Kim and Shannon

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PS: It looks like a few people are finally starting to pay attention to the murders.

Yesterday, the LA City Council voted to offer a $75, 000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the shooters.