16-year-old star athlete shot to death in South Los Angeles

A 16-year-old boy was shot to death in South Los Angeles and authorities were investigating his death Monday.

Officers responding to a shots-fired call about 11:50 p.m. Saturday in the area of 74th Street and Western Avenue located Quincy Reese Jr. suffering from at least one gunshot wound, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Paramedics pronounced the boy dead at the scene, LAPD spokesperson Norma Eisenman told City News Service.

Reese, a star basketball player at Crenshaw High School, was planning to go out for the football team and maintained a 3.4 grade point average, the Los Angeles Times reported.

“He was a great outgoing personality,” Ed Waters, the Crenshaw High boys’ basketball coach told the Times.

There was a vigil in Reese’s memory Sunday night when his father shared a message.

“He had an outstanding personality and grades were A-1,” his father Quincy Reese Sr. told ABC7. “He already did what he was supposed to do, which made sure that grades came first.”

He was an honor roll student with plans to play basketball in college.

Quincy Reese Sr. said in an interview with the paper that “my world changed” when his son was born and that he was going to be an “outstanding athlete.” He described his son as a gentleman who loved his basketball teammates and was not one to back down from a challenge.

Ed Waters, the head basketball coach at Crenshaw High School, told ABC 7 Reese Jr. had a bright future.

“Fifty-eight colleges … that’s not a regular human,” Reese Sr. told ABC 7 about the number of schools that were interested in his son playing for them. “He’s only in the 11th grade.”

He said his son had been with him all day Saturday before being dropped off at a party where his teammates would be. Reese Sr. said he was waiting to pick up him from the event.

The Times reported that the party was at an old motorcycle club in the Manchester neighborhood.

Neither a description of the suspect who shot Reese nor a possible motive were available, Eisenman said.

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