Crenshaw HS star student-athlete killed in South LA shooting

A 16-year-old boy who was set to begin his senior year in the fall was shot to death in South Los Angeles over the weekend, officials said.

On Saturday, June 10 around 11:50 p.m., Los Angeles Police Department officers responded to a shots-fired call in the area of 74th Street and Western Avenue in South LA's Manchester Square neighborhood where they located Quincy Reese Jr. suffering from at least one gunshot wound.

Paramedics pronounced Reese dead at the scene, LAPD Norma Eisenman said.

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. His death has left the community heartbroken.

"He was a great outgoing personality," Ed Waters, the Crenshaw High boys' basketball coach told the Times.

Reese's father, 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.

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 him up from the event.

"He was an outstanding kid," Reese Jr.'s godfather Don Johnson told FOX 11. "Honor roll student, listened to his parents, godparents. Always got good grades. Had 58 scholarship opportunities to go — basketball, football, whatever he wanted to go. It's just a senseless act for a great young man to lose his life at just 16 years old."

His friend told FOX 11 he does not believe Reese was targeted.

"No, they were just trigger-happy," his friend told FOX 11 about the suspects.

Neither a description of the suspects nor a possible motive was available.

A GoFundMe has been set up to cover his funeral expenses.  

Anyone with information is asked to contact South Bureau Homicide Division detectives at 323-786-5100. Anyone wishing to remain anonymous can contact the LA Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.

FOX 11's Digital Team contributed to this report.