Black teenager was shot to death a block from her Harbor Gateway home by a Latino gunman about an hour after school ended Monday.
By Larry Altman
The sister of victim Cheryl Green, Allena Vann, left, and grandmother Marlene Townes comfort her mother, Charlene Lovett.
The latest apparent victim of a decade-old turf war between blacks and Latinos in Harbor Gateway is a 14-year-old girl who loved to play video games, watch "Lizzie McGuire," eat Cheetos and hang out with friends.
Cheryl Green, who talked about going to college so she could become a doctor some day and deliver babies, was shot to death by a street thug Friday night just a block from her home. The shooter who gunned down Cheryl also wounded three of her teenage friends as they stood on a corner during daylight hours.
Why? Because they were black, family members say.
"It just makes no sense to me," said her older brother, David Cary, 19, his eyes filled with tears. "She had her whole life ahead of her. ... Just because of the color of her skin."
The Stephen M. White Middle School eighth-grader possibly became the latest innocent victim in the escalating battle between Latino and black gangs in Harbor Gateway. North of 206th Street between Western and Normandie avenues is Latino. South of 206th is black.
Cheryl -- who had nothing to do with gangs -- died as she stood on the corner of 206th and Harvard Avenue, on the black side of the line.
"We are investigating it as a hate crime," Los Angeles police Detective David Cortez said.
Police said a Latino gunman walked up to Cheryl and seven friends hanging out just an hour after school ended. Winter vacation had just begun when the shooter opened fire.
"It's another senseless act of violence," Harbor Division Detective Mike Falvo said. "It's pretty disgusting."
Teens told Cheryl's family the gunman was young, possibly Cheryl's age. He appeared to be scared as he pulled the trigger.
The bullet, Cheryl's siblings said, grazed a girlfriend's head and ripped into Cheryl's side. Cheryl's friends rushed her and the three other wounded in their own car to a hospital, but doctors told them Cheryl was killed instantly.
"She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," her brother said.
The Harbor Gateway has been a treacherous place for blacks and Latinos since the mid- to late-1990s, when blacks started moving into the largely Latino area. Numerous racially motivated shootings and killings have occurred on both sides of the line and blacks have found racial epithets scrawled on their homes soon after moving in. A black 11-year-old boy was shot dead by a Latino gang member in 1997 just a couple of blocks from where Cheryl died.
"They don't have no sympathy for black people there," said Cheryl's cousin, LaToya McGruder, 21.
Blacks have not been the only victims. Just two weeks ago, a gunman shot Arturo Mercado Ponce as the 34-year-old Latino man stood in front of his apartment building on 204th Street. The chef at the Depot restaurant was talking with friends. Detectives said the death of the innocent man also could be part of the racial divide and Cheryl's death might be related, police said.
Cheryl's siblings said they have long known that they cannot walk near or across the racial border or to the closest convenience store because it isn't safe.
Torrance police officers, they said, sometimes stop them as they walk on nearby Western Avenue and suggest they go home to stay safe.
Just a month ago, Cheryl was grounded for two weeks because she was hanging out on the corner where she eventually was shot, said her grandmother, Marlene Townes.
"We've all told Cheryl, 'Don't go around there,' because it is dangerous," her grandmother said.
Her brother thought she was at a friend's house and not on the corner when the shooting occurred. But he soon learned Cheryl was just being a teen and had gone there anyway.
"We've got to make this a better place," Cheryl's brother said. "Remember that song, 'War, what is it good for?' "
Cheryl's mother, Charlene Lovett, arrived home Monday from an errand as a reporter talked with her children. She sat down on the armrest of her sofa and tried to answer a question: "Tell us about your daughter."
Instead, Lovett burst into tears, unable to speak.
Her mother, Townes, hugged her from behind, squeezing her and consoling her as cousin Rachel Riles stood nearby praying for Cheryl's killers.
"We just pray for them to change their lifestyle, oh father," she said. "Help them to turn their lives around, oh Lord."
