Longos gun down another black teen

[mayugastank]

Shooting was unprovoked
CRIME: Investigators say gunman walked up to trick-or-treater, opened fire and fled.
By Tracy Manzer, Staff Writer
Posted: 11/01/2010 09:51:03 PM PDTUpdated: 11/01/2010 11:31:23 PM PDT


Dennis Seagraves, 21, killed while trick or treating on Halloween 2010 in his West Long Beach neighborhood with his sisters. (Family photo)LONG BEACH - A 21-year-old Long Beach man gunned down in front of his sister and two friends on Halloween was killed without provocation, witnesses and police said Monday.

Gina Seagraves, the 23-year-old sister of victim Dennis Seagraves, said she and two girls were trick-or-treating with Dennis in their Westside neighborhood when a gunman walked up to the group and opened fire.

"We were heading home and decided to go to one last house about a block away," Gina said. "My brother heard a sound and asked me, `What was that?' ... when we turned around, the dude ran up on us and shot him once."

Neither she nor her brother had any time to react and her brother bled to death on the sidewalk, Seagraves said.

"He was shot in the carotid artery and he bled out," she said. "The (shooter) drove off with some other guys, it was like a blue metallic silver car, a Honda."

Long Beach Police officers were called to the 2300 block of Delta Avenue about 9:40p.m. Sunday on a report of shots fired and found the victim, who was rushed to a local hospital and pronounced dead, said Lisa Massacani, a police department spokeswoman.

The preliminary investigation found that the gunman walked up to the victim and without uttering a word, opened fire, then fled in a silver or gray car, Massacani said.

The suspect's car was last seen heading east on Burnett Street, she said.

Dennis' sister said she caught only a glimpse of the


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Advertisement

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
gunman. She described him as Hispanic, about 5 feet 8 inches or 5 feet 9 inches tall, and wearing a Halloween costume that included a poncho and sombrero.
She, her brother and her friends were all in costume as well, with her brother dressed as the Grim Reaper, wearing a long black robe, hood and mesh-like mask that covered him completely, she said.

"After the shot, (Dennis) stood there for a few seconds and he said `Oh God,' and then fell to the floor," Gina said. "He was gone in a few seconds."

Dennis was the youngest of their mother's four children and grew up in Long Beach, although he moved to Bellflower about a year and a half ago, his sister said.

He worked hard at two jobs in Huntington Beach, one as a chef at a restaurant called Tsunami Sushi and the other as a restroom attendant at the House of Brews, she said.

Her brother came home to celebrate the holiday with their mother, other family members and friends. He and the girls were about a block from their home when the shooting happened, she said.

"We were almost home, if we hadn't gone to that last house we would have made it," she said.

Asked how her family was coping with the loss, Gina said, "Not so well."

"I was standing so close ... for me to have to see it, it was horrible," she said.

Friends of the victim said Dennis was never involved in gangs and said they had no idea why anyone would want to kill him.

Long Beach Homicide Lt. Lloyd Cox confirmed that investigators found no gang history when they checked the victim's background.

Cox also said investigators are still trying to determine why the gunman targeted Dennis and noted that detectives and officers stayed in the neighborhood all night looking for witnesses and trying to find leads.

"Unfortunately, people aren't talking that much," Cox said.

The lieutenant urged anyone with information about the slaying to call Long Beach Police Department Homicide Detectives Hugo Cortes or Peter Lackovic at 562-570-7244.

Anonymous tips can be sent via text or e-mail to www.long beach.gov/police, or by calling Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).

tracy.manzer@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1261