Long Beach Police Renew Plea in Father's Day Killing Witnessed by Boy, 7

Leevi Maseuli spent his last Father's Day the way he spent many weekends: with his 7-year-old son, chasing down a few good hours together before heading home. The 30-year-old Palmdale man never made it there. He was gunned down behind the wheel near Anaheim Street and Roswell Avenue in Long Beach on June 19, 2022, with his son still buckled in beside him, and more than four years later, police say the case remains unsolved.

Long Beach police are once again asking the public for help identifying whoever killed Maseuli, according to MyNewsLA.com. Officers responded to reports of shots fired near Anaheim Street and Roswell Avenue around 8:45 p.m. that night and found Maseuli inside a vehicle suffering from a gunshot wound to the upper body. Long Beach Fire Department personnel rushed him to a hospital, where he died.

Maseuli's son was a passenger in the car during the shooting and was taken to a hospital with minor, non-life-threatening injuries before being released and reunited with his mother. In the hours before the shooting, Maseuli had taken his son to lunch at Taco Surf in Seal Beach and to the dinosaur-themed playground at Recreation Park in Long Beach, according to the Long Beach Post. The pair were on their way to a Jack in the Box when gunfire erupted.

A Father Remembered, A Case Still Cold

Long Beach Police Chief Wally Hebeish said committing such a crime on Father's Day, in front of the victim's own child, was disgraceful, per MyNewsLA.com. Maseuli was a Long Beach native, and his family — including his sister Shalia Maseuli and father Owen Maseuli — publicly pleaded for answers in the days after his death, expressing disbelief that no one had come forward. Relatives described him as devoted to his children and his family, according to the Long Beach Post's account of the family's statements.

That same reporting noted that Maseuli had been arrested by Long Beach police in May 2015 near his Long Beach home on human trafficking allegations involving a woman who accused him of abuse. Coverage at the time raised the arrest as background, but police have not established a motive or identified any suspects in his killing, and no connection between the 2015 case and the 2022 murder has been confirmed.

A Deadlier Year, Now a Safer City

Maseuli was killed during one of Long Beach's most violent stretches in recent memory. The city recorded 36 homicides in 2022, a sharp jump from just 11 the year before, according to the City of Long Beach. The picture has since shifted: homicides fell 26% in 2025 compared to 2024, and violent crime dropped another 21% in the first five months of 2026, trends city officials have credited to increased police staffing and violence prevention efforts. The department also stood up a dedicated High Crime Focus Team in early 2024 to target spikes in gun violence and unsolved homicides across the city.

Statewide, California's homicide rate fell to 3.5 per 100,000 residents in 2025, the lowest level recorded since the state began tracking the data in 1966, the Long Beach Post reported, with officials citing an 18% drop compared to pre-pandemic levels. Maseuli's case remains an outlier against that backdrop — a killing from the city's most violent year that has yet to see an arrest even as overall crime keeps falling.

What Charges Could Follow an Arrest

If police do eventually identify and arrest a suspect, California law carries steep potential consequences. Under Penal Code Section 12022.53, intentionally discharging a firearm and causing death during a felony carries a mandatory sentencing enhancement of 25 years to life, applied on top of any underlying charge. Separately, willfully placing a child in a situation where their health or safety is endangered under circumstances likely to cause great bodily harm or death can be charged as a felony under Penal Code Section 273a, punishable by up to six years in state prison — a statute that does not require the child to be physically injured to apply.

Anyone with information about the shooting is urged to contact the Long Beach Police Department Homicide Unit at 562-570-7244. Those who wish to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477 or submit a tip through lacrimestoppers.org.