A person was fatally shot in South Los Angeles on Monday near the intersection of San Pedro Street and East Colden Avenue, and as of the latest update, police said they have no description of a suspect. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police.
Los Angeles Police Department officers responded to reports of a shooting near San Pedro Street and East Colden Avenue on Monday, according to MyNewsLA.com. A responding officer located the victim at the scene. The circumstances leading up to the shooting remain under investigation, and no suspect description has been released.
The shooting happened just four days after a man riding a motorized scooter was struck and killed in an unresolved hit-and-run at that same corner. In that case, LAPD South Traffic Division detectives were searching for local surveillance video after the driver fled, as Hoodline previously reported. Two fatal incidents at the same intersection within a week have put fresh attention on the corridor, even though no connection between the cases has been established.
Southeast Division's Patrol Turf and Who Investigates
The stretch of San Pedro Street and Colden Avenue falls within the patrol territory of LAPD's Southeast Division, which operates out of a station on West 108th Street and serves roughly 150,000 residents across 10.2 square miles of South Los Angeles, according to Greg Hill & Associates. The division's coverage area includes Green Meadows, Athens Park, Watts, and Jordan Downs. Southeast officers typically secure the scene of a shooting, while follow-up investigative work falls to a separate specialized unit.
That unit is the LAPD's South Bureau Homicide Division, which handles unsolved fatal shootings across four patrol divisions and investigates more than 40% of all homicides committed citywide, per the department. South Bureau Homicide covers the Southwest, Harbor, 77th Street, and Southeast divisions. With no suspect description or clear motive released so far, detectives face an initial whodunit case that will likely hinge on canvassing for private security footage or waiting on anonymous tips.
A Corridor With a Violent History
The area around Colden Avenue has seen violent police calls before. In May 2024, Southeast Division officers responded to a call on the nearby 100 block of West Colden Avenue involving an armed individual, and the encounter ended in an officer-involved shooting after the suspect charged officers with a knife. The department's Force Investigation Division reviewed the officers' use of force in that incident.
This latest killing also lands amid a broader, somewhat paradoxical trend in the city's crime data. Los Angeles recorded 230 homicides in 2025, a 19% drop from 284 the year before and the lowest annual total the city has logged since 1966, according to figures reported by MyNewsLA.com. LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell put the 2025 homicide rate at 5.9 per 100,000 residents. Yet even as citywide numbers fell, Southeast Division's own first-quarter 2026 statistics show three homicides occurred in the division even as overall Part I violent crime there dropped 8% compared with the same period in 2025, according to the division's Community Police Advisory Board minutes.
Clearance Rates and Gun Seizures Citywide
LAPD detectives solved 68% of the 230 homicides that occurred in Los Angeles during 2025, and when older cases cleared that year are factored in, the department reported an overall homicide clearance rate of 101%, per Police1. LAPD considers a case cleared through an arrest, the death of a suspect, or a ruling of justifiable homicide. Officers also seized 8,650 firearms citywide in 2025, about 1,000 more than the year before, a haul department leadership credited for an 8% reduction in gunshot victims, with the total falling from 981 in 2024 to 899 in 2025.
The Los Angeles City Council routinely offers standard $50,000 rewards for information leading to an arrest and conviction in unsolved South LA homicide cases, a tool homicide detectives request through council members when investigative leads run dry, according to the LAPD. It remains unclear whether such a reward will be sought in Monday's shooting. Anyone with information is asked to call LAPD's 24-hour line at 1-877-LAPD-24-7 or to contact L.A. Regional Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-TIPS.
