A 23-year-old man was killed and a 30-year-old man wounded early Saturday morning when gunfire erupted at the intersection of West 61st Street and South Broadway in South Los Angeles, outside the Classic Motor Inn motel. The shooting happened around 12:10 a.m. on September 5, and the man who died, identified as Sky Caldwell, collapsed and died on the sidewalk at the scene.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office later identified Caldwell and determined he died from a gunshot wound to his chest, according to MyNewsLA.com. The second victim, a 30-year-old man, was taken to a hospital and was listed in stable condition, per LAPD. LAPD officers arrived only after both men had already been shot, and investigators spent time examining evidence found on the sidewalk outside the motel while the intersection was closed off during the investigation.
No Suspect Description Released
As of the latest reporting, no suspect description has been made available, leaving the identity, motive and whereabouts of the shooter unknown. The Classic Motor Inn sits at 6101 South Broadway, at the corner of West 61st Street, according to property records reviewed on LoopNet. That stretch of Broadway falls within the patrol jurisdiction of LAPD's 77th Street Community Police Station, located a short distance away at 7600 South Broadway.
Homicide investigations in the 77th Street Division are handled by LAPD's South Bureau Homicide Division, a specialized unit that investigates more than 40% of all homicides committed across the entire city, according to LAPD Online. The division oversees homicide cases across four patrol divisions in South Los Angeles, including Southwest, Harbor, 77th Street and Southeast.
A Corridor With a Recent History of Gun Violence
Saturday's shooting is not an isolated incident along South Broadway. On April 2, an apparent triple shooting broke out in a strip mall on the 4700 block of the same corridor, injuring three people; police detained two suspects in that case, as Hoodline reported at the time. In August, South Bureau homicide detectives also investigated a fatal shooting tied to a standoff in nearby Manchester Square.
Citywide, LAPD data show some signs of progress even as individual violent incidents continue to test South LA neighborhoods. In 2025, officers seized 8,650 firearms across Los Angeles — 1,000 more than the year before — a increase that department leadership linked to an 8% drop in gunshot victims citywide. LAPD Chief Dominic McDonnell has pointed to the gun seizures as a key driver behind that decline. The department's citywide homicide clearance rate also reached nearly 70% in 2025, even though gang-related killings continued to account for the majority of homicides in Los Angeles.
Potential Charges if a Suspect Is Identified
Should investigators identify and arrest a suspect, California law lays out steep potential consequences. Under Penal Code Section 187, a murder conviction carries a base sentence of 15 years to life for second-degree murder or 25 years to life for first-degree murder, according to the Shouse Law Group. Separately, Penal Code Section 12022.53 — California's so-called 10-20-Life law — imposes a mandatory consecutive enhancement of 25 years to life for intentionally discharging a firearm that causes death or serious injury during a felony, per Eisner Gorin LLP.
That enhancement is not always automatic, however. Since the passage of Senate Bill 620 in 2018, trial judges have held statutory authority under Penal Code Section 1385 to strike or dismiss firearm enhancements in the interest of justice, a discretion courts did not have before that law took effect.
Anyone with information about Saturday's shooting is asked to contact LAPD's South Bureau Homicide Division directly at 323-786-5100, or to submit an anonymous tip to LA Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS, which offers cash rewards for tips leading to a felony arrest.
