Five years after a hail of gunfire tore through a South Los Angeles street and killed a rising basketball star, his mother and sister are still waiting for someone to be arrested. Deante Wilkins was 23 years old on December 14, 2021, when he was fatally shot in South Los Angeles, according to records kept in the Los Angeles Times Homicide Report. No one has ever been charged in his death.
Wilkins' body was found inside a gray SUV riddled with bullet holes near East 116th Street and Town Avenue, according to LAPD Detective Roger Fontes, as reported by ABC7 Los Angeles. Investigators determined the shooting itself did not happen where his body was discovered. Instead, detectives traced the gunfire to the intersection of East 118th Street and South Main Street, where they recovered over 30 shell casings.
Surveillance video obtained by investigators shows at least three gunmen opening fire after Wilkins parked behind a gate, according to Fontes. The cameras captured the ambush but never recorded a license plate for the vehicle the shooters used, leaving detectives without the one clue that might have cracked the case. Investigators have not determined that Wilkins was specifically targeted, and the LAPD has not arrested anyone in connection with his killing.
A Promising Life Cut Short
Before his death, Wilkins had built a standout high school and college basketball career, per the same ABC7 account, with dreams of using the sport to help his family leave South Los Angeles. He was listed as a freshman guard for the Compton College Tartars, according to Compton College Athletics. The Tartars were set to compete in the Tartar Classic in December 2019.
His mother, Latrell Widmon, told ABC7 that she copes with the loss by imagining her son is simply away on vacation. His sister, Zanee Corbett, described him as kind, humble and devoted to the people around him, saying he deserved better and that she hated that he grew up in Los Angeles and faced the kind of violence that killed him. Widmon said the unresolved case has caused her severe emotional distress, and the family has spent nearly five years searching for answers.
The Division Investigating the Case
Wilkins' killing falls under the jurisdiction of the LAPD's South Bureau Homicide Division, a specialized unit overseeing fatal violence across 31 square miles that includes the Southwest, Harbor, 77th Street and Southeast patrol divisions, according to prior Hoodline reporting.
Los Angeles recorded 230 homicides in 2025, its lowest annual total since 1966. LAPD's homicide clearance rate was 101% that year.
Cases like Wilkins', however, illustrate the limits of that progress. Without a license plate, a cooperating witness, or an identified vehicle, cold cases tied to drive-by shootings remain among the hardest for detectives to close, even as clearance rates climb elsewhere in the city.
Reward Money Remains an Open Question
Los Angeles City Council has routinely approved standard $50,000 rewards for information leading to arrests and convictions in unsolved city homicides, a step typically introduced by council members and publicized through LAPD news releases, according to the Santa Monica Mirror. Separately, California law gives the governor authority to offer state rewards of up to $50,000 in unsolved violent crimes once local law enforcement formally applies and details the case's solvability and media attention, under Penal Code Section 1547, according to the Office of Governor Gavin Newsom. It remains unclear whether either reward has been formally requested or issued specifically for Wilkins' case.
For now, the LAPD is asking anyone with information about the shooting to call (877) LAPD-24-7. The case has sat open since the night Wilkins was found inside that bullet-riddled SUV five years ago.
