Del Rey Shooting Victim Identified as Culver City Man

By City News Service

Authorities today identified a man who was shot and killed in his car in the Del Rey area of Los Angeles.

 The shooting happened around 12:30 a.m. Saturday at Braddock Drive and Berryman Avenue, said Sgt. Robin Richards of the Los Angeles Police Department's Pacific Station. The man died at the scene, he said.

The man was identified as Francisco Ayala-Mejia, 25, of Culver City, said coroner's Assistant Chief Ed Winter. Ayala-Mejia's car crashed into some parked vehicles, apparently while trying to get away from whoever attacked him, Richards said.

Lt. John Radtke, a detective with the LAPD's West Bureau Homicide office, told a news photographer at the scene that whoever shot Ayala-Mejia appeared to have walked up to the car. The shooter may have fled in an older model subcompact, Richards said. Anyone with information about the slaying was urged to call West Bureau Homicide detectives at (213) 382-9470.