County Offers $20,000 Reward in South Bay Girl's Shooting Death in Lynwood

LOS ANGELES, CA -- The Board of Supervisors Tuesday offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to the gunman who shot a 16-year-old girl to death while she was riding in her family's car on her way home from church in Lynwood.

Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas recommended the reward in hopes of drawing out witnesses to what investigators said was a gang-related shooting targeting someone else.

On the night of Nov. 23, Danah Rojo-Rivas of Hawthorne was sitting in the back seat of her family's Ford Mustang with her dog on her lap, riding home with her mother and 18-year-old brother from a church function at the New Horizons Missionary Baptist Church. While the Mustang was stopped at a red light eastbound on Euclid Avenue at Long Beach Boulevard, the family was caught in the line of fire of a car-to-car shooting.

The intended victim, a passenger in a burgundy Saturn SUV, exited his vehicle and ran behind the Mustang. The gunman continued to fire and a stray bullet entered the rear of the Mustang and struck and killed Danah.

The mother and brother were not injured, but the family dog, a small, white poodle mix, ran scared out of the car and was hit and killed by oncoming traffic, a sheriff's spokeswoman said.

Witnesses said at least two people were in the gunman's car that sped away west on Euclid Avenue as the targets of the shooting ran off. But those witnesses didn't provide enough details for investigators to identify the suspects or their vehicle, according to Ridley-Thomas.

He asked anyone with more information to call sheriff's Sgt. Robert Gray or Detective Adam Kirste at (323) 890-5500 or CrimeStoppers at (800) 222-TIPS (8477).

-- City News Service, photo courtesy of GoFundMe