Police Continue Their Investigation of Borboa Killing

A high school student who was shot and killed while riding in a car in South Gate was identified tonight by the coroner's office as 19-year-old Roxy Borboa of Bell, but Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department detectives insisted she was 16. She had been identified in several news reports as Bell High School student Roxy Borboa Galindo.

   The shooting occurred at Dakota Avenue and Gardendale Street about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sgt. Pauline Panis of the Sheriff's Headquarters Bureau said. The victim was taken to St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood and pronounced dead at 3:25 a.m. Wednesday, Panis said.

   Panis said a male who was on foot fired at the vehicle. The male driver and a male passenger were uninjured, she said. The bullet that struck the girl pierced the rear window of the sedan, emergency response personnel told a news camera crew at the scene. She reportedly was sitting in the back seat. According to the South Gate Police Department, the teen was wounded in the head.

   After the shooting, the driver tried to reach a hospital but stopped near Magnolia and Alpine avenues in Lynwood, from where paramedics took the victim to a hospital.

   Family friend Mike Perez told NBC4 that the girl and the young man who drove the sedan "were hanging around'' the car when a "crew'' of older people showed up and an argument erupted. He said it is his understanding that the car was fired on as the victims were trying to get away.

   Perez said he had known the victim since she was around 7 years old, and that she and his daughter "grew up together'' in Cudahy. She was a "great girl,'' he said "Everybody loved her.''