Homicide Report > Double killing in Exposition Park leaves friends and family reeling
Double killing in Exposition Park leaves friends and family reeling
Early Sunday morning, Salvador Medina awoke to gunshots in his front yard in Exposition Park. Outside he found his close friend Alfonso Nava, a 26-year-old Latino, on the sidewalk choking on his own blood. Another friend, Diego Garcia, a 25-year old Latino, had collapsed in rosebushes nearby. His gunshot wounds also proved fatal.
“There was blood everywhere, on the steps and everything,” said Medina, 20, of Nava's injuries. “I looked and saw my friend just twitching. I felt his heart, I hugged him, and he was gone. He was holding my arm, and I just felt him let go. My shorts, my stomach, my arm, they were all covered in blood.”
Benjamin Gottlieb and Mary Slosson of USC’s Neon Tommy/Annenberg Digital News reported on the killings for the Homicide Report. Their dispatch is one in a series of reports from USC students working in partnership with The Times.
Photo: Salvador Medina, Roberto Nava and Manuel Balderas with friends at the Nava/Garcia memorial. Credit: Mary Slosson
Four reader comments
Im sorry for their loss -but this is really an incredible photograph. It captures so much.
Feb. 21, 2011 at 8:21 a.m.
Is sad how there life were taken away, they will always be in our hearts, they were both two great men that didn't deserve that! God bless Jr and Diego R.I.P
Feb. 21, 2011 at 12:02 p.m.
Mr. Madina, Alfonso knew he had love next to him when he passed on. You are, in my eye's a Blessed Man. I thank you for Comforting Alfonso at his time of death. Bless you!
G.P.
Eugene, Oregon
Feb. 21, 2011 at 5:59 p.m.
Gordon Peterson, completely agree with your posting. Mr. Madina, you provided comfort to the victim in his last moment of his life.
Feb. 23, 2011 at 8:54 a.m.
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