A 19-year-old rising basketball star from Compton was fatally shot sitting in his car Tuesday morning, the sheriff's department said.
Carl Lewis had been playing ball in Canada when he returned home during the pandemic.
Lewis was a member of the Sudbury Five team. The head coach and general manager Logan Stutz says the news is difficult to comprehend.
"As a coach, I think you prepare for a lot of things, but the death of a player is something you don't ever expect or prepare for. It's definitely tough right now," Stutz told CBC.
His former coach and the director of the Real Run Basketball Program, DeAnthony Langston, told NBC LA that Lewis had all the talent to pursue his dreams of an NBA career, but all that’s gone.
"He misses a flight yesterday for an NBA trial in Arizona and he ends up getting killed," Langston said. "We had so many people that were rooting for Carl," Langston said.
Friends and neighbors say they're overwhelmed with grief after learning that Lewis has been shot and killed Tuesday morning while sitting in his car parked along Alondra Boulevard.
Lewis’ neighbor Virginia Foreman told NBC LA that "Carl was very loved,” and a good kid!” She added, It's so hard ..so hard I think it's senseless."
Sheriff’s investigators say they have no description of the suspect, and believe the shooting may be gang related