An emotional turn out, as bikers gathered to remember a teenager who was murdered in front of his mother over the color of his sneakers. Beverly White reports for the NBC4 News at 11 p.m. on Friday, June 5, 2015.
Mourners wore red and demanded justice at a memorial held Friday for a developmentally disabled teen killed over the color of his shoes.
Tavon Price was slain outside a car wash at Florence and 11th Avenues in South Los Angeles May 30 after he refused to take off his footwear despite the demands of some men. A person believed to be from the same group then shot the 19-year-old in the back and chest.
Dozens of motorcycle club members wearing red gathered with family and friends to call for peace and justice.
"I appreciate that, 'cause that's what he got killed over some red shoes," Price's mother Jennifer Rivers, who was with him when he was shot, said
"I want justice for Tavin. He deserves that. You just gunned down an innocent disabled kid… he wasn't even aware of what was going on around him," Rivers added.
His sister Nisha Canson was moved by the turnout at the event.
"My family really appreciates it, it's amazing," Canson said. "I didn't know how many people cared, you know?"
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The motorcycle club members pitched in cash to help pay for Price's funeral.
"It affected us deeply. We sat down as a council… we got together and said, what can we do?" biker Leon Simpson said. "Today we're trying to make it easier on (Jennifer Rivers) by donating enough money to make sure he has a proper burial. It's not going bring him back, but it shows her that we care."
There were also calls for the killer, who's still at large, to turn himself in.
"God loves you. He just doesn't like what you did," Pastor Claude Powe of the Motorcycle Ministry said.
Police previously took a woman into custody in connection with the crime, but have still not caught the gunman.
The person, who was wearing a light-colored hoodie that was pulled up over his head, "approached the victim, shot him multiple times and then fled the location," said Det. Eric Crosson of the LAPD's Criminal Gang Homicide Division.
