LOS ANGELES—The family of Raejonette Morgan is demanding a thorough investigation into her fatal shooting and allegations of delayed response by a sheriff’s deputy.
The 22-year-old was struck in what police say is possibly a gang-related shooting on July 2 while she was in her vehicle at a bustling intersection in South Los Angeles.
It is believed that Raejonette was not a gang member and that her death was a tragic case of mistaken identity. She succumbed to her injuries on July 4 at UCLA General Harbor Hospital. No arrests have been made in connection with her death and no suspect descriptions have been released.
Dionne Leslie-Pullen live streamed the incident—from hearing a hail of gunshots and taking cover with others nearby—to the immediate aftermath. The incident ignited a wave of grief and anger in the community, with calls for justice and accountability growing louder as family and friends mourn the sudden and tragic loss of her young, promising life.
Camera footage shows Ms. Leslie-Pullen, who told The Final Call she had just gotten off work, rushing about a block and a half to the scene.
She did not know at the time that the victim was Raejonette but later found out. Raejonette was her youngest daughter’s classmate, said Ms. Leslie-Pullen. “I actually taught Raejonette drill team, dance and exercise at Perry Elementary School in Inglewood,” said Ms. Leslie-Pullen.
“It was just amazing how God put me there,” she continued. She normally gets off at another transit stop but accidentally missed it that day and got off at the next stop near 115th Street.
Immediately, Ms. Leslie-Pullen heard shots ring out, she said. When the shots stopped, she looked outside and saw a police car parked nearby, and first thought the officer had shot someone. She saw Raejonette’s white Mercedes Benz coasting, by itself, and saw the deputy parked behind it, she said.
At first, Ms. Leslie-Pullen thought that perhaps a perpetrator had gotten away because the deputy was “just standing there, doing nothing,” she stated. “I saw him, on his phone, saying it was a fatality, he needed a helicopter, he was just chewing his gum like nobody was in the car,” stated Ms. Leslie-Pullen.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is conducting a Critical Incident Review, which will include the deputy’s response, equipment, training, and tactics to determine if its policies and procedures were followed, according to a Sheriff’s Information Bureau statement emailed to The Final Call.
“We are deeply concerned about this incident and detectives are diligently working to solve this heinous murder and bring justice to the family. We extend our sincere condolences to the family of Raejonette Morgan during this tragic time,” the statement read.
The Sheriff’s Department’s statement further proclaimed its unwavering commitment to saving lives and protecting its community members in emergencies.
Ms. Leslie-Pullen, community activists, and others across Black and other Indigenous communities tell of a different reality.
A desperate attempt to help
“He (deputy) never went to the vehicle. Not one single time, because when I came out, he pulled right behind it and got out, opened his car door. I didn’t get that part on video, because I was just trying to see what’s going on,” said Ms. Leslie-Pullen. She discovered someone was in fact inside the car, she said.
“I said, ‘You okay?’ And she (Raejonette) reached her hand up and did like a ‘no,’ waving her hand like, ‘No. I’m not,’” continued the eyewitness. She said she noticed gunshot wounds on the young woman’s hand and noticed Raejonette’s fingernail polish and jewelry. She asked the deputy if it was okay to help the victim, because all the car’s doors were locked.
“She was trying to pull herself up but she was lodged in between the driver’s and passenger seat but couldn’t, of course, because she had been shot. She had a gunshot wound to the head. I saw that the blood was leaking out and I was trying to get her out of that position because she was basically upside down,” Ms. Leslie-Pullen told The Final Call.
“I kept asking him and asking him, ‘Please! This girl needs help. She’s looking at me for help. What are you going to do?’ He’s just nudging his shoulders, like ‘I don’t know.’ He never said anything. He just was like a robot, literally was not having any type of consideration,” she further alleged.
A few minutes later, Ms. Leslie-Pullen said she risked jail and began yelling at the deputy. Her footage shows that she removed her shoe and smashed the front passenger side window of the young woman’s car, in a desperate attempt to render aid and do CPR.
She did all this while still pleading with and urging the deputy to do something to help. Other bystanders also attempted to help. The deputy still walked over casually and told her and other bystanders to get back and turned around and walked away, Ms. Leslie-Pullen recalled.
She wants justice for Raejonette and the assailant(s) to be held accountable. She wants an investigation into community reports of slow response time, because allegations and accusations that people are left to die and bleed out by some police officers and first responders is a common concern.
Anginette Morgan, Raejonette’s mother, expressed gratitude for Ms. Leslie-Pullen and said she was happy she was there at the scene.
“That’s my shero right there! She was there at the right time, and I appreciate that,” said Anginette Morgan.
Because of Ms. Leslie-Pullen, the world can see firsthand how those sworn to protect and serve are responding to distress calls in the Black community, particularly the deputy’s alleged negligent actions in her daughter’s ordeal, she told The Final Call.
“I didn’t see the video. I’ll never look at that video. … It’s too traumatic for me, and I can visualize it. In my brain, I can really see it, and it hurts me,” said Ms. Morgan, who has exhibited incredible strength despite her pain.
“Allah (God) woke me up, so I’m doing okay,” said Ms. Morgan, adding that she was born in the Nation of Islam in 1961. “I know there’s one God and I get my strength from that,” she said.
‘She was a good, sweet girl’
“She was a beautiful daughter,” said Ms. Morgan, who has worked nursing since high school. Raejonette was in school, working toward her associate degree in criminal law and was on her way to put a mark on the world, said her family.
“Raejonette was my heartbeat, she was my inspiration, she was a good, sweet girl,” said her mother.
She was an alumnus of Inglewood High School and a dedicated college student studying criminal justice at Los Angeles City College, with dreams of becoming a lawyer. Before studying criminal justice, her daughter obtained her certified nursing certificate and worked at a skilled nursing facility, she shared.
Raejonette saw the good in people and searched for it in others despite only being 22, her mother shared. “She was always caring. She had this healing quality about her. … She always looked to find the best in others and pull it out of them. She wanted others treated the way she liked to be treated,” said Ms. Morgan.
“She was always down to help,” added her uncle, Nyerere Jase, an author. He recalled when Raejonette helped him work on his book about the 1992 L.A. Peace Treaty.
Mr. Jase wants people to remember that his niece was a wonderful person and that she represented family 100 percent. He added that many people are really concerned about what happened to her. “I want the world to know that this is all wrong and we just want to make right out of it some type of way, some type of closure,” said Mr. Jase.
Her daughter never left without saying I love you, and the time they spoke via text at 5:27 the day she got shot was the same, said Ms. Morgan.
“I know she was loved and I’m happy that I was able to have that little girl for those 22 years I did. … I’m hurt that it happened, but I know that we’re all just passing through and that time that she spent here on Earth, she made a big impact on the world,” she concluded.
Community support
Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump is representing Raejonette’s family, along with the community support they have received from leaders and organizations. Members of the Nation of Islam, Stop the Violence Increase the Peace Foundation, Justice for Murdered Children and others attended two news conferences and a candlelight vigil held so far in Raejonette’s memory and demanding justice.
“It’s disturbing that this young lady was murdered in a heinous crime, but what’s also disturbing was the lack of urgency and apathy the deputy sheriff exhibited as he stood by his police cruiser and didn’t try to render aid and left it up to Dionne Leslie, an activist, in one of the most heroic acts of activism I’ve seen in my history in L.A.,” said longtime activist Najee Ali.
“It reminds me of Uvalde, Texas, where these schoolchildren were shot and being massacred, and the deputies were right there on scene and failed to render aid to any of the school children. There’s no difference whether it’s Uvalde, Texas, or South-Central L.A. Black lives don’t seem to matter to some law enforcement officers,” he continued.
As people began to find out what happened and to whom, the sadness and outrage grew. Raejonette was a peacemaker.
According to Khallid Shah, a founding board member of Stop the Violence Increase the Peace Foundation, at age 18, Raejonette came through their youth investment program. She was one of their gifted participants and trained in a 16-week L.A. County program:
Dispute Resolution, Anger Management, Peer Mediation and Leadership Training. It was also through his program that she was trained in certified nursing, he said.
“I found out that she was an extremely, intelligent, gifted, beautiful young lady with the world in front of her, and I am just heartbroken by the thought that she had to suffer the indignity of being murdered the way she was,” Mr. Shah told The Final Call.
He likewise expressed concern over the reported lack of care, empathy and delayed response by the responding deputy. He added that the killing must stop and that people can‘t take it anymore.
“That’s been an ongoing problem in our community. I don’t know that it would have happened in another community, but I know it’s been a problem with us,” he stated.
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has continuously warned that the Black community is faced with “a war on two fronts”—attacks by outside forces in Black communities, including violence inflicted by rouge police, but also the fratricidal violence inflicted on one another. He called for 10,000 Fearless Men and Women willing to help stop the bloodshed.
“I need 10,000 fearless Black men,” Minister Farrakhan said. “We gotta clean up our community, and there’s no way we can make a good people and leave them under the educational system of White Supremacy,” he continued, during “Justice or Else,” the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March, held on October 10, 2015 (10.10.15) in Washington, D.C.
“These senseless crimes on females, I just don’t get it. I’ve been a part of the streets all my life and as far as gangs and all that stuff, I’ve never seen a green light on females and innocent people. It’s crazy, … We need to get a handle on it,” stated Mr. Jase.
Mr. Shah remarked that in the past, street protocol was, women and girls were off limits, and if they were harmed, perpetrators would get checked in the home or county jail, prison, or on the streets, but they would be handled.
“Raejonette was one of the most beautiful young ladies that I ever met; kind, considerate, worked with other young people, just had a beautiful heart, and I’m totally devastated by what happened to her and to the people who did it, man, the community’s going to end up checking you,” said Mr. Shah.
“As fathers, we need to check our sons and our daughters who are out there involved in that madness. We know that there’s a bigger picture, but the immediate picture is we’ve got to stop the damned bleeding. Excuse my language. …”
James Muhammad is a member of the Nation of Islam and attends Mosque No. 27 in Los Angeles where he serves as the student first officer of the Fruit of Islam (F.O.I., the men of the N.O.I.). He is also a street peacemaker and co-founder of a non-profit dedicated to peacekeeping and mentoring.
“What’s so disappointing, so alarming, is I’ve watched news specials where sheriff’s deputies climbed in a tree to save an owl, a bird, risked their life to save a cat, a dog. I mean, they have put more emphasis on saving animals than human life. We definitely need to review the practices, protocols, procedures and tactics. What is their training?”
Tragedies like what happened to Raejonette are discouraging, but the outcomes can be encouraging for those who are fighting on behalf of the Black community, explained Sr. Pastor Anthony Shep Crawford of The Experience Christian Ministries Church.
“However, such a tragedy encourages us to unite our efforts to heal our communities as a whole.”
