A teenage boy was killed in a hit-and-run Sunday morning that involved two vehicles in South Los Angeles. The incident reportedly took place after a heated dispute at a party in Florence. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) said 17-year-old Matthew Lobos was at an underground party in the neighborhood that was said to have over 100 partygoers. Lobos apparently at one point got into a physical altercation with a group which later turned into a deadly attack on him.
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Detective Jerry Gibson of the LAPD said that the group was at a warehouse parking lot on 62nd Street between Avalon Boulevard and Central Avenue, around 2:30 a.m. when the dispute escalated, which then boiled over into the streets, Fox News reported.
Gibson reported the group boarded a black SUV and drove towards Lobos’ direction and ran him over. One of the suspects then got out of the SUV and got into a white Acura and deliberately sped up then drove head-on into Lobos’ position the second time to ram him down which eventually killed the teenager. Reports say that Lobos’ friend tried to drag his body out of the street but the Acura came around and rammed into Lobos for the third time. The Acura driver then jumped into the black SUV that fled right after. The boy’s body was left lying in the street when authorities and responders arrived who pronounced Lobos dead on the scene.
While the LAPD is investigating the incident, authorities are trying to determine if the boy’s death was gang-related. However, the teen’s family said he was not involved with any gang at all. Lobos was a senior at Santee High School and was full of life said the teenager’s parents, too grief-stricken and emotional to speak on camera. "How could they live with that? It's like senseless. It doesn't make sense ... I have two boys," said the teen's aunt.
Police are still in the gray on the motive for the violent attack and are on the lookout for two suspects. They are hoping local surveillance cameras will reveal clues and lead them to an arrest. A GoFund Me has been created to help Lobos’ family and police are urging anyone with information about the white Acura and the black SUV to contact the missing person’s unit.
