Photo: Getty Images
LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Authorities Tuesday were hoping that a $20,000 reward will generate clues to help solve the 2018 shooting death in Compton of the father of former NBA player Richard Jefferson.
Richard Allen Jefferson, 65, of Inglewood was shot on Sept. 19, 2018 at about 6:35 p.m. while standing on a sidewalk in the 600 block of West Peach Street, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
"Upon arrival, deputies found the victim lying on the ground, suffering from apparent gunshot wounds," the sheriff's department said in a statement. "The victim was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced deceased. The victim was well liked in the community and investigators believe he was targeted solely because of his race."
At a news conference on Tuesday morning at the Sheriff's Homicide Bureau, detectives and Jefferson's family appealed for the public's help in solving the crime, which investigators said may have been gang-related.
"He was a brother, a son, a father, a grandfather," Jefferson's brother Kenneth said at the news conference. "He was very much loved."
Richard Jefferson played for several teams over a 17-year NBA career and won a championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016.
Anyone with information on the case was urged to call the Sheriff's Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500 or Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.