> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Pico shooting victim mourned - URL: https://www.smdp.com/pico-shooting-victim-mourned/ - Published: 2003-09-04T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T02:51:24.000Z - Author: John Wood - Tags: Crime, Pico, #archive-import *No suspects named yet in Santa Monica’s first homicide of the year* Friends and family members of a Santa Monica teenager who was fatally shot Tuesday evening grieved Wednesday in the small 20th Street apartment he shared with his mother and stepfather. They described Jalonnie Carter, 19, as an ambitious young man who worked two jobs and was studying for a career in computers. “Jalonnie was not a bad person,” said his mother Shirley Joseph, wiping tears from her cheeks as Carter’s stepfather, Larry Joseph, and several aunts, cousins and friends nodded in agreement. “He was not affiliated with gangs. I know his friends, they were nice guys. “A lot of these parents are scared of their kids,” Shirley Joseph added, saying Carter was kept to an 11 p.m. curfew while living at home. “They’re scared to chastise their children. Well not me.” Smith immediately called 911\. Santa Monica Fire Department paramedics took Carter to a nearby hospital, where he died just over an hour later. Doctors told the Josephs that Carter was struck by a.22-caliber bullet that entered through his back and struck his heart. Asked how Carter may have gotten mixed up in the gunfire, Larry Joseph responded, “There’s just a bunch of damn nuts running around here, that’s what the problem is.” Larry Joseph said a neighborhood boy rode up to his apartment shortly after the shooting and asked if Carter lived there. When he said Carter did, Larry Joseph said the boy told him about the shooting. Larry Joseph immediately ran down the street to where his stepson was laying on the sidewalk on the 1800 block of 20th street. The Pico neighborhood has a long history of gang violence, mostly between the Graveyard Crips and the Santa Monica 17th Street gang. One gang is black, the other is Latino. Between May and June, the neighborhood was the scene of five separate shootings, none of which resulted in serious injuries. Santa Monica Police have arrested eight people in connection with those shootings. Winnie Webster, one of Carter’s aunts who visited the 20th Street apartment Wednesday, said Carter had been shot before. He was hit in the leg a few years ago while visiting his best friend who lives just south on 20th Street and whose daughter is also Carter’s goddaughter. Carter told relatives after the shooting that a car full of Hispanic men was parked across the street that day but he didn’t know them and didn’t think anything of them. When Carter left the house, the car pulled out and opened fire on the building, hitting Carter on his leg near the ankle, Webster said. Carter, an avid 49ers fan who liked to lift weights and play dominos with his friends, was a graduate of Olympic High School and a student at the International Career Development Center Inc. in Los Angeles, which finds jobs for students after they graduate. His mother said Carter, who had earned a certificate in June for perfect attendance, was on track for a degree in computers this fall and wanted to pursue a career in bookkeeping. Carter held down two jobs while he studied, working with his father three nights a week as a janitor in Hawthorne and also stocking inventory at Gymboree, a children’s clothing store in the Santa Monica Place Mall. “He was a really hard worker,” said Tracy Smith, an assistant manager at the store. “He smiled all the time, he just always smiled. And he had a great big smile. He was so sweet.” SMPD detectives first met with the Josephs and Carter’s other relatives shortly before 3 p.m. Wednesday. Shirley Joseph said the detectives apologized for the delay in contacting them but offered few details on the shooting, saying only that they are examining every possibility, including one suspect that lives nearby in the Pico neighborhood. Santa Monica Police Department Lt. Frank Fabrega confirmed Wednesday that bullet casings were found at the scene, but wouldn’t say from what type of gun. The investigation is ongoing, he added. 74C,“If we had suspect information we would be putting it out immediately, but we don't have it,” he said. “When we get the information, we’ll provide it.” David Campbell, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office, said Carter’s body was received Wednesday and an autopsy will be performed this week. Tuesday’s homicide was the first this year in Santa Monica, however it wasn’t the first in the history of the troubled eastside Santa Monica neighborhood. Oscar de la Torre, director of the Pico Youth and Family Center, said Tuesday’s shooting marks the 28th homicide in the last 10 years in the eight-block square that runs north of the Santa Monica Freeway to Santa Monica Boulevard, south to Pico Boulevard and east from Lincoln Boulevard to Centinela Boulevard. de la Torre called upon City Hall to direct more resources, such as higher-paying jobs and better after-school programs, into the neighborhood. He said that City Hall responded to the shootings earlier this year with temporary measures but what’s really needed is a long-term fix. “It sends the message to us that when blacks and Mexicans die in Santa Monica, it doesn’t matter,” de la Torre said during a Wednesday visit to Carter’s home. Family members on Wednesday were still in the process of planning Carter’s memorial, as friends and well-wishers visited the small apartment, dropping off flowers, and expressing their shock and sorrow at the fatal shooting. Dauntase Haskins, Carter’s sister, was on her way home from Louisiana, where she is studying law. Larry Joseph, who works a second job as a cook at St. John’s hospital, and Shirley Joseph, who works in the kitchen at Lincoln Middle School, said they will accept donations for the cost of the service. They can be mailed to: Attn: Jalonnie Carter Fund Pico Youth and Family Center 828 Pico Blvd., #9 ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/090403-01_01-7.jpg) Left: Jalonnie Carter, who was fatally shot Tuesday near his 20th Street home, in a recent DMV photo. (Photo: Photo courtesy) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/090403-01_02-7.jpg) of SMC’s $18.96 million liberal arts building is expected to be complete in 2006\. (Photo: Photo courtesy Construction) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/090403-01_03-7.jpg) Left: Jalonnie Carter, who was fatally shot Tuesday near his 20th Street home, in a recent DMV photo. (Photo: Photo courtesy) *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 4, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/090403.pdf?ref=smdp.com)