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Double Homicide Rocks Skid Row
No Suspect Identified in Incident Believed to Be Drug-Related
by Ryan Vaillancourt
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - At about 5 a.m. on Sunday, April 12, two men were shot and killed inside the Lamp Lodge, a Skid Row residential hotel for people with mental disabilities, in what police believe was a drug-related incident.
Victims Kevin Cohen, 49, and a 26-year-old man whose identity has not yet been released, were shot in a lobby-like area in the building at 660 Stanford Ave., said LAPD Lt. Paul Vernon. The men were not residents of the Lamp Lodge and police have not identified a suspect, Vernon said.
Known affectionately in the community as “KK,” Cohen was looking forward to his big screen debut as an extra in The Soloist, the film about the formerly homeless musician Nathaniel Ayers and Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez, said “General” Jeff Page, Skid Row’s representative on the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council.
“He was a wonderful guy who has been down here forever,” Page said. “Everybody knew him. He got to a point with The Soloist movie that he befriended some of the crew and was encouraging them to make more movies about Skid Row.”
The shooting marked the first two Downtown Los Angeles homicides in 2009; Central Division’s last homicide occurred on San Julian Street on June 16, 2008, after a man hit his head on the sidewalk during a fight, said Vernon.
A vigil and memorial service for Cohen is scheduled for 6 p.m. on April 16 at the Lamp Lodge, 660 Stanford Ave. For more information about the vigil, contact (213) 622-1621.
Police are asking anyone with information about the shooting to call Central Area detectives at (213) 842-0727 during normal business hours. After hours and on weekends, phone the 24-hour toll-free Detective Information Desk at 877-ASK-LAPD (529-3855). Or send anonymous tips by texting CRIMES (274637) and typing LAPD to start the message.
Contact Ryan Vaillancourt at ryan@downtownnews.com.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that Kevin Curtis was a resident of Ballington Plaza.
©Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to re-distribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
Victims Kevin Cohen, 49, and a 26-year-old man whose identity has not yet been released, were shot in a lobby-like area in the building at 660 Stanford Ave., said LAPD Lt. Paul Vernon. The men were not residents of the Lamp Lodge and police have not identified a suspect, Vernon said.
Known affectionately in the community as “KK,” Cohen was looking forward to his big screen debut as an extra in The Soloist, the film about the formerly homeless musician Nathaniel Ayers and Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez, said “General” Jeff Page, Skid Row’s representative on the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council.
“He was a wonderful guy who has been down here forever,” Page said. “Everybody knew him. He got to a point with The Soloist movie that he befriended some of the crew and was encouraging them to make more movies about Skid Row.”
The shooting marked the first two Downtown Los Angeles homicides in 2009; Central Division’s last homicide occurred on San Julian Street on June 16, 2008, after a man hit his head on the sidewalk during a fight, said Vernon.
A vigil and memorial service for Cohen is scheduled for 6 p.m. on April 16 at the Lamp Lodge, 660 Stanford Ave. For more information about the vigil, contact (213) 622-1621.
Police are asking anyone with information about the shooting to call Central Area detectives at (213) 842-0727 during normal business hours. After hours and on weekends, phone the 24-hour toll-free Detective Information Desk at 877-ASK-LAPD (529-3855). Or send anonymous tips by texting CRIMES (274637) and typing LAPD to start the message.
Contact Ryan Vaillancourt at ryan@downtownnews.com.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that Kevin Curtis was a resident of Ballington Plaza.
©Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to re-distribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
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