14-Year-Old Honors Student Taken Off Life Support After Riverside Street Shooting
RIVERSIDE (CBS) – A 14-year-old boy was taken off life support Friday after being shot on a Riverside street multiple times, according to this family.
Larenz Simmons was struck by several bullets in an attack outside his grandmother's Riverside house around 6 p.m. Thursday in the 2200 block of Georgia Street, near Vasquez Park.
The suspect remains at-large.
At a candlelight vigil Friday evening, his family told KCAL9 and CBS2 News reporter Amanda Burden that the shooting was "senseless."
A tearful friend, Zion Shephard, told the vigil crowd, "Larenz...I need you to get through this." Hours later the family made the agonizing decision to take Simmons off life supports.
His sister, Iley Yafeh, says she believes she is in a nightmare. "My heart hurts."
Yafeh says her brother -- a freshman honors student at Riverside Poly High School, athlete, ROTC student, and volunteer -- had no enemies. "There's been innocent blood shed for practially no reason at all," she says. "He's not a gang-banger."
Cousin Danielle Hornsby concurred. "He always had a smile on his face. He didn't deserve this."
Sgt. Dan Russell said the high school student was confronted by a man who jumped out of a car and began shooting, firing five to six rounds and striking the boy several times. The reason for the attack was unclear.
The suspect fled in what witnesses described as a light-colored Mitsubishi Mirage or similar sedan.
Anyone with information about the shooting was urged to call Riverside police detectives Ron Sanfilippo or Mike Medici at (951) 353-7105 or (951) 353- 7104.
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