Stretch Of 10 Freeway In East LA To Be Named For Educator Joseph Gatto

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A stretch of the San Bernardino (10) Freeway in East Los Angeles will be dedicated in memory of Joseph Gatto, the 78-year-old former educator and father of Assemblyman Mike Gatto, D-Los Angeles.

A section of the Interstate 10 between the Long Beach (710) and Golden State (5) freeways will be called the Joseph Gatto Memorial Highway. The dedication ceremony Wednesday will be in front of a mural of Joseph Gatto at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, which he co-founded in 1985.

Gatto was fatally shot on Nov. 12, 2013 in his home in the 2800 block of Bright Lane in Silver Lake, and his killer has yet to be caught. A $50,000 reward offered by the Los Angeles City Council in January for information that leads to the killer or killers remains in effect.

Authorities said he died of a single gunshot wound and his body was discovered 24 hours after he was shot.

At the time the reward was offered, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said detectives were seeking a "person of interest," described as a man 18 to 25 years old, who was involved in a car burglary and an assault with a deadly weapon the same day Gatto was killed.

Witnesses described the man as being 5-foot-9, weighing around 180 pounds, wearing a multi-colored hooded sweatshirt, tan pans, a tan backpack and carrying a handgun.

Police said he threatened witnesses with death when he was caught breaking into a vehicle in the 2300 block of Moreno Drive the same day Gatto was killed.

When the first of two witnesses confronted him, he pointed a gun and threatened to kill her. When another witness confronted him, he repeated the threat, then fled on foot down public stairs on Tesla Avenue.

(©2014 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)