4 Arrested In Shooting Of Special Needs Teen Over Red Shoes

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) —Four people were arrested in connection with the murder of a 19-year-old mentally disabled man who was gunned down, apparently over his red shoes.

Tavin Price was shot several times at his car at about 11 a.m. on May 29, following a confrontation with another man over his gang affiliation at a smoke shop in the 3300 block of West Florence Avenue.

"We have tragedy often in our community, but there are very seldom times where we see just senseless tragedies like the one involved in this particular homicide investigation, where a young man is killed simply because of the color of his shoes," LAPD Deputy Chief William Scott said. "We thought those days were past us, but as we saw in this case, we still have a lot of work to do in terms of making our community safer."

The suspects in custody are: Antheyst Jarrett, 27, who was arrested shortly after the killing and booked on suspicion of witness intimidation and being an accessory after the fact; Dwight Smith, 30, arrested at his South Los Angeles home June 17; Kevin Johnson, 25, arrested Thursday in South Los Angeles; and Kanasho Jones, 27, the alleged shooter, who was arrested Tuesday morning in the Houston, Texas area. The three men were booked on suspicion of murder, and Smith and Johnson were being held on $2 million bail each.

On the day he was killed, Price -- who was called "Tevin" by family and friends -- was at a car wash with his mother and a friend when he went into a nearby smoke shop, police said. Police said he ignored the question about his shoes and gang affiliation, left the shop and went back toward the family's car, but another suspect ran from across a street and shot Price several times from behind.

Price was taken to a hospital, where he was declared dead.

His mother, Jennifer Price, had pleaded for the public's help to find her son's murderer three weeks after the shooting.

"I go sit at that cemetery every morning and everything I hear is Tavin saying, 'mommy am I going to be all right? I'm not going to die, am I?'" Jennifer Price said at Tuesday's news conference. "That's all I hear every day. I got to live with that for the rest of my life. That's torture."

She says she hopes her son's shooter faces the death penalty.