19-Year-Old Fatally Shot In Monterey Park Identified As Basketball Player At East LA College

MONTEREY PARK (CBSLA.com) — Homicide detectives are investigating the fatal shooting of a man in Monterey Park on Thursday morning.

The shooting occurred in the 800 block of West El Repetto Drive.

The victim identified as Saimed Ivey, 19, was reported dead at the scene.

Ivey was a basketball player who attended East Los Angeles College. Ivey turned 20 Thursday.

Officials said Ivey was found in the backseat of a locked Mercedes-Benz, shot to death after an argument with another man in an apartment complex parking lot.

Witnesses said they heard a single gunshot.

The investigation is ongoing.

The victim's family told KCAL9's Dave Lopez the family recently moved here from Chicago to get away from gun violence.

"This world is so crazy," said the victim's cousin, Cortez Smith, who said he last spoke to the victim in March.

The Sheriff's Department is assisting Monterey Park police in the investigation.

Reporter Tom Wait picked up the story for KCAL9 News at 10 p.m.

He reported there were still no arrests or suspects in the case.

Ivey's family told Wait that Saimed was a rising star on the court with a bright future.

His mother struggled to find the right words and express her grief.

"He was just an awesome soul," Chareda Carter, his mother said. "They took somebody ... all I know is that a lot of people are hurting right now."

His mother believes he was set up.

The irony of him moving to "safer" California was something the victim and his mother had talked about.

"That is the irony to me," she said. "He was like, 'I'm going to become a California resident! I love it here.' " she quoted him as saying.

By phone from Chicago, the victim's father cannot fathom what happened.

"Not only was he a basketball player," said his father, Steve Ivey, "he was an A student on the campus, at the school. Never [had any] problems since he's been out there. How is he shot dead in the back seat of a car?"

A post on social media went viral and called the crime an officer-involved shooting, but police said that it was not.

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500.