Police said no arrest had been made after gunfire broke out near a memorial for Albertshay Russell.
LOS ANGELES, CA — A woman was killed and another person was wounded early Sunday when gunfire broke out near a candlelight vigil in Watts for a mother of four who had been killed days earlier, police said.
The shooting added a second crime scene to a week of grief for relatives and friends of Albertshay Russell, whose death is being investigated as a homicide. Police said officers responded about 2 a.m. Sunday to East 104th Street and Wilmington Avenue, where a large crowd had gathered. No one was in custody Sunday, and investigators had not released a suspect description.
The vigil had drawn mourners to a South Los Angeles street corner to remember Russell, who family members said was shot Monday on Santa Ana Street. Relatives told local reporters that Russell was killed by her boyfriend at a home where the couple lived with the boyfriend’s mother. Police had not confirmed the family’s full account, but the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed that Russell’s death was under homicide investigation. “All we are doing is coming to show our support,” one woman who attended the vigil said. “We really don’t know what took place. It’s crazy.”
Officers arrived after the Sunday morning shooting and found a large crowd still in the area, police said. Early accounts from authorities and local reports described one woman dead and another person taken to a hospital in stable condition. Reports differed on whether the woman who died was pronounced dead at the scene or later died at a hospital. Police did not immediately release the names of the victims in the vigil shooting. They also did not announce a motive, describe the weapon used or say whether the gunfire was tied to the earlier killing of Russell.
Russell, identified by relatives as a 32-year-old mother of four, had been the focus of the memorial before the gunfire. Family members said at least one of her children witnessed the Monday shooting. They also said the boyfriend’s mother called 911 and reported Russell’s death as a suicide, but relatives disputed that account and said wounds on Russell’s hands showed she had not harmed herself. Police have not released a full narrative of the Monday killing, and no public suspect information was available in the reports reviewed Sunday night.
The two investigations were moving on separate tracks Sunday. In the vigil shooting, detectives were searching for the person who fired into or near the crowd and were working to determine what led up to the gunfire. In Russell’s death, homicide detectives were reviewing the Monday shooting on Santa Ana Street. Police had not said whether charges had been filed in either case. They also had not said whether the same people, disputes or evidence connected the two shootings.
By Sunday afternoon, candles remained near the Watts scene where mourners had gathered hours before. Close family friends returned to honor Russell and to process the violence that followed the memorial. “She was a real person. She was a humble person. She was somebody who was loved,” one close family friend said. Russell’s sister, Antoinette Byrd, described her in a fundraising statement as a woman with “vibrant energy” who could lift others with a smile, laugh or dance.
The LAPD had not announced any arrests by late Sunday, May 31. The next step is the release of victim identification by authorities and any public update from homicide detectives on suspects, motive or whether the two shootings are connected.
Author note: Last updated June 1, 2026.