Los Angeles authorities have tried to inject new life into solving the 2018 murder of NBA champion Richard Jefferson’s father, offering a $20,000 reward for information that could help solve the case.
Richard Jefferson Sr. was shot and killed in Compton, California, in what police called a drive-by shooting. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Jefferson was standing on a street corner when a person in a dark-colored car opened fire, according to the Los Angeles Times.
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Former NBA player and ESPN analyst Richard Jefferson before Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals on September 23, 2020 at AdventHealth Arena in Orlando, Florida. (Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images)
The 65-year-old man was shot in the torso and later pronounced dead at hospital.
On Tuesday, authorities offered the reward.
«Based on the information, it appears that Mr. Jefferson was an innocent bystander killed in a senseless act of violence,» Lt. Patricia Thomas said at a news conference. «Mr. Jefferson was killed for no other reason than to be friendly and have a chat with some other men who lived in the neighborhood.»
Thomas said Jefferson and the other men who were shot were not involved in gangs. Authorities believe they were targeted by mistake.
Referee Richard Jefferson during the game between the New York Knicks and the Portland Trail Blazers during the Las Vegas Summer League on July 11, 2022. (Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images)
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Kenneth Jefferson remembered his brother at the press conference.
«Richard was a brother, he was a son, he was a father, he was a much-loved grandfather,» he said.
Richard Jefferson, the former NBA star, was born in Los Angeles and played 17 seasons in the league from 2001 to 2018. He won a championship in 2016 with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He opened up to NBA.com in 2015 about his family moving from South Central Los Angeles to Phoenix when he was young.
Heat’s Dorell Wright tries to block New Jersey Nets’ Richard Jefferson in Miami on December 20, 2007. (Reuters/Hans Deryk)
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«The area we lived in…was pretty bad,» he said at the time. «We were living in South Central during the crack epidemic. I was born in 1980, so when we moved in 1987, I was at the peak of it.»