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Tamale Vendor Shot to Death in Apparent Robbery
A recent Gonzalez family portrait (Photo courtesy the LAPD)
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Friday morning, residents on South Witmer Street in Westlake heard gunfire and not the sound of Cosme Gonzalez's usual cries declaring the foods he had to sell. The LA Times explains:
In what police are calling an attempted robbery, a man in his 20s approached the 46-year-old Gonzalez about 9:30 a.m. and demanded money. When Gonzalez refused, the man fatally shot him in the chest, police said.
An elderly neighborhood resident heard the gun blasts, and "a bullet tore through her bedroom, and when she peered out the window, she saw Gonzalez on his hands and knees, bloody, crying for help." Other witnesses saw the assailant "running west between buildings after the shooting," but police are asking for more help in locating the suspect. Westlake residents, so fond of the tamalero--most of whom who didn't even know the beloved-man's name until his killing--are shocked and saddened by the loss of the vendor, who leaves behind a wife and three young children.
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