Scout Who Aided Deputies Slain in Drive-By Shooting

A 19-year-old Sheriff’s Department Explorer Scout, who often alerted authorities to crime in his South Los Angeles neighborhood, was shot and killed Monday in a drive-by shooting near his home, officials said.

Anthony Jerome Gardner, who had plans to become a sheriff’s deputy, was fatally wounded after two men in a late-model bluish-gray Cadillac turned onto the 10200 block of South Haas Avenue and fired several shots that struck Gardner in the chest, sheriff’s deputies said. He was pronounced dead shortly after arrival at a nearby hospital.

Gardner had recently observed gang members “cruising the area,” Lt. Joe Hladky said. The youth then “told people to get off the street because gang members were in the area,” Hladky said.

Investigators had not determined whether the shooting was in retaliation for Gardner’s assistance, officers said.

Children in the neighborhood said Gardner had given them a warning three days earlier.

‘Watch Out

“He (Gardner) said watch out, some gang bangers were trying to kill him,” Damion Muldrew, 12, recalled Monday.

Gardner, who graduated from University High School in 1987 with a 3.7 grade-point average, often played with the younger children on the block and admonished them about getting involved with gangs, neighbors said.

“He was always telling us to stay away from them,” added Keyatta Dashuf, 10, “and that they might shoot us because we knew him.”

Gardner graduated in 1986 from the Sheriff’s Explorer Scout program, which introduces young people to law enforcement work. After finishing 20-weeks of training, he worked as a volunteer at the sheriff’s station in Carson.

Gardner’s godfather, Kenny Bell, a deputy stationed in Lennox, encouraged him to join the Explorer program, said the youth’s mother, Brenda Gardner, a civilian employee of the Sheriff’s Department. Her son knew several other deputies at the Lennox sheriff’s station and often called in to alert them to criminal activity in the area, she said.

“Everybody who has been in contact with this young man has nothing but praise,” Sheriff’s Sgt. Joseph McWilliams said.

Gardner’s supervisor described the slain youth as “a model Explorer,” McWilliams said.

Gardner was planning to enter the Sheriff’s Academy in November, officials said.

The other Explorer Scouts who worked with Gardner “are pretty shook up about the shooting,” the sergeant said.

Gardner attended the Independent Mission Baptist Church in Los Angeles, where his father is minister. He helped with the youth ministry and was at the church Sunday night.

“He was going down to the church tonight (Monday),” Gardner’s uncle, Daryl Sweeney, said Monday. “He was helping his father organize the revival meetings this week.”

Sweeney, together with relatives and friends, gathered outside the the Gardner family’s two-story stucco duplex on South Haas and comforted the victim’s mother.

“This boy was the spark of her life because he was so good,” Sweeney said. “He just went to church and work. That’s all he ever did.”

Times staff writer Yolanda Rodriguez contributed to this story.