Victim’s Kin File Claim Against Schools

The family of a 14-year-old Inglewood boy shot and killed by a classmate off campus last June has filed a claim against the Inglewood Unified School District alleging that the suspect took the gun to school that day and that the district acted negligently by failing to disarm him.

The school board last week rejected the claim, and district officials said they do not know whether the boy in fact did bring the gun to Crozier Junior High School the day of the shooting.

“We had no knowledge that he was armed, if in fact he was,” said Bob Dalto, the district’s risk manager.

Police said the boy, a 13-year-old who was not identified because of his age, shot Lydell Carr in the chest with a .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol after asking him, “Do you think it would hurt if I shot you?”

The shooting took place at about 4:40 p.m. on June 21 about a block from Lydell’s home at a popular gathering spot for youths outside an apartment complex on South Fir Street.

Classmates of Lydell said in interviews the day after the shooting that the suspect had showed the gun to friends on the playground at Crozier. “When he pulled it out, my friend and I just ran away,” said one boy who refused to give his name.