Ballplayer Appeals for Help in Finding Brother’s Killer

INGLEWOOD —  St. Louis Cardinal outfielder Ray Lankford on Tuesday made a tearful plea to the public for help finding the person who shot and killed his half-brother.

Percival Harold Thomley, 19, of Inglewood, was fatally wounded on Saturday about 10 p.m. in the driveway of a friend’s Inglewood apartment in the 1000 block of South Flower Street.

At a news conference at the Inglewood Police Department Tuesday, Lankford and his mother, Dorothy Nichols, said Thomley had no criminal record and no friends with gang ties.

“He was a good, hard-working kid,” Lankford said. “I talked to him about being safe and picking his friends wisely. . . . I don’t know if it was mistaken identity or what.”

Thomley, a 1998 Crenshaw High School graduate, lived in Inglewood with his mother and worked in shipping and receiving at the Los Angeles International Airport, Lankford said.

The night he was killed, he left his house at about 8 p.m. and drove over to his friend’s apartment, his mother said. Two hours later, as he walked alone to his car, a gunman fired several times, hitting Thomley once, police said.

Friends and neighbors heard the shots and ran outside to see an unidentified man fleeing on foot, police said.

No has come forward to identify the man and police have no motive for the killing, Inglewood Det. Mark Campbell said Tuesday.

Inglewood Police asked that anyone with information on the slaying call (310) 412-5246.