Update on Echo Park shooting

The four-year-old boy who was shot and killed yesterday afternoon in the southern edge of Echo Park has been identified as Roberto Lopez. The boy — the fourth Echo Park youngster to be killed in a little more than two years — was walking home with his sister in the 1200 block of Court Street when a group of men opened fire on a passing car, police told the LA Times. That gunfire struck Roberto, who later died at a hospital.

The site of the killing on Court Street is the territory of the Diamond Street gang. It’s not clear, however, if this shooting was gang related.

This neighborhood south of Temple Street near downtown was cut off from the rest of Echo Park and Angeleno Heights to the north following the construction of the Hollywood Freeway during the late 1940s and 1950s. But it remains the home of important neighborhood institutions, including the Echo Park Library and the Echo Park community pool. Last summer, residents saw the opening of the Ed Roybal Learning Center and Vista Hermosa Park, both located only a short walk from yesterday’s shooting.

Photo: KCBS