RIP - Jacob

“Death takes the good, too good to stay, And leaves the bad, too bad to take away”

LONG BEACH - A Poly High student, who relatives said hoped to move away from his crime-plagued neighborhood in the Central Area, was killed and his female companion suffered a minor wound in a shooting early Tuesday morning.

Jacob Benavidez, 15, who was a sophomore last year, died shortly after he was taken to a local hospital with multiple shots to the torso.

The woman, who was visiting from out of town and whom police did not identify for her safety, was treated and released.

She was grazed in the torso by a bullet, according to her grandmother, who did not offer her name.

Police say at about 12:30 a.m. a male suspect walked up to the victims, who were chatting on a stoop off a driveway on the 1100

Police are investigating whether the shooting was gang-related.

By mid-morning after the shooting, a makeshift memorial has been set up outside the apartment where Benavidez was slain. A handful of flowers and candles were arranged, with cigarettes placed in the petals of some of the flowers, for Jacob. Amid the flowers was a picture taken New Year's Eve of Benavidez with two friends, including his best friend, Jesus Martin Cosio.

"He was one of the best guys in the world, man," Cosio said as he puffed on a cigarette.

The friend scoffed at the notion of Benavidez having gang ties.

"Nah, he was just a little white

dude," Cosio said with a laugh.

"He was a nice boy, he didn't gang bang, he just got shot," said Nieves Murillo, a step-cousin, as she stood with a small knot of family and friends near the memorial.

When asked if Benavidez had trouble with any person or group, Cosio joked, "Then only person he had a beef with was me. He owed me $10."

While Cosio may have been hiding his pain with humor, the mood in the neighborhood was somber.

A young man who purportedly held Benavidez as he lay dying on the sidewalk chose not to talk to a reporter. Others among a gathering of young men across the street from the memorial were similarly silent and dour.

Family members said Benavidez parents were grieving and unavailable for comment.

Murillo made an impassioned plea for the city to install more lights and even cameras to stem the violence in the neighborhood that is just a block northeast of Ernest McBride Park and Poly High.

She said Larry Green, killed in October 2008 in front of a liquor store just a block away on Alamitos Avenue, was a cousin of Benavidez.

Long Beach police confirmed Green and Benavidez were related but said the shootings did not appear connected. The Green shooting remains unsolved.

The violence drove Murillo to move to Orange County, although she grew up in Long Beach and still has most of her family in the neighborhood.

"I worry about my family and their lives," Murillo said. "Someone needs to make them stop the shootings and the violence and the killings," Murillo said. "I didn't want to raise my kids to be in this neighborhood, and I want to move my dad out really bad, I just don't have the money."

Neighbors and family described Benavidez as a friendly, playful young man.

"He would come in my dad's house every day," Murillo said.

When asked what she would remember of Benavidez, Murillo said "Happy stuff is what I remember. Now, we have pictures of him and memories, that's all we have."

Anyone with information is asked to call the homicide detail at 562-570-7244.

greg.mellen@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1291