Raejonette Morgan: 22-Year-Old Woman Dies After Sheriff’s Delay Helping Her in LA
Raejonette Morgan, 22, was a young girl who loved to cook and checked up on her mother every day, her family told local media. The 22-year-old was studying criminal justice at Los Angeles City College and had aspirations of becoming a lawyer. Then violence struck.
On a warm summer day in South Los Angeles, Morgan’s car was shot up. Inside a bullet-riddled Mercedes, Morgan was fighting for her life. She had been hit multiple times and was too weak to escape the vehicle, which had come to a standstill on a Los Angeles curbside.
First upon the scene of the drive-by shooting was a deputy from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Parks Bureau. On the curb, he surveyed the carnage and proceeded to get on the phone. It was about 7:30 p.m. on the night of Tuesday, July 2, 2024,
As the deputy stood just behind the vehicle, he saw bullet holes that had ripped through the car’s interior at every turn, including the driver-side door and windows.
Meanwhile as each second passed, Morgan’s life slipped further away.
One witness – a black woman – pulled out her phone and went live on Facebook, detailing the footage and demanding that the officer help secure Morgan from the vehicle.
The woman, identified by local media as Dionne M. Leslie-Pullen, said Morgan was still moving inside the vehicle, but the sheriff’s deputy was unbothered.
"He could have talked to her. He could've asked her questions while he was helping her in the position that she was in," Leslie-Pullen told local media. "But he never came over to the vehicle."
Leslie-Pullen actually broke the car’s window and rendered aid to Morgan herself.
When more deputies arrived, they removed badly wounded Morgan from the car and laid her on the ground.
Morgan was transported to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, where she died of her wounds two days later.
"It was initially unclear whether the vehicle belonged to the suspect or the victim," the Sheriff's Department said in a statement. "From the patrol car the Deputy requested assistance from South Los Angeles Sheriff's Station and the Los Angeles County Fire Department."
Law enforcement say early reports indicate that the shooting was a case of mistaken identity, but an investigation remains active.
Speaking to reporters, the victim’s mother, Anginette Morgan, said her daughter "did not deserve to die like that. I don't understand how could you not have helped my daughter?" she said, referring to the responding deputy on the scene. "How could you neglect her like that?"
Along with finding out who shot her daughter, Morgan also demanded an apology from the LA Police Department.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump and activist Najee Ali are calling for a thorough investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department into the woman's death after they saw video of the incident in which the deputy "sat in his patrol car and rendered no aid to help the shooting victim.”
Said Ali: “"This tragic shooting has garnered national attention because of a Facebook Live video that has now gone viral. This deputy's inaction captured on video is reminiscent of the Sheriff's deputy in the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas who stood by as children were being shot to death and he refused to offer any aid to school children who were begging for help and died.
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