On Jan. 14, nearly five years after he was shot in the head, Eddie Mangum died.
He knew who pulled the trigger -- but he stayed silent. The 43-year-old man took the secret to his grave, refusing to tell his own family who shot him.
Recently, new details emerged in the April, 28, 2011 shooting. At around 5:40 p.m., Mangum was inside his vehicle near a liquor store in the 10000 block of South Main Street in South Los Angeles when a man walked up and fired a single gunshot into his head, according to the LAPD Gang Homicide Division.
Crime scene photos released for the first time show the single shot through the driver-side window. But Mangum didn't die that night: or the next, or even the next. He didn't die until almost five years after the shooting.
"It wasn't deemed a homicide up until the day that he passed," said Det. Nathan Kouri.
Catherine Hubbard broke down in tears recalling the day she thought her son died.
"Once we got to the hospital and they said he was dead on arrival, I ran outside and I said, he cannot die, and I started praying and praying," she said.
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But Mangum, who was 38 years old at the time, was not dead. Instead, doctors showed his mother his x-rays, and the bullet fragments lodged in his brain.
"They said they would get whatever they could out, and the rest would be up to Jesus," she said.
On the day of the shooting, Kouri said Mangum had just walked out of the liquor store on the corner. It was the middle of the day.
"His car was parked outside here, goes to get in his car, starts to reverse into traffic and somebody comes up and shoots him," Kouri said.
After the shooting Mangum never spoke or walked again. But he was alive. All those years, he was stuck in a hospital bed, using hand gestures to communicate.
"I asked him, if he said no, it would be thumbs down, and if he said yes, it would be thumbs up. And we went from there," Hubbard said.
Yolanda Foreman said she shared a special bond with her brother, which is why she tried to find out if he knew who tried to kill him.
"One day I asked him, do you know what happened to you? And he took his hand and he did the gun," Foreman said.
"Then I asked him, did he know who did it to him? He shook his head yes. I said, 'Will you tell me who did it you?' He shook his head no. So I left it alone."
Detectives are hoping with all the time that's passed since the shooting that someone will have the courage to come forward with information. Maybe remember that seemingly out-of-place silver BMW in front of the liquor store.
"I think that's what stuck out in people's minds was the car," Kouri said.
Mangum's family knows Eddie may not have been entirely innocent. They said he was trying to turn his life around, but gang life in South LA held a tight grasp.
And yet they are hopeful that they're one day closer to closure and to seeking justice.
"I would probably pray for them, and tell them I forgive them. But you reap what you sow," Foreman said.
