Oakland City Councilwoman Lynette Gibson McElhaney and her husband Clarence McElhaney will accept a degree from the USC Thornton School of Music on Friday the behalf of their son Victor McElhaney, who was fatally shot in Los Angeles on March 10.
Victor McElhaney, 21, who was a drummer, was a senior at the Thornton School of Music.
Los Angeles police said McElhaney was shot in an apparent botched robbery at a convenience store at Maple Avenue and Adams Boulevard, about a mile from the USC campus, at about 12:30 a.m. March 10 and died at about 11 a.m. that day.
From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Lynette Gibson McElhaney and Clarence McElhaney plan to join friends, family, students and supporters at a peace "stand-in" to enlist public support to identify and apprehend those who were involved in the fatal shooting of their son.
The stand-in will be held at the corner of Maple Avenue and Adams Boulevard, where Victor McElhaney was shot.
"My baby is gone, and I don't want that to happen to any other mother," Gibson McElhaney said in a statement.
Gibson McElhaney said, "We want those involved to be brought into custody, to stop this from happening again and to find a way for them to get the help they need."
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Among those expected to join the stand-in are USC Brothers Breaking B.R.E.A.D., the USC Black Student Association, Justice for Murdered Children, United in Peace, SAVE Center Oakland and representatives from the office of Los Angeles City Councilman Curren Price.
Victor McElhaney's death was the second tragedy to hit Gibson McElhaney in the past four years.
Torian Hughes, 17, who she considered to be her grandson and helped raise, was fatally shot in the 900 block of Mandela Parkway in West Oakland at about 1:40 p.m. on Dec. 20, 2015.
Shiheim Johnson, who was 19 at the time and is now 22, was convicted of first-degree murder on March 13 for his role in the crime and is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11.
Gibson McElhaney attended most of Johnson's trial until her son was fatally shot.
The teen who allegedly shot Hughes is being prosecuted separately in the juvenile court system.
