Le Journal de la Photographie

Barbara Davidson / Pulitzer Ten-year-old Erica Miranda was shot three times in the back, knee and hip while playing basketball outside her home in Compton. A young man had walked up to the crowded street corner and started firing a handgun in what police believe was a gang assault. A 17-year-old relative and a 45-year-old f... Barbara Davidson / Pulitzer Jamiel Shaw Sr. kneels before his son's coffin during funeral services. Standing, from left, are Jamiel Jr's, mother, Anita Shaw; his brother, Thomas; and aunt Althea Shaw. 'To see my son lying there dead in a casket to be shot, slaughtered like a dog it makes you want to go out there and just ro... Barbara Davidson / Pulitzer Blood coats the floor and walls of a bathroom in Lancaster days after gunfire took the life of a 14-year-old girl. The gunfire killed Dominique Peatry and left six others injured. (Barbara Davidson, Los Angeles Times) Barbara Davidson / Pulitzer Rose Smith was coming home from the market to prepare for a Memorial Day potluck. She heard gunshots outside her apartment in Watts Nickerson Gardens housing project and ran. She was reaching for the front door when she felt the bullets tear into her arm, her jaw, and her back. She was three mont... Barbara Davidson / Pulitzer Sixteen years. Not long enough. Not long enough for Melody Ross to get her driver’s license. Nor to maneuver the perils and promise of high school, much less college. Melody was gunned down in front of her beloved Wilson High School in Long Beach after she and friends left the homecoming football... Barbara Davidson / Pulitzer Tori Rowles, center, flanked by her brother Forrest Rowles and friend Kat Mokry, attends burial services. Tori and Melody, who planned to go to college together, were inseparable. They planned to be fashion designers. Tori was next to Melody when she was shot when they left a homecoming football ... Barbara Davidson / Pulitzer Two 16-year-old gang members have been charged as adults in connection with Melody Ross' killing. Tom Love Vinson and Daivion Davis are each charged with one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder after they allegedly opened fire into a crowd leaving Wilson High's homecoming game. In ... Barbara Davidson / Pulitzer A dove is released at the recent memorial service for 5-year-old Aaron Jerel Shannon Jr., who died after he was shot in the head by a stray bullet on Halloween. Shannon had been modeling his new Spider-Man costume in the backyard of his South Los Angeles home. Aaron's father and grandfather, his ... Barbara Davidson / Pulitzer In Long Beach, amid the duplexes ad the shaggy palm trees, two different worlds were playing out. On the sidewalk in front of his house, 4 year-old Josue Hercules was playing with his sister. Down the street, a 46 year-old man with a history of gang activity and crime, according to police, got in... Barbara Davidson / Pulitzer Josue Hercules’ mother, Wendoly Andrade, says, ‘I do not know what will happen to my son’s life.’ Six months after the shooting, Josue’s father moved out, leaving his mother to balance Josue’s increased needs with those of her other four children. In this photo, from left, Josue, Katherine, Kevin... Barbara Davidson / Pulitzer Blood from the shooting remains on the sidewalk where Josue and his sister Katherine wave to a passing ice cream truck. Upon seeing the stains, Josue has said to his mother, ‘A bad man shot me.’(Barbara Davidson, Los Angeles Times - December 30, 2010) Barbara Davidson / Pulitzer A wreath honoring slain student Dannie Farber Jr. is given a prominent seat at the Narbonne High graduation ceremony. Farber, who played wide receiver on the schools football team, died after he was shot three times while eating dinner in Compton. He was three weeks from graduation when he was ki... Rashaun Williams, 29, weeps with exhaustion after coming home for the first time after being shot and badly wounded by a stray bullet in South Los Angeles. Williams had recently moved from South L.A. to Lancaster to keep her 6-year-old daughter away from gang violence. But Williams returned to So... Barbara Davidson / Pulitzer Pastor Wyman Jones of Sweet Hill Baptist Church in South Los Angeles carries a wooden cross through the Nickerson Gardens public housing complex to protest gang violence. Nickerson Gardens had seen a sustained lull in violence, but in 2009 and 2010 the area erupted once again, claiming the lives ... Barbara Davidson / Pulitzer Je'Don Lasley, a junior receiver at Los Angeles High, chokes up as he delivers a pre-game prayer in the Romans' locker room in the teams first home game since Jas, Jamiel Shaw Jr., was killed. Jas used to lead the prayers. 'I say whatever comes and hope we're all right' Lasley said. (Barbara Davi... Barbara Davidson / Pulitzer Seventeen year-old Edwin Cobbin was lifting weights in the front yard of his house in Hawthorne when dark SUV pulled up. Two men got out, searched his pockets and asked him what gang he belonged to. Edwin told them he wasn’t in a gang, but the men shot him and drove away. ’I am not okay,’ said hi... Barbara Davidson / Pulitzer Miracle waves at her dad from the window. 'Without Miracle, I don’t know, I don’t know if I could have made it through.' 'She’s a warrior just like her mom.’ A bullet had just missed Miracle in the womb, and she was born addicted to her mother’s pain medication. (Barbara Davidson, Los Angeles Times) Barbara Davidson / Pulitzer In L.A. County homicides fell by nearly a fifth in the first half of 2010, but violence, especially gun violence, remains a plague. Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Derek Fender pulls over a suspected gang member during a patrol. (Barbara Davidson, Los Angeles Times) Barbara Davidson / Pulitzer Edwin Cobbin’s younger brothers Albert, left, and Maddox play with toy weapons a few days after the slaying. Edwin Cobbin was lifting weights in the front yard of his house when a dark SUV pulled up. Two men got out, searched his pockets and asked him what gang he belonged to. Edwin told them he ... Barbara Davidson / Pulitzer During a visit to mark Jamiel 'Jas' Shaw II's 18th birthday, Jamiel Sr. and Jas’ brother, Thomas, walk through the solemn halls of Inglewood Park Cemetery. Said Jamiel Shaw Sr. 'I think my weakness is crying all the time thinking about him. You can’t be the same person anymore because Jas is what...