Crime

USC music student killed in apparent robbery attempt

WAVE NEWSPAPERS — An Oakland City Council member March 12 hailed the life of her slain son — a USC student who was gunned down near campus in an apparent robbery attempt — saying he was a musical prodigy who will be remembered as more than just a homicide statistic. Speaking to reporters at USC, Lynette Gibson McElhaney said her 21-year-old son Victor, who was fatally shot just after midnight March 10 near Maple Avenue and Adams Boulevard, is “not a homicide number or statistic.”

Published

8 years ago

March 25, 2019

Oakland Post

By Wave Wire Services

LOS ANGELES — An Oakland City Council member March 12 hailed the life of her slain son — a USC student who was gunned down near campus in an apparent robbery attempt — saying he was a musical prodigy who will be remembered as more than just a homicide statistic.

Speaking to reporters at USC, Lynette Gibson McElhaney said her 21-year-old son Victor, who was fatally shot just after midnight March 10 near Maple Avenue and Adams Boulevard, is “not a homicide number or statistic.”

“I want you all to know that Victor came into the world a drummer. He was drumming from the minute he could sit up,” she said. “Victor was listening for a sound. He drummed before he could walk. He drummed before he could talk.”

Police said McElhaney, a student at USC’s Thornton School of Music, was approached by three or four men in their 20s who tried to rob him, leading to the shooting.

McElhaney — who transferred to USC in 2017 — was part of the USC jazz studies program with an interest in the relationship between music and social and political movements. He also mentored young musicians and taught at the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music.

“He played for weddings and funerals and christenings and bar mitzvahs,” Lynette McElhaney said. “Can you imagine African drums at a bar mitzvah? That’s what he did. And he believed that music could heal the world of violence and sickness and addiction. And his desire to bring music medicine, that’s what he called it, to the world brought him to Los Angeles, the city of angels.

Victor came here because he wanted to be in the pantheon of all this great jazz tradition” at USC, she said.

McElhaney joked that her son didn’t care about actually getting a degree.

“There’s a part of him that really wanted to [be] a college dropout so he could keep his street cred,” she said. “But he didn’t mind being part of this Trojan family.

“And we felt bonded and loved at this place. So I want to say thank you SC. … He walked here, he was tall here and you all loved him.”

Interim USC President Wanda Austin sent out a statement informing the USC community of McElhaney’s death. In it she expressed her condolences to his family and friends.

“He believed in the power of music to touch lives to heal and to bring hope,” Austin said.

McElhaney’s killing is the latest of several high-profile killings of students in apparent robberies or attempted robberies near USC’s campus in the past seven years.

Alberto Ochoa, the last of four defendants charged in the July 24, 2014, beating death of Xinran Ji, a USC graduate student from China, was sentenced March 8 to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Two others, Alejandra Guerrero and Andrew Garcia, had already been sentenced to life in prison without parole, while the getaway driver, Jonathan Del Carmen, was ordered to serve a 15-year-to-life state prison sentence.

Ji had been walking back to his apartment near campus after a study session when he was attacked, and managed to make it back to his apartment, where one of his roommates discovered the 24-year-old electrical engineering student’s body.

Two other USC graduate students from China, Ying Wu and Ming Qu, were shot to death during an April 2012 robbery as they sat in a car that was double-parked on a street near the USC campus. Javier Bolden and Bryan Barnes were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for their killings.

Anyone with information on the McElhaney homicide is asked to call LAPD’s Southwest Division at (213) 485-2582. Tips also can be submitted to Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-TIPS.

This article originally appeared in Wave Newspapers.

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AG Bonta Announces Action on Cryptocurrency, Sextortion Fraud – Increasingly Targeting Gen-Z

California Attorney General Rob Bonta is warning residents about a surge in cryptocurrency fraud and online sextortion schemes that increasingly target Gen Z through social media platforms. With internet-based scams costing Americans nearly $21 billion in 2023, Bonta highlighted how artificial intelligence and deepfakes allow criminals to impersonate loved ones and promote fraudulent investment groups. The Attorney General’s Office has already shut down over 100 fraudulent websites and is now utilizing new legislative tools to recover assets for victims. Read more.

Published

2 weeks ago

November 3, 2026

Post News Group

By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

California Attorney General Rob Bonta warned residents about rising cryptocurrency fraud and online sextortion scams, urging Californians to recognize warning signs and protect themselves as scammers increasingly target younger people through social media.

Speaking at a news conference on Oct. 19, Bonta said Americans lost $20.9 billion to internet-based scams in 2025, including $11.4 billion to cryptocurrency scams. He said artificial intelligence, deepfakes, and malicious smart contracts have made fraud easier to carry out and more difficult to detect and prevent.

While older Californians remain targets, Bonta said his office has seen a sharp rise in reports of Gen Z consumers being targeted on platforms such as Twitch, TikTok, and Instagram.

One growing scheme involves so-called rug-pull scams, in which fraudsters promote low-priced stocks or volatile cryptocurrencies through online investment groups and streaming communities. After generating interest and driving up prices, scammers sell their holdings, causing values to collapse and leaving investors with losses.

Bonta also warned about sextortion, in which scammers trick or coerce victims into sharing explicit images before threatening to distribute them to friends and family unless they pay. He advised victims not to give in to demands, saying scammers often do not release the images when victims refuse to pay. Instead, he recommended ignoring and blocking the perpetrators.

Another scheme, known as recovery fraud, targets people who have already lost money to cryptocurrency scams. Fraudsters impersonate blockchain recovery specialists or law enforcement officials and demand additional payments while promising to recover stolen assets.

Bonta urged Californians to be skeptical of promises of large returns on small investments, fake cryptocurrencies resembling established ones, and celebrity endorsements that may have been generated using artificial intelligence. He also warned that scammers can use AI to impersonate loved ones through manipulated video and audio.

“Never use a crypto ATM,” Bonta said, emphasizing that transactions can be difficult to trace and reverse and that the machines lack adequate consumer protections.

His office has shut down more than 100 fraudulent websites over the past two years that collectively scammed victims out of at least $8.3 million, he said.

Bonta also highlighted Senate Bill 1208, which he said was recently signed into law. The measure allows law enforcement to petition a court to return seized cryptocurrency to victims, including when alleged perpetrators are outside U.S. jurisdiction.

Residents who have fallen victim to scams can report them to the California Department of Justice at oag.ca.gov/report.

Bonta also urged victims not to feel embarrassed, stressing that scammers are responsible for the harm they cause.