Los Angeles Police Department detectives arrested a suspect in connection with the murder of a 40-year-old gang intervention worker today. The suspect is a minor. Police say he is not a gang member, but is known as a tagger and acted alone.

Ronald L. Barron was shot and killed February 7 after he got into an argument with the 16-yeart-old teen tagger. Barron worked for Amer-I-Can, a gang-intervention program founded by Football hall of Fame member Jim Brown. He was known for his gang outreach work in the L.A. County jails.


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According to police reports, Barron was leaving the Cottage Bar in the 5000 block of West Pico Boulevard with his girlfriend when he confronted the tagger putting graffiti on a nearby dumpster around 9:50 pm on Sunday. The suspect became angry and took out a gun and shot Barron multiple times.

The confrontation and shooting occurred in front of numerous witnesses, in the middle of a busy boulevard. Witnesses described the suspect as calmly walking away after shooting Barron point blank, and then disappearing into a nearby residential area.

Barron was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead a short time later.

Detectives do not believe that race was a motivating factor. Anyone with information about this shooting should contact LAPD's Wilshire Division detectives at (213) 473-0446.

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