A man LAPD officers tried to save in Nickerson Gardens died later at a hospital, his mother says

It was a dramatic scene in Nickerson Gardens.

Twelve hours after Los Angeles police fatally shot an 18-year-old man, angering the Watts housing project, a group of officers worked furiously to save another man’s life.

The unconscious 20-year-old was sprawled on a patch of hot asphalt on Tuesday morning, where the officers pumped his chest, ripped off their uniforms to wipe vomit from his mouth — anything they could to keep him alive. The man’s mother shouted prayers as a group of people watched, waiting for paramedics to arrive.

When the man was loaded into an ambulance, one of the officers told the crowd of onlookers that he still had a pulse.

But Daveion Luckett died later that night at a hospital, his mother said Wednesday.

The coroner’s office said that the cause of death had not yet been finalized. Luckett’s mother said he died after not having enough oxygen going to his brain.

Tuesday’s fast-moving events underscored the complicated duality of modern-day policing. The night before, the police killing of a black man had infuriated residents in the housing project, one of Los Angeles’ toughest. The shooting, which occurred during what police described as a gun battle in which an officer was shot in the arm, came at a time of heightened tensions over race and policing, particularly how police use force against African Americans.

The anger in Nickerson Gardens, however, melted away — at least temporarily — when officers on Tuesday morning ran to another black man who needed help.

Luckett lived with his mother in one of the yellow apartments that make up the massive housing project, where relatives, friends and neighbors gathered to grieve late Wednesday morning. Candles spelled out Luckett’s name on the sidewalk.

His mother, Latoya — she didn’t give her last name, saying she wanted the focus on her son — said her only boy had an entrepreneurial spirit, rapping with a record label, selling cars and working as a janitor. He had a 2-month-old son he would cradle against his chest, she said with a smile.

But above all, his mother said, Luckett cared for his community. He’d greet people with “Good morning,” try to stop fights, help others in need.

“He’d give anything,” Latoya said. “You don’t have clothes for work? He’d go buy ’em. You don’t have food? He’d go get you some.”

Growing up, she said, Luckett wanted to be a police officer. Then sheriff’s deputies in Bellflower shot and killed his older brother, Dexter Luckett, in 2010. After that, she said, Luckett decided he would help his neighborhood without becoming a cop.

But still, she said, the officers who patrol Nickerson Gardens knew him as a friendly face — including some who tried to save him Tuesday morning.

Luckett and his mother had been out late the night before, she said, as part of the crowd that gathered after police shot and killed Richard Risher, 18. Latoya said they were waiting for Risher’s mother to get to the housing project. Her son, she said, was upset by the shooting.

Later, she said, Luckett went to sleep in a car parked outside their apartment — it was too hot inside their home. On Tuesday morning, Latoya went outside to wake him.

“I know it was hot, so I went to go and get him out,” she said. “But when I shook the car, he wouldn’t wake up.”

Latoya and a neighbor broke the car window and opened the door, dragging Luckett onto the ground, where they started CPR. The officers quickly arrived and took over. It felt like “beyond forever” until paramedics came, Latoya said.

She said she was grateful — but not surprised — that the police came to help.

“That’s what they’re there for. Not all of them are bad,” she said. “They are here to protect and serve, and they served us.”

Some of the officers stopped by the apartment Wednesday morning, asking about Luckett.

“They thought that he would make it,” his mother said. “We all did.”

[email protected]

Follow me on Twitter: @katemather

ALSO

11 pounds of meth found in lining of passenger’s suitcase at LAX

San Francisco cop arrested on suspicion of building illegal AR-15-style rifle

Two raging California wildfires grow, killing 1 and prompting closures in Los Padres National Forest