Victims recovering from Halloween shooting
Geno Hall, a former Crenshaw High School football star and 2009 L.A. City Football Player of the Year, was recovering from seven bullet wounds in critical but stable condition Thursday, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Eugene Hall, Geno’s father, told the Times that his son was recovering from a three-hour surgery in the intensive care unit of California Hospital Medical Center. The younger Hall sustained bullet wounds to the left thigh, back of leg, buttocks and arm, according to his father.
“The doc says he’ll pull through but they’re keeping him up there,” Eugene Hall told the Times.
Geno Hall was the intended victim of the shooting that occurred outside the Ronald Tutor Campus Center late Wednesday night. Three others were also admitted to California Hospital with minor injuries. None of the victims or suspects were affiliated with the university, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
LAPD officials said they expect the other three victims to make a full recovery.
I’m glad to hear that the person targeted by the shooting has survived and is recovering, as have the bystanders injured in the attack.
If we were characterize this shooting as a targeted attack on a (somewhat) public figure, this incident would be scarier, but less indicative of a security lapse at the university.
Targeted assassination attempts could be more difficult to mitigate than, say, muggings (though less a risk to the university as a whole) because such an attacker would be more determined, and perhaps less concerned about getting caught.
Saying something like, “I told you so that USC is in a bad neighborhood!” or, even worse, saying something racist, is misidentifying the problem.