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Marvel star Frank Grillo has slammed LA’s spiraling crime rate after his personal boxing trainer was shot dead.
Fitness trainer Azuma Bennett, 30, was shot up to eight times at about 9.45am on Friday while outside a legal marijuana dispensary on West Slauson Avenue in Windsor Hills, LA.
Grillo, who plays the villain Crossbones in the Avengers and Captain America films, said ‘he doesn’t know what has happened to Los Angeles’ following Bennett’s murder.
‘He made everybody feel good about training,’ Grillo told NBC Los Angeles. ‘I don’t know what’s happened to Los Angeles that a beautiful guy like this gets shot and killed over nothing.’
Bennett, who is originally from Sydney, Australia, was found by police slumped in the doorway of a marijuana dispensary with gunshot wounds and declared him dead at the scene.
His murder comes as homicides in Los Angeles are at a 15-year-high, reports ABC7.
Marvel star Frank Grillo (left), who plays the villain Crossbones in the Avengers and Captain America films (right), has slammed LA’s spiraling crime rate after his personal boxing trainer was shot dead
Fitness trainer Azuma Bennett, 30, was shot up to eight times at about 9.45am on Friday while outside a legal marijuana dispensary on West Slauson Avenue in Windsor Hills, LA
In the first six months of the year, there were 181 murders in the city, marking a 34 percent increase from the average number of homicides during the same time period between 2015 and 2019.
Bennett worked at Fortune Boxing Gym in Los Angeles and had a number of A-listers as clients, including Grillo and UFC fighter Jason Miller.
The gym’s owner, Tamara Fortune, has set up a GoFundMe so that Bennett’s family can afford to travel to Los Angeles for his memorial before flying his body back to Australia. So far, $35,000 has been raised.
‘Azuma was one of a kind. An outstanding athlete, fighter, teacher trainer, and friend/mate to so many,’ Fortune wrote.
She added: ‘We lost one of the best ones out there. He did not deserve this. He was kind to all that he met and always engaged everyone in the gym with his positive energy and engaging personality.
‘Rest easy Azuma and keep punching up there. We love you mate.’
In the first six months of the year, there were 181 murders in the city, marking a 34 percent increase from the average number of homicides during the same time period between 2015 and 2019
Critics have pointed the blame to progressive District Attorney George Gascon who has promoted criminal justice reforms that they say have fueled lawlessness
Police have not released any suspect information but confirmed they are actively investigating Mr Bennett’s death as a homicide.
Anyone with information about the shooting is urged to call the Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau or contact Crime Stoppers.
Los Angeles has seen an increase in crime rates in recent months, including homicide.
Critics have pointed the blame to progressive District Attorney George Gascon who has promoted criminal justice reforms that they say have fueled lawlessness.
The rising violence has been blamed on lax bail policies and the support for the defund the police movement after protests over policing erupted nationally in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis in 2020.
Gascon failed to be recalled on Monday after organizers ruled that 200,000 signatures were invalid.
Recall organizers needed to gather about 570,000 valid petition signatures to trigger an election. On Monday, the county registrar’s office announced they only found 520,000 valid signatures out of the 710,000 that were submitted.
Approximately 5,705 robberies have been reported since the start of 2022 to August 6 in Los Angeles. Within the same time period last year, 4,753 robberies were documented.
Meanwhile, homicide and shooting victims statistics are neck to neck in comparison to last year – almost reaching the same amount. Overall, violent crime is up 5.7 percent with 18,852 cases since August 6 in comparison to 17,832 last year.
The city has been shocked by multiple daytime crimes, including the broad daylight murder of Brianna Kupfer on January 13 by a mentally ill man who stabbed her at random while she worked in an upscale furniture store.
In June, a now-dead gunman killed two Southern California police officers in a motel shootout.
Justin William Flores, 35, was on probation for a prior gun charge at the time he committed the killings. The illegal handgun sentence was handed to Flores in 2021, as part of a lenient plea deal made possible by lax prosecution laws from DA George Gascon.
Flores killed himself during the confrontation with the cops, which transpired after officers responded to a call of a stabbing at the Scenic Motel in El Monte, a small suburb within Los Angeles County.
Last year, Flores – already on parole, pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm, a felony charge that law enforcement sources said should have sent him back to prison for a minimum of three years.
However, because of Gascon – who was sworn into office in late 2020 as part of a wave of woke prosecutors who vowed to seek alternatives to incarceration – he received the bare minimum sentence of two years probation, and 20 days of jail time.
The case has subsequently sparked outrage, with many criticizing Gascon.