US Marine Shot During Weekend Leave

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A 19-year old United States Marine with a history of community service is on life support after being shot in the head on Friday.Carlos Segovia was found slumped over the driver’s seat of his car in a neighborhood in South Los Angeles and is on a ventilator and feeding tube. He has very little brain function.Norma Eisenman, a police spokesperson, said a vehicle pulled up alongside Segovia’s car and at least one person fired a weapon, striking the young Marine in the head.He is currently hospitalized in grave condition. His family say he is “fighting for his life.”He was found unconscious in a Dodge Charger around the 2100 block of 31^st Street at around 11:35 p.m. on Friday. He had left the military base near San Diego on Friday and was visiting friends and famil for the weekend, say Claudia Perez, a close family friend.He had finished visiting his girlfriend on Friday night and was headed home to Perez’s house, where he normally stays, when he was shot.“He was on his way to my house,” Perez said, “He texted my son that he was bringing pizza home. He never made it.”Police notified the U.S. Marine Corps who in turn notified Segovia’s family. Captain Peter Wittingham of the Los Angeles Police Department said that Segovia is “unlikely” to survive and has little or no brain function.Perez said that Segovia is being kept on life support and that at some point the family will need to make a decision about whether or not to continue to keep him alive artificially.

Young Marine is a Model Citizen, Volunteer

There are no suspects in the shooting, and Carlos Segovia did not appear to have any connection to gang members or any other illegal activity.Segovia was born in El Salvador and came to the United States with his mother. He joined the Marine Corps only six months ago.He was known by his community for his volunteer and service work. He led a youth group called Teen Project, which aims to motivate high school students to finish school. He worked at the nonprofit Cloud 9, which provides services to homeless people and animals, and once served as a junior counselor at USC Troy Camp.Perez pleaded with the public for any information about the shooting.“They shot a Marine. They shot a community leader,” Perez said. “It was not gang-on-gang violence like you normally see on South L.A. streets. He left a base to see his family and was murdered in the streets.”Editor note: This Marine unfortunately has now passed away. After several tests, the brain injury sustained was determined to be irreversible, and was thus declared brain dead. Our thoughts are with his family.

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