Crime

USC music student killed in apparent robbery attempt

WAVE NEWSPAPERS — An Oakland City Council member March 12 hailed the life of her slain son — a USC student who was gunned down near campus in an apparent robbery attempt — saying he was a musical prodigy who will be remembered as more than just a homicide statistic. Speaking to reporters at USC, Lynette Gibson McElhaney said her 21-year-old son Victor, who was fatally shot just after midnight March 10 near Maple Avenue and Adams Boulevard, is “not a homicide number or statistic.”

Published

6 years ago

March 25, 2019

Oakland Post

By Wave Wire Services

LOS ANGELES — An Oakland City Council member March 12 hailed the life of her slain son — a USC student who was gunned down near campus in an apparent robbery attempt — saying he was a musical prodigy who will be remembered as more than just a homicide statistic.

Speaking to reporters at USC, Lynette Gibson McElhaney said her 21-year-old son Victor, who was fatally shot just after midnight March 10 near Maple Avenue and Adams Boulevard, is “not a homicide number or statistic.”

“I want you all to know that Victor came into the world a drummer. He was drumming from the minute he could sit up,” she said. “Victor was listening for a sound. He drummed before he could walk. He drummed before he could talk.”

Police said McElhaney, a student at USC’s Thornton School of Music, was approached by three or four men in their 20s who tried to rob him, leading to the shooting.

McElhaney — who transferred to USC in 2017 — was part of the USC jazz studies program with an interest in the relationship between music and social and political movements. He also mentored young musicians and taught at the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music.

“He played for weddings and funerals and christenings and bar mitzvahs,” Lynette McElhaney said. “Can you imagine African drums at a bar mitzvah? That’s what he did. And he believed that music could heal the world of violence and sickness and addiction. And his desire to bring music medicine, that’s what he called it, to the world brought him to Los Angeles, the city of angels.

Victor came here because he wanted to be in the pantheon of all this great jazz tradition” at USC, she said.

McElhaney joked that her son didn’t care about actually getting a degree.

“There’s a part of him that really wanted to [be] a college dropout so he could keep his street cred,” she said. “But he didn’t mind being part of this Trojan family.

“And we felt bonded and loved at this place. So I want to say thank you SC. … He walked here, he was tall here and you all loved him.”

Interim USC President Wanda Austin sent out a statement informing the USC community of McElhaney’s death. In it she expressed her condolences to his family and friends.

“He believed in the power of music to touch lives to heal and to bring hope,” Austin said.

McElhaney’s killing is the latest of several high-profile killings of students in apparent robberies or attempted robberies near USC’s campus in the past seven years.

Alberto Ochoa, the last of four defendants charged in the July 24, 2014, beating death of Xinran Ji, a USC graduate student from China, was sentenced March 8 to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Two others, Alejandra Guerrero and Andrew Garcia, had already been sentenced to life in prison without parole, while the getaway driver, Jonathan Del Carmen, was ordered to serve a 15-year-to-life state prison sentence.

Ji had been walking back to his apartment near campus after a study session when he was attacked, and managed to make it back to his apartment, where one of his roommates discovered the 24-year-old electrical engineering student’s body.

Two other USC graduate students from China, Ying Wu and Ming Qu, were shot to death during an April 2012 robbery as they sat in a car that was double-parked on a street near the USC campus. Javier Bolden and Bryan Barnes were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for their killings.

Anyone with information on the McElhaney homicide is asked to call LAPD’s Southwest Division at (213) 485-2582. Tips also can be submitted to Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-TIPS.

This article originally appeared in Wave Newspapers.

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Activism

Learning Life’s Lessons

Since his release over five years ago, Richard has committed himself to making a difference, particularly by reaching out to women and families who lack the presence of a father or husband. He knows he cannot undo the years lost behind prison walls, but he is determined to use his past to build a better future for others. His story mirrors that of many who have walked a similar path. Yet, it remains uniquely his own – a testament to the power of change, resilience, and the belief that even from tragedy, something good can emerge.

Published

1 day ago

June 14, 2025

Oakland Post

Richard Johnson and son Fati. Courtesy photo.

“California’s three-strike laws gave me 2 life sentences for drug possession. After serving 28 years, mostly in solitary confinement, I am free to lead a movement to get the formerly incarcerated to give back.”

By Richard Johnson

I have written this book in hopes of being able to help others from not traveling down the path that leads to imprisonment or a cemetery. At the very beginning of writing this book, it began as a message to my son Fati Yero Gaidi, who was only two years old at the time that I was given two life sentences in prison for drug possession, under the newly implemented three-strikes-you-out law. The more that I wrote, the book began to evolve beyond its intended purpose for my son; it became something that any and everyone could utilize on their separate journeys through life challenges that we encounter. The book helped me put my thoughts, reasoning, perceptions, and views on display, while opening doors that, for the most part, were closed. The book can be purchased via Amazon. Learning life lessons.

About the Author

By Post staff

Richard “Razor” Johnson, 74, is a man whose life journey is marked by hard-earned wisdom, redemption, and an unshakable commitment to guiding the next generation. Once sentenced to life under California’s Three Strikes Law, he was released through what he calls nothing short of divine intervention. His time behind bars, particularly in Pelican Bay State Prison, gave him a new raw and unfiltered understanding of life’s hardest truths.

With the realization that time is precious and the future is shaped by the lessons we learn, Richard writes with urgency and purpose. His book—a 300-page labor of love—is dedicated to young men who may not have a father to teach them the meaning of life’s most important words. Through definitions filled with wisdom, experience, and deep personal insight, he offers direction to those who find themselves lost, just as he once was.

His words are not just lessons; they are a call to action. He hopes that by investing in young minds with wisdom and insight, they will be better equipped to navigate life’s trials, learn from their mistakes, and find their path to success. Richard “Razor” Johnson writes not just to be heard, but to help – because he knows firsthand that sometimes guidance can make all the difference.

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