Youth Pastor Daniel Diaz Shot to Death by Lone Gunman in Pomona

It's a pretty rough neighborhood out that way.

At LAT, "Pastor's slaying is latest in a year of violence for Pomona":

Eddie Reyes was just a 12-year-old in the school lunch line when Daniel Diaz shook his hand, introduced himself and asked Reyes about God.

Twenty years after the pair first met, Diaz was still reaching out to young people. His ability to connect with youths took the longtime friends to the corner of Park and Mayfair avenues in Pomona on Nov. 11, where police say Diaz was shot to death by a lone gunman on foot.

Diaz's killing — just hours after about 200 people gathered for an anti-violence rally at Ganesha High School in Pomona — was the latest in what police and community leaders are calling the worst year of violence in the city's recent history.

"I'm just kind of in disbelief," said Connie Jimenez, whose son Carlos was killed in a still-unsolved homicide in May 2011. "It's a cycle."

Diaz was shot about 12:45 a.m. Monday. He was a passenger in Reyes' car while the pair dropped off three boys who are a part of Diaz's youth ministry at New Beginnings Community Church in Baldwin Park. The group was celebrating Reyes' 32nd birthday and one of the boys' recent graduation from a youth program. Diaz had turned 33 a week earlier.

According to police, someone ran up to the passenger-side door and unloaded four shots into Diaz. No one else in the vehicle was hit, and police have no explanation for the killing. Friends and family say Diaz had no enemies.

"The individual that was out there that night was some lost young soul," Reyes said. Diaz's "entire purpose was to inspire them to not go in that direction."

Over the last two years, Pomona has seen a sharp increase in homicides, reversing years of decline in a city once known for its crime rate and gang wars. There have been at least 24 homicides in Pomona this year, according to the Times Homicide Report.

"There's no way to overlook the fact that we've had a significant increase in gun violence and homicides," said Pomona police Lt. Eddie Vazquez. "All of our other crimes, assaults, thefts, burglaries are all down … but homicides are up."

A majority of the victims of this year's violence have been documented gang members, Vazquez said.

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More at the Times Homicide Report.