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Crime & Safety

Echo Park Man Shot in May Remembered by Family, Friends

Some at the Griffith Park memorial Sunday expressed frustration about the lack of progress in the police investigation.

Family, friends and coworkers came together Sunday afternoon at Griffith Park for “Echo Love,” a memorial for Michael “Micky” David, the Echo Park resident shot two months ago in the neighborhood where he lived.

George Hamilton, a close friend and coworker of David’s at Trader Joe’s, organized the event, which included food, drinks, music and a small shrine with sunflowers, a journal and photographs of David from throughout his 30 years.

“It’s a beautiful thing to see these people coming together,” said Hamilton. “We needed this.”

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David, who was known for his friendly magnetism, was gunned down early on May 7, the day before Mother’s Day.

David was shot as he ran west down Sunset Boulevard chased by three men.  David may have exchanged words with at least one of them earlier in the evening.

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Only one suspect, Jeffrey Cardona, has been arrested. He has been charged with one count of murder and remains in custody.

Michael David’s older brother, Oliver, expressed continued grief over the loss of his brother. “It was a senseless act,” he said“No one is safe from anything.”

“He always saw the good in people,” added Michael’s mother Jeanne. “Unfortunately, that night, he didn’t see it coming for him. How could he have seen it?”

Mark Marrea, a resident of Echo Park and a coworker at Trader Joe’s who knew Michael David for two years, doubted the killing was fundamentally gang-related.

“This isn’t the first time I’ve heard this kind of thing happen," he said, "but it put me in a complete state of shock."

For Jeanne David, the motive behind her son’s untimely demise is eclipsed by her disappointment in the ongoing efforts to catch her son’s killers.

“The investigation is nowhere,” she said. “The other, larger tragedy of all this is the cops have other things to do. I feared this would happen, and it did.”

Some friends and family speculated that a muted response from local media may have taken pressure off detectives.

Michael David was killed only nights before the death of Gabriel Ben-Meir, a 30-year-old MTV staffer, whose shooting death captured Los Angeles headlines.   

Michael David is survived by a four-year-old daughter named Sayla. According to Sethi Singh, another coworker of Michael David’s from Trader Joe’s, she speaks of her father all the time.

“A week ago, I took her to City Walk, and we visited the fountain over there,” said Singh.

“When she was given some coins and told to make a wish, each time she said ‘I wish my daddy would take me to the park, I wish my daddy would take me to the beach.”

Hamilton, pleased by the turnout of friends and family at “Echo Love,” had this last thing to say of his friend.

“He was a light. He was meant to shine, and he did.”

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