15-year-old boy shot to death in East Palo Alto alley

EAST PALO ALTO, Calif. - A 15-year-old boy was killed in East Palo Alto and police are now looking for two possible suspects seen running away.

East Palo Alto police received a ShotSpotter alert Monday just after 9 p.m. on the 1900 block of Manhattan Avenue, said Officer Eric Lopez.

Officers found the boy suffering from a gunshot wound in an alley between Manhattan and Euclid avenues.

Video at the scene shows crime scene tape and police standing by a small, yellow-ish unit at the back of an alley. 

Police performed first aid and paramedics took the boy to the hospital, but he died there.

Police said two boys or men were seen running away toward Woodland Avenue.

"At this point, we have collected evidence at the scene and we have video footage, it's going to help us a lot, but nonetheless we are hoping that the public can help us," Lopez said.

East Palo Alto Mayor Ruben Abrica said, "It's just sad and tragic to see a young person lose his life."

Abrica said more needs to be done to stop gun violence.

"The fact that there are guns everywhere, that people can get them so easily and then use them so easily," Abrica said.

East Palo Alto has had relatively few homicides in recent years.

However, in the last month, those numbers have been slowly rising.

Last month, Ralph Fields Jr. was shot and killed in a community park as dozens of children were playing nearby. Fields was cousins with Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams.

Anyone with information is asked to call Acting Commander Angel Sanchez at (650) 853-3154 or send an anonymous email to epa@tipnow.org, an anonymous text or voice mail to 650-409-6792.