$25,000 Reward to Be Offered in Slaying

A $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the killing of Francisco Hernandez Jr., 19, of Panorama City will be announced Tuesday at a news conference called by the Los Angeles Police Department and City Councilman Richard Alarcon.

Hernandez was shot and killed in September 1996 in an early morning drive-by shooting a few blocks from his house, according to police.

He apparently had stopped to use a pay phone at the corner of Woodman Avenue and Plummer Street in Panorama City to call his fiance, when two men drove by and fired several shots. He died two hours later, said his mother, Kathleen Hernandez.

“My son didn’t want to die and didn’t deserve to die, and it’s not fair for his killers to get away with it,” Hernandez said.

“I fought so hard to raise him right, not to harm people and not to join a gang, and he never did join a gang. Then he’s killed 12 days after his 19th birthday.”

At the time of his death, Hernandez’s fiance was pregnant, although neither of them knew it at the time, his mother said. Hernandez’s son is now 1 1/2 and “looks just like his father,” she said.

Alarcon said he will ask the City Council to approve the reissuing of the $25,000 reward, which was first approved in April 1997 at the request of the LAPD.

“The reward program is driven by LAPD detectives,” Alarcon said. “They ask that rewards be offered when they believe they can get additional information.”