Lured by social media, 10 shot at illegal L.A. New Year's party

Jan. 5, 2024 Updated 9:22 AM PT

Dozens of partygoers trickled onto an industrial street near where the 10 Freeway crosses the Los Angeles River shortly after midnight on Monday.

Among them was Miah Banks, a 26-year-old hairstylist and mother of one from Azusa who eschewed her usual homebody nature to ring in the infant moments of 2024.

“So many of our friends were inside the party and we weren’t planning on going,” said Lanise Harris, who accompanied Banks. “But we changed clothes and we got inside at 11:45.”

The women had partied to the rap, R&B and TikTok hits blaring inside the warehouse, and welcomed the new year with a customary countdown. But it was now just before 1 a.m., and the party was over.

It wasn’t until they walked out that they heard the shots.

“I grabbed Miah, we took like four steps and then we fell to the floor,” Harris said. “The shooting kept going until they stopped. That’s when I got up and tried to pulled on Miah’s hand.”

“That’s what‘s so tragic,” she said. “We were only there for an hour.”

Banks was one of 10 people struck during a hail of gunfire following an underground warehouse party just outside the L.A. Arts District. Two, Banks and 24-year-old Deven Whitaker, died from their wounds.

Much of the circumstances surrounding the shooting remain under investigation. The Los Angeles Police Department has described it as “an unknown dispute ... between unknown people” that sent revelers running for their lives.

LAPD Det. Justin Howarth, who is investigating the case, estimated “several hundred people” attended the event, which was advertised on various online platforms.

“We believe the event was spread through social media,” Howarth said.

Video surveillance from the scene at the time shows cars double-parked along the potholed sliver of Porter Street between Mateo Street and South Santa Fe Avenue. Several warehouses, some with hanging vacancy signs, are visible, as are a wholesale pallet company and a tire service shop.

Banks was a homebody “who rarely went out,” said Cassandra Anderson, 47, a family friend who set up an online funeral fundraising campaign.

“She doesn’t really go to parties,” said Anderson, who was in Las Vegas when she first heard of the shooting Monday morning. “When she goes out, it’s usually on trips to Cancun for her birthday, otherwise she’s at home with her daughter or friends.”

Banks and Harris, 25, met in high school. They had seen a flier for the event, but initially decided to stay in at Harris’ home — at least, until their phones started pinging with social media and text messages around 10 p.m.

Upon arriving, Harris said the party was “overwhelming,” noting that the crowd size easily dwarfed the building’s listed capacity of 200. Organizers were charging entrance fees of $50 for men and $40 for women, but Harris said a friend got her and Banks in for free.

“They were letting anybody in,” she said, “and I saw a bunch of people I didn’t recognize.”

The two danced and celebrated until an announcement was made at 12:54 a.m. that the “party was over,” Harris said. Then they stepped outside, and the shots rang out.

Banks was hit in the neck, and Harris applied pressure to the wound while they waited for paramedics to arrive.

Harris said she spoke with her wounded friend for 30 minutes until Banks went unconscious. Emergency responders arrived 10 minutes after that, Harris said.

Paramedics attempted to resuscitate Banks. But at that point, there was nothing they could do, said Harris, who believed her “friend would still be alive” had she received swifter attention.

“I can’t believe she died because I was just talking to her,” Harris said. “At no point did I think she would die.”

Harris herself was shot in the hand, but that wound will heal in time. It’s the emotional trauma that will leave the deepest scar.

Banks, Harris said, was “the perfect friend.”

Harris said that the party was one of a few happening in the area and that she was stunned that police were not in the vicinity.

“Usually when there’s hundreds of Black people around, the police are close by,” she said.

A legal warehouse party was taking place a block away from the illegal rave, Howarth said.

That event featured private security for an estimated crowd of 800 people, according to one of its organizers. Some attendees exited into the line of fire themselves as they returned to their cars.

“These types of illegal parties give legit parties a bad reputation,” said the organizer, who asked that neither his name nor the name of his event be used for fear of a loss of revenue. “These are the types of things that ruin businesses.”

Howarth said he could not reveal information about the suspects or their motives, citing the ongoing investigation.

He said he was unaware of the number of parties that routinely happen in the area, but that events were expected for the holidays.

For Anderson, the Banks’ family friend, the shooting death was a tragic case “of wrong person at the wrong time.”

“She was so family-focused and the one time she goes out, this happens,” she said. “It’s difficult to understand.”

Lured by social media, 10 people shot at illegal L.A. New Year’s party. ‘So tragic’

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