It's been seven weeks since 16-year-old Louis Straiten of Brentwood was gunned down in front of numerous witnesses in the Deer Valley Plaza parking lot, but so far no one has come forward with information on his murderer.

Straiten's mother, Victoria Pickett, is hoping a reward will help find his killer, and she's asked Antioch city officials to help her set it up.

"I requested this reward because it was a mall full of people, it was a Friday night, a full mall - and nobody seen anything," Pickett told the City Council last week. "So if everybody is scared or if everybody doesn't care, it could have been any one of your children there that night - anybody's children - but it was mine. So I requested this so that this would give someone an incentive to speak out, to protect our children in the community."

Straiten was gunned down shortly after 10 p.m. on March 16 in the parking lot between the Washington Mutual Bank and Taco Bell after having been involved in several fights with different people near the Regal Cinema, according to Police Lt. Pat Welch.

"Somebody at that location confronted him and shot at him multiple times," said Welch. "We are very much aware that there's probably no less than five to 10 different people who saw exactly what happened and know who the responsible is and are not willing to give that information to us. We do have multiple leads but we also have numerous eyewitnesses who are completely uncooperative."

Welch cited a murder on Sycamore Drive a year and a half ago in which 30 to 40 people saw what happened but no one would talk to the police about it.

"Some of it is fear of retaliation. As much or more of it is not wanting to be seen as a snitch or somebody who is law-enforcement friendly," said Welch. "It's getting to the point where it's extremely difficult - they are not going to tell on anybody. It makes it difficult to solve."

Councilman Jim Davis has pledged $1,000 to get the reward fund started. Council members support providing matching funds from the city up to $10,000 for whatever is donated privately. The details of how to contribute to the reward fund are still being worked out.

Anyone with information on the murder of Louis Straiten is encouraged to call Detective Tony Morefield at 779-6931.

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