Compton family speaks out after son was shot and killed while working at a graduation party

A well-known Compton family is mourning the loss of their loved one shot dead while working at a graduation party on Friday.

The shooting happened around 7:45 p.m. near Compton College, where hundreds of people were gathered for a pool party. Six people were shot during the incident, including 27-year-old Robert Lee Abdelkader, who died at the scene.

“I called him Lee Lee, his middle name was Lee, so I called him Lee Lee,” Inez Tootie Adkins said.

She says she was in her home when she heard the shots ring out Friday evening, as Abdelkader, owner of two small businesses in Compton, was catering the party at their home.

“I said, ‘Oh my God,’ and I heard the kids running and screaming,” Adkins said. “I came out and saw my son lying there dead in my own backyard.”

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department investigators say two other men and three other women were shot Friday as nearly 100 people ran from the home on E. Greenleaf Boulevard.

Witnesses told the Adkins family that the suspects were older adult males and not guests at the party. They were carrying weapons that reportedly resembled AR-15s.

They are hopeful that surveillance cameras in the area, including that of their home, will help investigators find Abdelkader’s killers.

“It was right in his own backyard,” said Darris Adkins, Abdelkader’s uncle. “I do not understand.”

The Adkins family has been business owners and members of local government in Compton for decades, and they say this latest incident is not in keeping with the Compton they know or love.

“These cowards, the cowards that came here to throw a youth party, they don’t like me or Compton,” Adkins said.

She works as a volunteer to help crime victims through their trauma, but now she finds herself in uncharted territory on the other side of the case.

“I would just say words of reassurance to them, let them know that their faith will sustain them, and now I’m looking for those words for myself and I can’t find them.”

Investigators say all other shooting victims survived their injuries, but a few remain hospitalized days later.

There is no information yet about the shooters who are still outstanding.

The shooting is not known to be related to Compton College, investigators said.

Anyone with more information is asked to contact the LASD Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500.