Former Marine runs to restaurant, calls mom before dying after shooting

LYNWOOD, Calif. -- A Lynwood family is demanding answers after a retired Marine was shot and killed Monday evening.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said it responded to the 11000 block of Atlantic Avenue at about 7:40 p.m. for a reported shooting.

Danny Mancillas, 35, a retired Marine, was just feet away from his home when he was shot in front of his neighbor's house. Bullet holes could still be spotted in a fence near where the shooting occurred.

With a gunshot wound to his body, he ran to a nearby restaurant where he frantically called his mother.

"He called me and he told me, 'Mom they shot at me. Run mom,'" his mother Patricia Mancillas said. "Me and my sister started running where the incident happened."

Danny Mancillas collapsed at the front door of the restaurant and was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

His family said after he left the military, Danny Mancillas worked at the L.A. Gun Club for years, but had recently fallen on tough times and lost his job.

"He had the biggest heart, he was the nicest brother," his sister Stella Alvardo-Mancillas said. "He was just trying to make a better life for himself."

Danny Mancillas' family admitted he was involved with gang, but said they had no idea why he was killed.

"I don't know if it was a gang, an opposing gang, I don't know if they thought it was the wrong person," Stella Alvardo-Mancillas said. "We just want you to turn yourself in. We just want justice. That's it."

Anyone with information that could aid detectives in their investigation was urged to call the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500.