Kevin Burton graduated earlier this month from Grossmont High School in El Cajon and is scheduled to play football this fall at San Diego Mesa College.
But the life of the 18-year-old was cut short last weekend when he was shot while he and his friends were leaving a house party in the College area. Shortly after the shooting, police said Burton was hospitalized and in serious condition.
On Friday, police confirmed he was dead.
According to police, Burton attended the party late last Friday morning on Saturday morning at a house on Art Street just off El Cajon Boulevard. Burton got into a vehicle with friends, and while driving on El Cajon Boulevard, a bullet struck the vehicle and hit it.
A second bullet hit a window of an apartment complex on the south side of El Cajon Boulevard, but no one in the complex was injured, police said.
Burton’s friends took him to a hospital, arriving around 1:45 a.m., according to police homicide, Lt. Jud. Campbell. At the same time, while police were learning about the victim of the gun who was rushed to a hospital, officers in the College area responded to El Cajon Boulevard and Art Street, where several 911 callers said that they heard gunshots.
San Diego police officers are looking for evidence early Saturday, June 25, after Kevin Burton, 18, was shot near Art Street and El Cajon Boulevard.
Investigators later learned that it was the place where Burton was shot, Campbell said.
“Detectives are still working to determine if there was any sort of altercation or incident at the party prior to the shooting,” the lieutenant said in a press release Friday.
Art Street residents said they heard loud music and saw a large crowd at the house party, and at least one person called police about the party hours before the shooting. Another said he heard a fire about 90 minutes before the deadly shot was fired.
Resident Francisco Silva said he heard four or five gunshots fired around midnight. The fire is common, he said, and the party continued because he didn’t care much.
But then around 1:35 a.m., he heard another group of guns, this time four rounds, Silva said.
“And then the party died alone,” he said. “At that point I knew something was wrong.”
Silva said he called 911 and said the shooting.
He and other residents said they called police to report the noise and out-of-control home parties to their block in the past.
San Diego State University officials said the campus police department “will learn more about the off-campus incident,” but noted that the San Diego Police Department is the agency for main investigation. “Currently, we have no additional information,” a campus spokesman wrote in an email.
Burton played football at Grossmont High School and will play as a wide receiver this fall at Mesa College, according to social media posts from the junior college football team.
“Our Olympic football family is very saddened by this tragic event and we ask for prayers for Kevin and his family,” the team wrote on a chart that was tweeted on Monday.
According to a GoFundMe campaign for the victim’s family, Burton also planned to run at Mesa College and worked at SeaWorld San Diego.
San Diego police said Friday that there was “no suspected information to be released at this time.”
Department officials noted that there were many partisans in the area at the time of the shooting that went off before the officers arrived, and investigators wanted to talk to these people. Anyone with information about the shooting was asked to call the San Diego Police Homicide Unit at (619) 531-2293 or the anonymous San Diego County Crime Stoppers line at (888) 580-8477.