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

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

The shooting happened at 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," said Inez Tootie Adkins.

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

"I said, 'Oh my God,' and I heard the children running and screaming," Adkins said. "I came outside to see my son laying there dead in my own backyard."

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

Witnesses have told the Adkins family that the suspects were older adult men and not guests of the party. They were carrying guns that reportedly looked like AR-15s. 

They're hopeful that surveillance cameras in the area, including the one on their home, will help investigators find Abdelkader's killers. 

"He was simply standing in his own backyard," said Darris Adkins, Abdelkader's uncle. "I don't understand."

The Adkins family have been business owners and in the local government in Compton for decades, and they say that this latest incident is not in line with the Compton that they know or love. 

"These cowards, the cowards that came through here to shoot up a young age party, they don't have a love for me or Compton," Adkins said. 

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

"I would just say to them comforting words, letting 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 that all of the other victims of the shooting survived their wounds, but a few remain hospitalized days later. 

There is no information yet on the shooters who remain outstanding. 

The shooting has no known connection to Compton College, investigators said.

Anyone with further information is asked to contact LASD's Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500.