A portion of the San Bernardino (10) Freeway in East Los Angeles will be dedicated in memory of Joseph Gatto Wednesday — the one-year anniversary of the still-unsolved killing of the 78-year-old former educator and father of Assemblyman Mike Gatto, D-Los Angeles.
The elder Gatto was fatally shot Nov. 12, 2013, in his home in the 2800 block of Bright Lane in Silver Lake. A $50,000 reward offered by the Los Angeles City Council in January for information that leads to the killer or killers remains in effect.
A section of the Interstate 10 between the Long Beach (710) and Golden State (5) freeways will be called the Joseph Gatto Memorial Highway. The dedication ceremony will be held in front of a mural of Joseph Gatto at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, which he co-founded in 1985.
Authorities said the senior Gatto died of a single gunshot wound and his body was discovered 24 hours after he was shot.
At the time the reward was offered, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said detectives were seeking a “person of interest,” described as a man 18 to 25 years old, who was involved in a car burglary and an assault with a deadly weapon the same day Gatto was killed.
Witnesses described the man as 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighing around 180 pounds. He wore a multi-colored hooded sweatshirt and tan pants, a tan backpack and carried a handgun.
Police said he threatened witnesses with death when he was caught breaking into a vehicle in the 2300 block of Moreno Drive on Nov. 12, 2013.
When the first of two witnesses confronted the him, he pointed a gun and threatened to kill her. When another witness confronted the him, he repeated the threat. He then fled on foot down public stairs on Tesla Avenue.
