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Woman who grew up in Morro Bay shot dead in Hollywood

July 7, 2015
Carrie Jean Melvin

Carrie Jean Melvin

A 30-year-old woman who grew up in Morro Bay died Sunday night after a man approached her from behind on a street in Hollywood and shot her in the back of the head. [NBC LA]

Carrie Jean Melvin, 30, was walking with her boyfriend on McCadden Place near Sunset Boulevard around 10 p.m. The gunman, who remains at large, fired only the shot that killed Melvin and then fled in a black car.

The boyfriend, who was not injured in the attack, told police that no words were exchanged prior to the shooting. The couple was walking to a restaurant at the time.

Melvin moved to Hollywood to pursue a career in the entertainment industry after studying film and digital media production at University of California Santa Cruz. Her family still lives in Morro Bay.

“She lit up a room. She was bright and multi-talented,” said Bernard Melvin, Carrie’s father. “It’s the call that no parent wants to get.”

Bernard Melvin said her daughter was in a happy relationship with her boyfriend. Police say they don’t know of any reasons someone would attack her.

Investigators say about a dozen homicides have taken place within a mile of Sunday’s killing over the past year. None of the previous cases have similarities, though.

The gunman is described as a man in his 20s who was wearing a hood. Investigators are requesting that additional witnesses come forward and contact LAPD.


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We who know the Melvin family are in great pain for them, so heart breaking to lose a child at any age. So tragic, so senseless, so awful. I’ll be working to support gun control.

Thank you for posting the article, I missed it if it was in the Tribune, and don’t read LA newspapers or watch on TV.


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Sounds like a gang initiation. Or the opening shot of a scarier theory. How sad, I wonder if this qualifies as a hate crime. We should expect to see the president at the podium any day now. He could speak on the death of Kathryn Steinle at the same time. If I had a daughter she would look like Kathryn and Carrie.


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When if ever, will this senseless, unwarranted violence end? Perhaps it’s time to STOP glorifying and portraying this kind of violence in seemingly ever aspect of our lives.

The value of a life in America appears greatly diminished from what it once was.

My condolences to the family and loved ones.


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The NRA used to be for gun safety, gun training, and keeping deadly weapons out of the hands of the criminal and irresponsible.

No longer …Now they are the biggest lobbying and advertising arms for gun INDUSTRY.


When they turned ( by $$$ ) from responsible gun owners and individuals to corporate flacks is when this nonsense began.


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Are you intentionally lying or are you abjectly ignorant and simply parroting anti-gun hyperbole?


Do a little research. The firearms industry’s “biggest lobbying and advertising arm” is the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF.) Never heard of it? That’s because it would take a bit of research on your end. Far easier to parrot the vilification of the NRA, aye?


The NRA is over 5M American citizens fighting to retain their right to keep and bear arms guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the US Constitution.


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so very sad. A lovely young woman. I am heart broken for her parents, brother, BF family and friends. so senseless.


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Pure conjecture here …but wondering if the ethnicity of the BF is other than Caucasian. Could be racially motivated then , as robbery or any other motive is absent.


Again, this is a senseless act made possible by the proliferation of deadly weapons.


No words of sorrow could assuage the grief of her family and friends.


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Might be best to keep your theories to yourself if you have no facts, and you don’t.


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Watch KTLA Los Angeles news if you have Dish, or have ability to watch other LA station. The lead LAPD detective on the case, an anglo with silver hair was on TV news from the scene saying they are looking for a black male in his twenties with no accomplice who got into a black SUV auto and left the area. Can’t recall if he described a hood, but that LA tv news clip said the rest of the same things as here on CalCoast, no know reason, no suspects yet, no angry words exchanged, etc. . Those are the facts as given by LAPD personnel.


Now by way of conjecture: it’s reputed widely in TV reports that certain gangs require murder 187 of someone, anyone, to qualify for full gang membership. I can’t vouch for that but if it’s true, that could be the case here.


In any event, it is beyond vicious description to shotgun a lovely, productive and creative individual in the prime of her life on a public street. I can’t invent words that convey my sorrow for this family; what sickening brutality.


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But I do have a fact. If this perp did not have a gun, Ms. Melvin would in all probability still be alive.


Go ahead …dispute it, with some theories and myths of your own.


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Because we all know tougher gun laws would keep guns out of the hands of these type of people???….. I hope you don’t believe that. Tougher gun laws would no nothing to prevent guns from the person who did this, it only prevents them from law abiding responsible citizens.


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Maybe if the boyfriend was carrying, he could have pulled and shot to kill this violent murderer so other families would not have to go through this. Amazing, no one of power wants to talk about the innocent white girl killed by a black man but let the drug dealer, gang banger, etc. kill a white girl and they all go crazy and defensive over the low life. Very sad times we live in!


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Maybe if concealed carry was far more common, the killer wouldn’t have risked murdering Ms. Melvin to begin with?


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You don’t have the information to accurately conclude that. Learn how to think, rather than to simply spew anti-gun crap.


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People in SLO don’t hear about the crime that goes on in Compton, East L.A.

and South Central every night, gang related and other wise. There are murders, stabbings and car-jackings every night. Count your blessings you live in SLO, and that the crime hasn’t spread to your area yet.


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Crime is shrinking not spreading believe it or not


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Why did you get dislikes? You just said an empirical fact!

One year I lived in L.A. (1981, I think) there were about 1,100 homicides in L.A.


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People get annoyed when real facts get in the way of fox news “facts”.


Also “In psychology, cognitive dissonance is the mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time, or is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas, or values.


Leon Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance focuses on how humans strive for internal consistency. An individual who experiences inconsistency (dissonance) tends to become psychologically uncomfortable, and is motivated to try to reduce this dissonance—as well as actively avoid situations and information likely to increase it.”


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NOT, I am a native of SLO and have never seen so much crime as in the last 5-10 years in this County.


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Keep voting for socialists, whether they be ‘rats or RINOs, and you will soon have it here.

Thinking of the Avila kidnapper, the slasher at Grover Beach 7-11, the gangs in santa Maria, the Illegals targeting old ladies in Santa B, the drugster criminals in SLO County…etc…


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So you are not voting?


Thanks, please tell all your friends.


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Given the description of the crime, a butcher’s knife or tire iron would also have worked.


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He could have used his car and gotten both of them…


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heart goes out to family/friends. wtf is wrong with people? not that it changes what happened, but hopefully they catch him, lotta cameras in Hollywood.


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Would someone with law enforcement or gang task force knowledge/background please shed some light: If the gunman is a gang member, does he get “points” for coming up behind a woman [of his choosing] and shooting her in the back of her head – unprovoked? Searching for what could possibly be a motive for this horrific act of violence.


I am so sorry for Carrie’s family and her boyfriend. This is a shock that leaves permanent scars. Like Kathryn Steinle’s senseless murder in San Francisco on July 1, 2015, now two precious young women with such potential are gone from us. They were not [as far as we are aware] diagnosed with a terminal illness nor were they doing anything wrong or what could be deemed reckless. Just living life.


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was thinking might be some sort of initiation- kill someone in order to join/be a member of a gang. could be a psycho ex boyfriend. could be number of things, hard to say. similar to Kathryn steinle’s murder, seems random though. best thing you can do is get a conceal carry, take some classes, and be prepared.


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This is terrifying. Prayers for her loved ones during this difficult time.


I wonder if this could have been a gang initiation or something…


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This is horribly sad. Condolences to her family and her boyfriend. I can’t imagine the horror of something like this happening as you’re simply walking along with someone you care about. When I lived in LA, my girlfriend was robbed at gunpoint in front of her building and a guy I knew was shot after a robber forced him to withdraw cash from an ATM. He survived the shooting but had permanent injuries. Sometimes the prevalence of big city shootings get sensationalized but my experience of people I knew personally being so close to gun violence was one of my many reasons for leaving LA. Rest in Peace, Carrie.


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Those crimes you mentioned happen every night in L.A., and South Central.


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