Homeless Man Killed in Year’s Second Homicide

By Lookout Staff

June 30 -- A homeless man was found dead in the Downtown YMCA’s driveway early Wednesday morning, marking the year’s second homicide, police said.

The victim -- identified as Scott Gregory Dishmon, a 35-year old black man -- suffered lacerations to the back of the head, according to the County Coroner’s Office.

The exact cause of death will be determined by an autopsy that will likely be conducted Thursday or Friday, the coroner’s office said.

Dishmon’s body was found shortly before 6 a.m. outside the Downtown center’s parking lot gate, according to sources.

“A lot of transients sleep around the YMCA property at night,” said a source who asked to remained anonymous. “There’s a little alcove there at the bottom of the gate” where some of them sleep.

The killing comes nearly four months after Gabriel Edward Becerrada, 38, was gunned down in front of an apartment door near the corner of Ashland Avenue and Lincoln Boulevard shortly after midnight March 7.

Becerrada -- who had recently been released from State Prison and was on parole -- was shot multiple times when police found his body at the low-income apartment building where his girlfriend lived.

Anyone with information regarding Wednesday’s incident is encouraged to call the Robbery/Homicide Unit of the Santa Monica Police Department at 458.8451 or the Watch Commander's Office at 458.8426.

Callers who wish to remain anonymous, yet still become eligible for a reward, may call the We Tip national hotline at 1-800-78-CRIME (27463).