Eight Days Before Los Angeles Burned

Both Things Are True Crime · Oct 16, 2026 · 55m · transcript

Latasha Harlins was fifteen. She walked into a South Central liquor store with two dollars in her hand for a $1.79 bottle of orange juice, put it down, turned to leave, and was shot in the back of the head. A jury convicted Soon Ja Du of voluntary manslaughter and found she personally used the gun. The county probation department recommended prison. The judge gave her probation. Nobody served a day. Thirteen days earlier, a man in Lake View Terrace had turned on a camcorder.