On the evening of June 22, 2024, a boy named Edel Anthony Quintero was stabbed to death on Venice Boulevard in Palms at a street carnival organized by the LAPD Pacific Area Boosters Association and held under heavy police presence. Anthony had celebrated his sixteenth birthday just five days earlier. According to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by his family, officers witnessed an earlier altercation involving Anthony and failed to intervene, allowing the same person to return later that night and stab him. After the attack, the lawsuit alleges, LAPD officers prevented bystanders from rendering aid as Anthony bled on the pavement. He died at the scene. Organizers reopened the carnival the next day and publicly framed the decision as an act of community resilience.
Jonathan Green, a Palms resident, was nearby that night. He walked through the carnival out of curiosity and later learned about Anthony’s death through the Citizen app. The following morning, he returned to find vendors setting up again, police officers still stationed nearby, television cameras rolling, and organizers preparing to resume the event as though nothing had happened.
“I just assumed that it was going to be over after that,” Green recounted.
Instead, the carnival continued for another day. Green said even residents who are generally supportive of LAPD were disturbed by the decision, and attendance dropped considerably. “You could tell that there was a mood shift,” he said. “The community didn’t really want to show up after that.”
Organizers never issued a direct public apology for Anthony’s death. Instead, they posted a series of Instagram statements defending the decision to continue the carnival, disputing aspects of media coverage, and urging the community to rally behind the event. The Motor Avenue Improvement Association, which co-organized the carnival alongside the LAPD Pacific Area Boosters and CD5, published an Instagram statement congratulating volunteers for producing what it described as “the most incredible event they could” for more than 100,000 attendees. Organizers wrote that they chose to continue because “if we buckled or backed down, the dark side had won.” They urged critics to “move beyond the made-up rhetoric” and “move beyond their keyboards,” then closed by saying they looked forward to “all of your participation next year.” Anthony’s name never appeared in the statement.
Nearly two years later, that framing remains frozen in place. The Motor Avenue Improvement Association still promotes the 2024 event on its homepage as the “1st Annual Palms Community Weekend,” describing it as the beginning of “a new tradition in our vibrant neighborhood,” as though the event exists suspended in time before a 16-year-old boy was killed there.
Anthony wore jersey number 25 and played football. His family remembers him as funny, warm, and deeply loved. At the time of his death, he lived at Rite of Passage Adolescent Treatment Centers and Schools, a licensed youth residential treatment provider that brought him to the carnival. He left behind his mother, Sheri Zendejas, his grandparents Robert and Tricia Zendejas, and three younger siblings. After he was killed, his grandmother Tricia created a GoFundMe to help pay funeral expenses, writing that Anthony “brought joy and warmth to everyone around him.” The family raised $8,500 toward a $10,000 goal, and Anthony’s funeral took place in Riverside on July 13, 2024. Tricia Zendejas’s TikTok bio now reads: “JUSTICE FOR ANTHONY. we love you.”
In July 2025, Sheri Zendejas sued the City of Los Angeles, the Pacific Area Boosters Association, and Rite of Passage in Los Angeles Superior Court. The lawsuit alleges wrongful death, negligence, negligent supervision, and dangerous condition of public property. Attorneys from The Barnes Firm argue that LAPD officers failed to intervene before the stabbing, failed to remove the aggressor from the event, and then prevented medical aid afterward while Anthony bled out. The family seeks more than $10 million in damages. After the city rejected the family’s government claim in February 2025, the lawsuit moved forward.
Despite the unresolved lawsuit and growing public anger, the LAPD Pacific Area Boosters began advertising the carnival’s return to Palms earlier this year, scheduling it for May 29 through 31 on Venice Boulevard between Culver and Watseka. Community opposition quickly followed. Green took a morning off work and attended a Los Angeles Police Commission meeting alone to publicly challenge the event’s return.
“The last time this booster club event was held in Palms, two years ago, a 16-year-old boy was stabbed to death at an event where LAPD officers were surrounding the whole event,” Green told commissioners. “The carnival kept going. The third day, they just kept going like nothing had happened. No statement was released. There wasn’t even an apology. And now they think that it’s a good idea to bring this event back to Palms.”
During his testimony, Green also publicly named Lee Wallach, head of the Motor Avenue Improvement Association, as the carnival’s principal community organizer and repeated an allegation he said came from organizers who worked alongside Wallach the morning after Anthony’s death. According to those accounts, when organizers urged Wallach to cancel the carnival’s final day, he responded: “This kid didn’t have any family, and if you knew who he was, you wouldn’t care either.”
Mar Vista Voice contacted Wallach directly by email before publication, asking him to confirm or deny the quote, to identify the 2026 event’s community partners, to address whether CD5 was involved, and to respond to allegations that he sent threatening messages to members of the Palms neighborhood watch and that the Neighborhood Council revoked MAIA’s speaking slot following complaints from multiple women. Wallach did not respond.
Wallach’s influence inside Palms surfaced repeatedly throughout reporting. Green described him as someone who built power through relentless networking with business owners, elected officials, and police leadership while embedding himself in highly visible community spaces like the Sunday farmers market and neighborhood incident response efforts. In November 2024, Palms resident Maylin Tu publicly posted that Wallach had interacted with her in ways that made her uncomfortable given “the age gap and his position as a community leader.” Her statement received more than 100 reactions in the Palms neighborhood Facebook group. Tu wrote that she spoke publicly because of “the reach and influence that Lee has in this community.” Green said he has since heard similar accounts from many other women in the neighborhood, ranging from inappropriate comments to more serious allegations of misconduct.
Wallach’s history of conflict with Palms community members is documented in court records. In 2015, Wallach and another Palms resident sought civil harassment restraining orders against each other and resolved the dispute through mediation, signing a mutual stay-away agreement. They were back in court just 16 months later. On September 30, 2016, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge issued mutual civil harassment restraining orders against both men, finding by clear and convincing evidence that each party had knowingly and willfully engaged in conduct that “seriously alarms, annoys, and harasses” the other and “serves no legitimate purpose.” The orders required both men to stay at least 50 yards apart, with an exception carved out for Palms Neighborhood Council meetings, where the room was too small for both to participate while maintaining that distance. The restraining orders expired September 30, 2017.
Palms Neighborhood Council President Kay Hartman confirmed in an email that the council declined to sponsor the 2024 carnival and that organizers never consulted the council about bringing the event back in 2026.
“Nobody asked us,” Hartman wrote. “I had no knowledge of it until I saw a post on Facebook.”
Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky’s office, which organizers listed as a co-host of the original 2024 carnival, ultimately backed away from future involvement after Anthony’s death. Emails obtained through a California Public Records Act request show that in March 2025, nearly a year after the stabbing, Lee Wallach continued pressing CD5 District Director George Hakopiants and LAPD Pacific Division Sergeant Brian Cook to revive “Palms Community Weekend.”
On April 1, 2025, Hakopiants responded: “After careful consideration, given everything that’s gone on, we feel it would be best to plan for an event in Palms in 2026.”
Wallach replied the same day, writing that he was “disappointed” and asking for a call. Despite CD5’s hesitation at the time, organizers continued moving forward with plans for a revived carnival. When Mar Vista Voice contacted Yaroslavsky on April 23rd about the 2026 event, she replied: “No we are not involved.”
Even as public opposition mounted, the Boosters continued planning the carnival. In a phone call, a Pacific Division representative repeatedly suggested that additional community organizations were involved in organizing the event beyond the Motor Avenue Improvement Association, but could not actually name any of them when pressed. Instead, the conversation repeatedly circled back to Lee Wallach and MAIA as the only identifiable organizing partners connected to the community side of the festival. The representative also defended the carnival as a fundraiser for LAPD cadet and junior cadet programs, arguing that the city does not adequately fund those efforts.
“The funds are for our youth programs, like cadets and junior cadets here at Pacific station and other things that the city does not pay for, which is unfortunately a lot,” he said.
The officer could not provide specifics about how much money the carnival raised, where those funds ultimately went, or whether any proceeds directly benefited the broader Palms community outside LAPD-affiliated programs. When asked whether any money flowed back into the neighborhood itself rather than into policing-related youth programs, the representative responded only that “we have cadets from the Palms area.”
Palms residents found the claim difficult to take seriously given LAPD’s enormous share of the city budget. LAPD’s proposed operating budget for 2026-27 stands at $2.11 billion, and when pensions, benefits, and associated costs are included, policing in Los Angeles consumes more than $3.6 billion, or nearly 63 percent of the city’s unrestricted General Fund revenue.
“They get like half of the city’s money,” Green said. “How much of the city’s money do you want?”
The Pacific Division representative also claimed that the person responsible for Anthony’s death had been arrested, convicted, and was serving a sentence. Mar Vista Voice could not independently verify that claim, and neither the community nor, apparently, Anthony’s family had heard about any conviction. Tricia Zendejas’s TikTok account continues documenting an ongoing search for justice, including court appearances and a video directed at her grandson’s killer that received more than 100,000 views.
Pacific Area Boosters Association President Diane Barretti initially claimed there was no carnival planned for Palms, writing: “We do not have a Carnival planned to be held in the Palms area.” But after being sent a link to the organization’s own website, which was still advertising the May 29 through 31 event in Palms, Barretti acknowledged that organizers had in fact canceled the Palms location, replying simply: “Yes it was canceled.”
But organizers had not actually canceled the carnival. They had quietly relocated it.
An Eventbrite listing created on April 23, 2026, shows the Pacific Area Boosters moving the event to Manchester Boulevard between Lincoln and Georgetown in Westchester while keeping the same May 29 through 31 dates and operating hours. Organizers never publicly announced the relocation to Palms residents, never explained the decision to Anthony’s family, and never acknowledged the community pressure campaign that preceded it. Residents who spent weeks publicly opposing the carnival only learned about the relocation indirectly, after organizers quietly changed the location online without notifying Palms residents or publicly acknowledging the move.
Many Palms organizers who opposed the carnival ultimately viewed the relocation itself as a victory, even if they failed to secure a full cancellation. Mar Vista Voice also asked LAPD Pacific Division whether LAPD plays any role in approving permits for an event that directly funds LAPD programs through the Boosters Association and whether that arrangement creates a conflict of interest. LAPD did not respond before publication.
Wherever the carnival goes, the underlying questions remain unresolved. Anthony’s family continues suing the city and the Boosters for more than $10 million, alleging LAPD officers failed to intervene before the stabbing and prevented bystanders from helping afterward. Meanwhile, the Boosters quietly moved the carnival out of Palms without publicly explaining why, and many residents say city officials and organizers still refuse to answer basic questions about what happened that night. The organizer accused by multiple residents of making derogatory comments about Anthony after his death remains active in neighborhood civic circles while Anthony’s family continues searching for answers through the courts and through public pressure.
Green ended his remarks to the Police Commission with a challenge to city officials: “You think the community is going to put up with that?” At least in Palms, the answer appears to have been no.