A five-minute walk with Eric Washington rarely took five minutes.
Walking through Nickerson Gardens after a site visit last week, Washington stopped to knock on one resident’s door for a hug, greeted another mother by name and admired how much her young child had grown, chatted with a Spanish-speaking resident and waved to someone driving by, marveling that she was already behind the wheel.
“He makes sure to remember everyone – their stories and their families and their kids,” recalled Miranda Denerson, a project manager with Watts Rising. “He’s the popular kid, but the best popular kid that you could ever meet.”
That ability to make people feel seen, colleagues said, define Washington’s life and work.
Washington, 37, was Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles’ community engagement manager and played a key role in Watts Rising, a collaborative initiative led by HACLA, the Mayor’s Office and more than 40 community organizations committed to improving quality of life in Watts.
Washington and 19-year-old Meah Bordenave-Jenkins were fatally shot Saturday during a Fourth of July block party in Compton. Three others were wounded. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is continuing to investigate the shooting.
Assemblymember Mike Gipson, D-Carson, who previously employed Washington as a field representative, said he understood Washington had been trying to de-escalate a conflict before the shooting.
“It is no surprise that during the moment of this terrible act, Eric was trying to save a community by preventing a situation that would have taken lives,” Gipson said in a statement Monday. “This bravery cost him his own life.”
Mayor Karen Bass called Washington a “devoted public servant” whose “generosity of spirit and unwavering commitment to others will leave a lasting mark on Los Angeles.”
John King, HACLA’s chief community affairs officer and Washington’s longtime mentor, said Eric’s loss felt deeply personal.
“It’s like I lost a son,” he said.
“He was such a positive, kind person, and worked so hard to support his community, and then to lose his life to violence, something that he worked so hard to prevent,” King added. “That made it more difficult to even process.”
For nearly a decade, King watched Washington grow from a promising young community organizer into one of HACLA’s rising leaders.
The two first met while working on community efforts connected to the Jordan Downs Redevelopment in Watts. Impressed by Washington’s ability to connect with residents, King hired him as a HACLA intern in January 2019.
Washington later worked for former Los Angeles City Councilmember Joe Buscaino and Gipson before returning to HACLA in 2022 as a community relations specialist. He was eventually promoted to community engagement manager.
“He had this ability to navigate through various communities,” King said. “He was such a genuine, caring, engaging, respectful person that could connect with people, and it showed right away.”
As community engagement manager, Washington coordinated resident outreach, redevelopment projects and the distribution of resources, including air purifiers and protective masks following the Boyle Heights warehouse fire. He also led HACLA’s inaugural World Cup Youth Tournament and helped oversee community engagement efforts through the Watts Rising initiative.
But colleagues said the work listed in his job description only captured part of what he did.
“He was a facilitator in relationships,” said Treasure Sheppard, a project manager with Watts Rising. Before introducing coworkers to longtime community partners, she said, Washington made sure they could be trusted, often connecting people through relationships he had spent years building. “He was bringing health via trust,” she added.
Those relationships, colleagues said, were built on the way Washington made people feel.
“When you talk to Eric, you feel seen, you feel valued, you feel cared for, you feel heard. And that is a skill that people obtain over the course of a lifetime,” Denerson said. “No part of him was ever front-facing.”
Elizabeth Elam, a program specialist with Watts Rising, recalled Washington began emails not with a formal greeting but with “Hey, family.”
“He really treated people that way,” she said. “Everything was 100% genuine.”
Kimberly McDowell, another Watts Rising project manager, said Washington brought that same approach to leading coworkers.
Whenever he interviewed prospective staff members, she said, he insisted the rest of the team participate because those hires would ultimately serve everyone.
“There was this thorough line of consideration that just isn’t taught,” she said.
Katrina Kubicek, Watts Rising’s development officer, said Washington ended nearly every interaction she had with him the same way:
“’I appreciate you.’ Sometimes people just say that and it doesn’t mean anything,” she said. “But with Eric, I knew it meant something.”
She also recalled that even after earning a promotion, Washington continued spending Saturday mornings attending community meetings he was no longer required to oversee simply because he wanted to hear residents’ ideas.
Ivory Chambeshi, Watts Rising’s director of neighborhood initiatives, said Washington also improved programs in ways that often went unnoticed.
While helping launch an electric vehicle car-share initiative, Washington realized many residents lacked bank accounts and therefore couldn’t access the service. He helped build a partnership with a nearby bank so residents could open accounts and participate.
“His awareness, his being ingrained in the community, allowed him to recognize a barrier for people’s participation in benefiting from his program,” she said. “And through his ability to establish relationships, to create partnerships, identified an intervention to then serve the people and also make the program work.”
King said Washington’s impact extended far beyond the projects he managed.
One interpreter who regularly worked HACLA meetings recently told King that Washington had secretly learned her birthday and surprised her by having an entire meeting stop to celebrate her.
“That was Eric’s touch, and the type of person he was,” King said. “To make everyone feel welcome and a part of whatever it was, and to be engaged in that way.”
Washington grew up in Los Angeles and Compton, King said, and attended Compton College, the University of North Texas and Grambling State University for graduate studies.
In recognition of his work, HACLA’s nonprofit affiliate, Build Hope Inc., will establish the Eric Washington Community Impact Award, honoring young leaders whose service reflects Washington’s commitment to community.
Those wishing to support Washington’s family or contribute to memorial efforts can find verified information through links shared by his family.
“To know Eric,” Denerson said, “is to love Eric.”