A community activist who previously served as a government aide for a California lawmaker and a university student studying to become a nurse were among the three people killed in two separate shootings in Compton on Saturday.

The shootings, which also injured four people, occurred at two Fourth of July block parties about two miles apart, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Investigators said there was no evidence that the shootings were related.

The first was reported at 11:20 p.m. in the 700 block of West Laurel Street, where five people were shot. A man and young woman were pronounced dead at the scene. A woman, child and man were wounded and taken to hospitals, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

The woman and child suffered non-life-threatening injuries, and the man was listed in critical condition, authorities said.

The Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office identified the young woman as 19-year-old Meah Bordenave-Jenkins. Authorities have not identified the second victim who died.

But in a statement Monday, Assemblymember Mike A. Gipson (D-Carson) named the man as Eric Washington, a former staffer.

“I do understand that Eric was attempting to deescalate a conflict during the holiday block party with children and families,” Gipson wrote. “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. This bravery cost him his own life.”

Gipson said Washington had worked for him serving his district, which includes Compton. He described Washington as a talented communicator, a community organizer and a caring man who gave his heart and soul for his community.

“I am grieving — devastated by the loss and murder of this great young person. He tried everything possible to save Black and Brown boys in our community, especially against gun violence, and I am dismayed that what he fought against took his life,” Gipson wrote.

He said Washington also served as field deputy for forme Los Angeles City Councilmember Joe Buscaino.

In an Instagram post, Buscaino said he was heartbroken to hear about Washington’s death.

“Eric was so much more than a colleague. He was a son, brother, cousin, uncle, nephew, friend, mentor, and peacemaker,” he wrote. “He was a trailblazer and a public servant in the truest sense of the word.”

Gipson said Washington was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, one of the oldest African American fraternities in the U.S., according to its website. He said Washington attended Compton College, the University of North Texas and Grambling State University.

At a morning news conference Monday outside Compton City Hall, the mother of Bordenave-Jenkins said her daughter was a sophomore at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who was studying to become a nurse and was visiting family when the shooting occurred, according to NBC4.

“She was full of life. Very compassionate. Very giving. She would do anything for anybody that asked. It’s devastating she’s no longer amongst us,” Ebone Jenkins said, according to the news station.

Bordenave-Jenkins reportedly had plans to take family members to church on Sunday before visiting Knott’s Berry Farm with a cousin this week.

About 40 minutes after the shooting that killed Bordenave-Jenkins and Washington, a second shooting took place in the 2100 block of North Grandee Avenue. Two Black men were shot. One was pronounced dead at the scene, and the other was taken to a hospital, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

The medical examiner identified the victim who died as 38-year-old Thaddeus Clark of Rialto.

The shootings marked a bloody weekend for Los Angeles County, which saw another shooting Sunday night in East Los Angeles that left four people wounded.

Najee Ali, director of Project Islamic Hope, said that the shootings in Compton were tragedies that could have been prevented and that there were questions about whether the city and the Sheriff’s Department could have done more to keep people safe.

Ali scheduled a “peace gathering to end gun violence” at 6 p.m. Monday outside the Compton Courthouse.

In 2024, astronomers detected a rocky exoplanet, GJ 3378b, orbiting a red dwarf sun just 25 light-years from Earth in the direction of the northern constellation Camelopardalis. Based on radial velocity measurements, the discovery team estimated that this planet is 2.3 times as massive as Earth – making it a “Super Earth.” Thanks to revised analysis by a team led by researchers from the University of California, Irvine (UC Irvine), this planet appears to reside within its star’s habitable zone (HZ).

The research was led by Paul Robertson, an Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy at UC Irvine. He was joined by researchers from Center for Planetary Systems Habitability at the University of Texas, the Astrophysics & Space Institute, the Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy, the Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, the Astrobiology Research Center, the NSF National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Goddard Space Flight Center, and multiple universities and research institutes.

Red dwarfs are the most common class of star in the Universe, accounting for 70% to 75% of stars in the Milky Way and up to 90% in elliptical galaxies. What’s more, the study of red dwarf stars close to the Solar System suggests that they are very good at forming rocky planets that orbit within their HZs. This makes them an important target in the search for life outside our solar system. However, red dwarf stars are known for being variable and prone to flare activity, which could render planets within the HZs completely uninhabitable.

The Habitable Zone Planet Finder instrument during installation in its clean-room enclosure in the Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory. Credit: Guðmundur Stefánssonn/Penn State.

In addition, the dim nature of red dwarfs makes it very difficult to detect Earth-like planets, which are very small compared to other exoplanet types (“Super-Earths,” “mini-Neptunes,” and gas giants). As a result, scientists must rely on specialized instrumentation, which includes the Habitable-zone Planet Finder (HPF) instrument on the Hobby-Eberly Telescope. This instrument conducts radial velocity measurements, which detect subtle wobbles in a star’s orbit caused by one or more planets.

As Paul Robertson explained in a McDonald Observatory press release:

Our mantra is ‘follow the water.’ It’s the one thing every known living thing on Earth needs, so that’s the first thing we look for when trying to find environments that could sustain life. The Habitable-zone Planet Finder is optimized to use infrared light. As stars get smaller, they get cooler, and most of their energy comes out in infrared wavelengths. So, we put an infrared spectrometer on a 10-meter telescope, and that gives us more raw light-collecting power to observe these faint stars.

Since 2018, the Habitable-zone Planet Finder has helped astronomers detect exoplanets and catalog those that might be “potentially habitable.”

“The name of the game is precision. In order to find those low-mass planets, you’re always looking for tiny signals,” added Michael Endl, an astronomer and planetary scientist at the Center for Planetary Systems Habitability at the University of Texas, Austin, and the McDonald Observatory. “If your instruments aren’t precise enough, you won’t find them. You can’t find them.”

When GJ 3378b was first discovered in 2024, it was thought to be about five times as massive as Earth. A Super-Earth this massive would be able to hold onto an atmosphere, but it would be so dense as to crush any life on its surface. The new analysis, however, shows that it is closer to 2.3 times Earth’s mass, which increases the likelihood that the planet lacks a smothering atmosphere. The team also refined the planet’s orbital period from 25 days to 21, which places it within the star’s HZ.

*This artist’s impression shows the planet Proxima b orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Solar System. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser*

On the other hand, its closer orbit may also mean that it is subject to more intense radiation, which could evaporate any atmosphere present. More observations are necessary, which will be possible as next-generation telescopes become operational in the coming years. This includes the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), and the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), which will have access to the HPF catalog.

The powerful mirrors these observatories will host, along with adaptive optics (AO), advanced coronographs, and spectrometers, will enable direct observations of these planets for indications of life (aka. biosignatures). Said Endl:

The ultimate goal is biosignatures. We really want to know, ‘Are we alone in the universe?’ We are still in the reconnaissance phase of our solar neighborhood, trying to find the planets around the nearest stars because those will be the easiest ones to detect a biosignature on. This planet brings us one step closer to knowing all of our neighbors and, ultimately, which might be hospitable for life.

Further Reading: The University of Texas at Austin