Update: 10:44 a.m., May 21, 2026.
Joshua Aila was on the cusp of adulthood.
The 17-year-old senior at Esteban Torres High School in East Los Angeles was three weeks away from graduating and was looking forward to becoming a certified boxing coach. He loved spending time with his family, had been with his girlfriend for three years and was excited to become an uncle for the first time this fall.
Over the weekend, Aila was killed in a shooting about half a mile from the East LA home he shared with his mother and two siblings. As authorities search for a motive and a suspect, loved ones gathered for a vigil and fundraiser Monday evening.
“I feel like he’s here … all of this support shows me how much of a good man he was,” said Tina Gutierrez, Aila’s mother. “He meant everything to me. He was my first baby boy.”
For the past year, Aila had been coaching children at Champions East LA Fight Academy, where he was affectionately known as “Coach Jawsh.”
His passion for coaching started four years ago when he began taking boxing classes with his younger brother, said Luis Garcia, owner of Champions Fight Academy. Garcia said Aila quickly realized he wanted to mentor and encourage young athletes.
“It’s something I have never seen in my life, a kid that young that has decided exactly what he wanted to be in life,” Garcia said.
Aila’s dream was to open his own boxing gym one day. Now, Garcia said he plans to put up a mural at the gym to honor the young coach.
According to his family, Aila was driving home from grabbing food with his brother when he was shot and later crashed near 6th Street and Fraser Avenue around 1:15 a.m. Saturday.
When East LA Sheriff’s deputies arrived on scene, they found Aila suffering from a gunshot wound. He was taken to a local hospital, where he later died, authorities said.
Homicide investigators said the suspect fled in a dark-colored SUV.
As of Monday, the LA County Sheriff’s Department said no new information was available about the shooting, and the investigation remains ongoing.
At school, Jennifer Marquez, Aila’s teacher and yearbook advisor at East LA Renaissance Academy, described him as always having a smile on his face and being a “go-getter.”
“The thing that I will remember the most about him is how passionate Joshua was,” Marquez said. “We had a lot of students that were on campus today crying because it’s very unexpected.”
Saturday was also prom night for Torres High School. While Aila and his girlfriend decided to skip the school dance, the couple planned to spend the evening together.
“We were going to grab food and go sit at the beach,” said Perla Alvarado, 18, Aila’s girlfriend of almost three years. “He even said that would be our one-on-one prom.”
The couple was looking forward to celebrating their anniversary on June 12.
Friends and family described Aila as ambitious, hardworking and someone who often talked about having a successful future. In addition to boxing, he loved cars and playing corridos on his guitar.
“He wanted to have a good life, to graduate, go to college, build a family in the future,” said David Ventura, Aila’s close friend. “A lot of things he could have done and they took that all away from him.”
Ventura said the encouragement Aila shared with his boxing students was the same he embodied outside of the gym. One of his favorite memories was riding bikes with Aila across the 6th Street Bridge when it first opened.
“They took away my brother; he was like a brother to me,” Ventura said.
The family is raising money through GoFundMe to cover funeral costs. Champions Fight Academy will host a fundraiser at the gym on Sunday, May 24 from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. to support the family. Champions Fight Academy is located at 4547 Whittier Blvd.
Anyone with information about the shooting is urged to to contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500 or “Crime Stoppers” at (800) 222-8477.
