Michael Cooper’s brother, the former NBA star, was shot and killed in a Pasadena park. 24-year-old suspect taken into custody.
In the same Pasadena park where the siblings used to play basketball, Michael Cooper’s brother, the legendary former Lakers player, was shot and killed on Saturday.
Cooper, a basketball analyst for KABC-TV Channel 7, verified to the station that his 64-year-old brother Mickey was the victim of the shooting at Washington Park. As a child, Michael claimed to have played at the park with Mickey.
Just a few hours after the murder, detectives discovered a person of interest. As they collected more evidence regarding Mickey Cooper’s death, they detained Aaron Miguel Conell, 24, for an unrelated offense.
The Pasadena Police Department released a statement on Monday night that stated, “Believing this person posed an immediate threat to the public, detectives coordinated an arrest operation with members of the PPD SWAT, PPD K-9 Unit, and the U.S. Marshals Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Taskforce.”
On Monday, the Pasadena resident Conell’s booking fee was increased to include murder. The killing’s motivation is unknown to the police.
The Pasadena Police Department reports that the ShotSpotter sound-detection system, which detects loud, repetitive sounds that may be gunshots, alerted police to the shooting on Saturday at around four in the morning in the 700 block of East Washington Boulevard. According to the police, the man was declared dead at the scene.
The Pasadena City Council gave the ShotSpotter system approval, and it was put into place in early 2022 after authorities became concerned about a wave of violent incidents that included the death of 13-year-old Iran Moreno-Balvaneda from a stray bullet wound sustained while playing video games at home.
