Carl Reimer was an avid surfer who had finally managed to do the “backside 360” trick he had been practicing for months.
Carl Reimer was 19 when he died last Friday. The Santa Cruz teen was an avid surfer who had finally managed to do the “backside 360″ trick he had been practicing for months. Later that night he went to the park near Mission Gardens Apartments with a friend, hoping to pick up a skateboard and bicycle they had left there. According to police, at around midnight a thin Latino man in his late teens or early 20s stepped out of the shadows and shot him three times—twice in the chest and once in the arm. Reimer’s friend, 15, was unhurt.
Despite his injuries, Reimer made his way to the apartment of a friend who lives in Mission Gardens. His friend’s mother called an ambulance, and at about midnight he was taken to the hospital, flashing a thumbs-up sign. He died there on Saturday morning at 6:45am.
Police are investigating whether there was a possible gang angle to the slaying, but Reimer’s father sharply denies this. He points out that Reimer was close friends with Tyler Tenorio, the 16-year-old who was killed last year outside the Laurel Street 7-Eleven.
Reimer graduated from Santa Cruz High School in 2009. He worked at the Shoreline Surf Shop and was studying the Rastafarian religion. Read more at Santa Cruz Sentinel.
