Acquittal in Pasadena Murder That Marked ShotSpotter’s First Fatal Detection

The gunshot that killed Eric Lynn Thomas was the first fatal shot that the Shotspotter automatic gunfire detection system ever reported in Pasadena. The man charged with firing it has been acquitted.

A Los Angeles jury on April 7 found Avery Lavon Bennett, 36, of Covina not guilty of first and second degree murder in the May 2, 2022, shooting of Thomas — a 28-year-old Pasadena resident who was found unresponsive with multiple gunshot wounds in the common area of an apartment complex in the 1700 block of North Fair Oaks Avenue in northwest Pasadena, according to Pasadena Police Department records.

The following day, Bennett pleaded no contest to one count of felon in possession of a firearm, was sentenced to time served, and was released, according to his attorney and the Pasadena Star-News.

Officers responded that night after ShotSpotter alerted them to multiple gunshots at approximately 8:42 p.m., according to official Pasadena Police records.

The trial was held at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles. The prosecution, brought by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, alleged that Bennett and Thomas were associated with the same Pasadena gang and that there was animus between them — a theory the defense contested.

The prosecution’s case rested on circumstantial evidence: surveillance video showing a white 2016–2020 Hyundai Tucson fleeing the scene southbound on Fair Oaks Avenue, cellphone and vehicle data placing Bennett in the area that night, and Instagram messages between Bennett and others that contained negative statements about Thomas, according to Pasadena Police records and Flier’s account in the Pasadena Star-News. Those messages, Flier noted, had been sent approximately seven months before the shooting.

Before trial, the court granted a defense motion to bifurcate the proceedings — separating the murder charge from two counts of felon in possession of a firearm — a procedural move that kept jurors in the murder trial from learning Bennett was a convicted felon, which could have been prejudicial, according to Flier. The jury acquitted Bennett on both murder counts and found a gun use enhancement not true.

Bennett had been arrested on January 19, 2023, outside his Covina home by Pasadena Police, the U.S. Marshals Service Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force, and the Pasadena Police Criminal Intelligence Unit, according to official PPD records.

Two loaded firearms were found in his possession at the time. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office filed a murder charge the following day; bail was set at $3,050,000.

The Thomas killing occurred during a period of elevated gun violence in Pasadena.

In 2022, the Pasadena Police Department investigated 49 shooting incidents in which 14 people were shot and injured or killed — a decrease from 73 investigations involving 23 victims in 2021, according to police records.

The city had activated ShotSpotter in response to a surge in gun violence between January 2019 and June 2021 that resulted in 39 Pasadena community members killed or injured, according to official city records.

In January 2025, the Pasadena City Council renewed its ShotSpotter contract — now under vendor SoundThinking, Inc. — on a 7–1 vote for $661,500 over three years.

The presiding judge and the Deputy District Attorney who prosecuted the case were not identified in available sources at the time of publication. Prosecution and victim-family perspectives were not available before publication; an editor’s note below identifies recommended outreach contacts.

ShotSpotter recorded gunshots on North Fair Oaks Avenue at 8:42 p.m. on a May evening in 2022. The case that followed took nearly four years to reach a jury — and the jury came back not guilty.