East L.A. rocked by shootings

East Los Angeles was shaken Monday afternoon by two shootings that occurred less than a mile from each other and left four people dead within a 20-minute span.

The first happened about 1:20 p.m. at Jesse’s Auto Sales in the 5100 block of Olympic Boulevard, where a gunman opened fire and killed two men. Authorities said two cars were missing from the lot and that they were investigating whether robbery might have prompted the gunfire.

The two missing vehicles were described as a 2001 white Dodge Dakota pickup, license plate number 7Z41469; and a 2000 gray Jeep Cherokee, license 4LUB195.

“The owner came back, the place was ransacked, two cars were missing and two people were dead,” said Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

A young man, Brandon Garcia, rushed to the dealership after the shooting and said his 50-year-old uncle, a salesman there, had been one of the two men slain.

The second shooting occurred about 20 minutes later in the 1200 block of South Herbert Avenue, about a block from Eastman Avenue Elementary School.

Sheriff’s deputies found two male victims in the street but weren’t sure of the circumstances surrounding the deaths.

Whitmore said the shootings “apparently . . . were absolutely unrelated.”

But the two double homicides in broad daylight in such proximity to each other left many residents wondering if there was a connection.

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence,” Martha Montes, 43, said as she waited behind the crime tape blocking Herbert Avenue. “I can’t believe this is not connected. Two shootings like this, only blocks away?”

“I can’t believe there are two here and two down there,” Cynthia Szukala said as she stood near the auto dealership.

The shootings punctuate an uptick in homicides so far this year in the Los Angeles area.

As of late last month, the Los Angeles Police Department reported that 93 people had been killed in the city this year, compared with 69 during the same period last year -- nearly a 35% increase. Overall crime in the city has not seen the same increase.

Homicide data from the Sheriff’s Department, which patrols East Los Angeles, was not immediately available Monday. But in general, homicides have been declining in recent years in East L.A. and nearby Boyle Heights, both of which are predominantly Latino.

Residents in the neighborhood of the second shooting described their area as working-class, but safe.

“It’s not the East L.A. of before,” said Ramon Alberto Daniel, 42, a mechanic who works around the block from the Herbert Avenue shooting. “It’s been years since I’ve heard a shooting around here. Before, I’d see a lot of graffiti around here. Now, I see very little.”

Daniel said he didn’t hear the shooting; a woman walked by and told him there were two dead people lying on the street.

Then he heard about the other two, several blocks east. “I’m surprised there’s that many dead at once,” Daniel said. “Before, I would not have been surprised. Years ago, I did not feel safe even walking on the street.”

Michael Gomez, 21, said the neighborhood is relatively tranquil. It is made up of many single-family homes and is populated by a mix of first- and second-generation Mexican-Americans and immigrants.

“People get the idea that it’s worse than it really is,” Gomez said. “This shocked us.”

But about 10 blocks away, at the scene of the first shooting, some residents said they had felt uneasy even before the double killing.

“Every time I leave, I drive in a car,” said Jasmine Lopez, 25. “I don’t walk out here. It’s dangerous, especially because there are so many schools around.”

As evening arrived, residents waited for coroner vans to take away the bodies and for the crime scene to be cleared so they could go home. Most took the shootings in stride, looking on as TV reporters filed live reports.

Hermilda Delgado, who has lived on Herbert Avenue for 35 years, said she came home to find yellow crime-scene tape, deputies and one of the dead men sprawled on her driveway. She said she had left her house about 1 p.m. to take her daughter to work.

“I’m lucky I left when I did,” Delgado said. “A bullet could have flown into my house and hit me or one of my children if we were home.”

Delgado said she was not going to take any added significance from the shooting. To her, it was an isolated incident.

“This could have happened anywhere,” she said.

When she got home, she said her biggest worry was that she had left a pot of beans cooking. Delgado persuaded a deputy to take her keys, go inside her house and turn off the stove.

“I was afraid my beans would burn and then my house would,” she said. “I told the deputy, if you don’t go in, it won’t be just you guys here, firefighters will be coming here too,” she said.

--

hector.becerra@latimes.com

ari.bloomekatz@latimes.com

andrew.blankstein@ latimes.com

Times Staff Writer Ruben Vives contributed to this report.