Cudahy councilman barraged by gunfire

A Cudahy councilman and his brother escaped serious injury and perhaps worse Monday night when a gunman sprayed their sport utility vehicle with bullets in an apparent ambush, authorities said.

The shooting occurred at Atlantic Boulevard and Slauson Avenue in Maywood, as Councilman Osvaldo Conde, 48, and his brother, Erik Conde, 28, pursued a car carrying a group of taggers who had just vandalized Osvaldo Conde’s business.

The councilman’s Cadillac Escalade was pierced by at least seven rounds, one of them striking his brother -- a city parks and recreation commissioner -- in the back. Erik Conde was not seriously injured, however, and was treated and released from a hospital shortly after the attack.

Another round shattered the SUV’s windshield and would have struck the councilman, but the bullet ricocheted off the steering wheel, authorities said.

“We were lucky,” Osvaldo Conde said.

The incident began shortly before 10:30 p.m. when four taggers began scrawling graffiti on the doors and windows of a liquor store and meat market owned by Osvaldo Conde at Wilcox Avenue and Clara Street in Cudahy.

A customer had told the Condes about the vandalism. When the brothers went outside to confront them, the taggers jumped into a dark-colored, four-door Nissan Altima and sped off.

Conde said he and his brother got into the Escalade and chased after them in an effort to get their license plate number. They followed for roughly two miles and wrote down part of the plate number, just as they rolled into the intersection of Atlantic and Slauson.

The brothers said it was then that someone in the Altima waved to a man on the street and pointed to the Escalade. The man pulled a gun and began firing.

“We don’t know if they were maybe lured to that location, but that seems to be the likely scenario,” said Capt. Herb Aguirre of the Maywood Police Department.

The shooting occurred just one block from the police station. No arrests have been made.

News of the attack startled city officials.

“I was shaken up when I got the call,” Cudahy City Manager George Perez said.

“I don’t blame them for following them to try and get a license plate, but it’s not the right way to do it,” Perez said.

Similar attempts to confront taggers in other cities have ended tragically. In December, a 29-year-old man was killed trying to stop vandals near Little Armenia in Los Angeles.

“Everyone could have been killed,” Perez said. “There is even a bullet hole right through the steering wheel.”

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ruben.vives@latimes.com