3 Die in Separate Gang-Related Shootings : Victims Killed While Driving Car, Riding Bike, Standing on Street

Three gang-related shootings in Los Angeles County kept homicide investigators busy over the weekend looking for suspects in the deaths of three people and the wounding of a fourth person.

A sheriff’s spokesman said Saturday that investigators were looking for four gunmen and several accomplices who killed a 27-year-old man in Whittier and critically wounded his 16-year-old sister early Saturday morning.

Deputy John Broussard said the victims, Joseph and Irene Hernandez, were eastbound on Imperial Highway at 2 a.m. when a car pulled in front of them near Shoemaker Avenue, forcing their car to a halt. Broussard said that a second auto pulled alongside the Hernandez’s stopped car and four armed men jumped out.

The four unidentified gunmen began shooting at the car, mortally wounding Joseph Hernandez and injuring Irene Hernandez. Broussard said the victims’ mother, and two men also riding in the car, were not injured. Their identities were not released by investigators.

The brother and sister were taken to Medical Center of La Mirada, where Joseph Hernandez died an hour after the shooting, investigators said. A hospital spokeswoman said Saturday that Irene Hernandez remained in critical condition. It was not known how many shots were fired at the car or how many bullets hit the victims.

Broussard declined to say what types of weapons were used in the shootings. He said investigators do not know how many suspects were in both cars, but deputies believe the gunmen were gang members.

“It appears that the gunmen were gang members, but at this point we do not know if the victims were affiliated with any gangs,” Broussard said.

In Los Angeles, police investigators in Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums units were investigating two separate shootings that left an 18-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy dead in different sections of the city.

Investigators from the South Bureau CRASH unit said that Dwight Roddy, 15, was shot Friday at 6:15 p.m. while riding a bicycle with an unidentified cousin, also 15, in South-Central Los Angeles. A CRASH spokesman said Roddy was riding on the bicycle’s handle bars at 87th Place and McKinley Avenue when several people stopped in a car “and yelled out a gang name.”

Police said one of the suspects began firing with a handgun, fatally wounding Roddy. The youth was pronounced dead at the scene, although his cousin was not injured. The CRASH spokesman said the two youths were not known to be gang members.

A man identified by police only as an 18-year-old gang member was shot and killed Friday as he stood across the street from the Los Angeles Convention Center. The shooting, which is being investigated by the Central CRASH unit, occurred at 11:50 a.m.

Wounded Previously

According to one report, police said the man had been wounded in a previous shooting and was released from the hospital two weeks ago. It was not known what the victim was doing in a rival gang’s territory. Several witnesses reported hearing shots and seeing people flee the area, police said.

Also on Friday, Alfred Arthur Sandoval, 26, pleaded innocent to four counts of murder and one count of attempted murder stemming from a gang-related dispute in October. Sandoval entered his pleas in Municipal Court and was ordered held without bail pending the outcome of a preliminary hearing scheduled for Feb. 7.

Sandoval is charged with killing East Los Angeles residents Gilbert Martinez and Anthony Aceves, both 18, in an Oct. 14 shooting in Belvedere Park. Police said that another unidentified man survived the shooting with a neck wound.

According to police, Sandoval also killed a newlywed Baldwin Park couple on Oct. 31 to prevent them from testifying about the earlier killings. Raymond Dale Wells, 36, and his wife, Marlene Rose, 31, were killed at their home in the 4000 block of Harlan Avenue, police said. Police did not reveal what information the Wells had about the other killings.

Sandoval reportedly served five years in state prison for attempted murder and was released in May.