Rain of Shots Rings in the New Year on Fatal Note

A man was killed in front of his wife and daughter and a 13-year-old boy was critically wounded New Year’s Eve in unrelated incidents involving the illegal but widespread practice of greeting the new year by firing guns into the air.

Law enforcement officials said the custom of discharging firearms this year was more prevalent than in the past.

Los Angeles Police Sgt. Dan Peelman of the 77th Street Division reported that more automatic weapons were fired this year than last.

At the Lennox sheriff’s substation, “it sounded like a battlefield,” said Sgt. Lee Smith, an ex-Marine.

Smith said he collected the spent slugs found on New Year’s Day in the station parking lot.

“I have a bunch of them sitting on my desk--19 just in the parking lot of the station,” he said.

It was much the same in Compton, where Police Sgt. Barry Lobel called the custom of firing into the air “dangerous, stupid, ridiculous.”

“We took a minimum of 20 weapons off the street last night,” he said.

Damaged Cars

Two people were arrested on misdemeanor charges of firing a weapon within the Compton city limit, Lobel said. In Lennox, Smith reported several incidents where rounds shot in the air fell back and damaged cars and house roofs.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block said that based on citizens’ complaints, there had been an “alarming” increase in the practice of discharging firearms during celebrations of various types, especially New Year’s. Block said the practice becomes particularly dangerous when police respond to complaints or sounds of gunfire.

“Typically, the deputies will find individuals in varying degrees of intoxication, armed and either oblivious to the instructions given them during a tense confrontation or trying to avoid detection by hiding in a darkened area,” Block said in a pre-New Year’s warning.

That sort of situation occurred New Year’s Eve, 1980, when a sheriff’s deputy responding to the sound of gunfire shot and killed Jildardo Plasencia, 33, a South Los Angeles factory worker, in a confrontation.

The New Year’s Eve fatality was Albert Bigsby, 35, a mortician who was shot and killed when a man, who had been part of a group of people firing guns in the 4200 block of South Central Avenue, inexplicably turned a shotgun on Bigsby and his family as they were leaving his place of business in a taxi, police and family members said.

Terry Henderson, 21, was arrested Wednesday in connection with the slaying, Los Angeles Police Detective Richard Whittner said.

Bigsby’s wife, Marcille, 33, said she noticed a group of men loudly planning New Year’s Eve activities when she, her husband and her daughter, Yuri, 14, went into the funeral home in the early evening. She said her husband had several hours of work to do.

The group was still there when the family left the funeral home at 9:30 p.m. to get into a waiting taxi. By this time, the group’s loud talk had escalated to gunfire, she said.

“It was already shooting going on,” Marcille Bigsby said.

“They start shooting early over there,” said Martin.

One of the men, armed with a shotgun, had shot out a street light, Marcille Bigsby said.

“When my husband got into the car, this guy said, ‘Happy New Year,’ ” she said, and then addressed him with a profanity.

The man “was coming right behind us. I turned around and said, ‘Baby, are you all right?’ (Bigsby) said, ‘Yes, just go on in, because these fools are going to keep on shooting.’

“We were at a standstill. My daughter saw this guy run up to the corner and fire twice. One bullet went over us, and the other bullet shattered the window. I thought my husband was just ducking down.

“He slumped over, and I found out that he was shot. He said nothing. His head fell over on my arm, and that is when I guess that he was dead.”

Police said Bigsby was taken to California Hospital Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead 31 minutes after the attack.

Marcille Bigsby said she and her daughter identified a suspect from photographs.

“I know I will never forget that face,” the widow said.

Two miles away, in an unrelated incident, celebratory gunfire injured a 13-year-old boy, who was reported in “very critical, unstable” condition Wednesday, after being shot accidentally just after midnight.

Mark Arrival

Police said the youngster was standing with his family and neighbors behind his apartment building in the 900 block of West 42nd Place when several people in the crowd fired a “rain shower” of bullets to mark the arrival of 1986.

“They were shooting guns straight into the air,” one police officer said.

A moment later, the boy fell to the ground after being struck in the head by one of the bullets. Police called the shooting accidental and said no arrests are planned.

In other New Year’s Day violence, one party-goer was killed and three others wounded in the Los Feliz area after a 4 a.m. argument over music ended in a spray of gunfire.

Police said Alberto Rodriguez, 35, was visiting a second-floor apartment at 1230 N. Berendo St., when he apparently became “offended” by the music coming from the apartment directly above him.

Armed with a revolver, Rodriguez walked upstairs, knocked on the apartment door and fatally shot Julio Alberto DeLeon, a 30-year-old Guatemalan, when DeLeon opened the door, police said. Rodriguez then allegedly opened fire on the six or seven others who were in the apartment, wounding three of them. Rodriguez, who went back downstairs, was arrested on suspicion of murder a short time later, police said.