Local News in Brief : Youth Gangs Blamed in 2 Pacoima Slayings

Youth gangs are believed responsible for two killings in Pacoima this weekend, but investigators have no suspects or evidence that the victims knew each other, Los Angeles police said.

Detective Cliff Ruff said the only possible connection between the shooting deaths of Woodrow Nourse, 36, of Sepulveda and Joe Toney Venegas, 19, of North Hollywood is that they may have been killed by the same gang or individual.

Venegas, who was listed in Police Department files as a gang member, was shot once in the upper body late Friday near the Arco Am-PM Mini Market in the 13100 block of Osborne Street and died early Saturday at Serra Memorial Health Center, where he was taken by friends who witnessed the shooting but left the hospital before police arrived, Ruff said.

Others in the store said they heard shots and saw Venegas fall to the ground but did not see who shot him, Ruff said.

Nourse was discovered by an unidentified woman in Jessup Park, Ruff said. Although investigators believe he, too, was shot by gang members, police have no evidence that Nourse was a member of a gang.

Ruff said Nourse came to the San Fernando Valley from New Jersey in 1983.