Church Takes Anti-Drug Fight to Sun Valley Park

The deaths of two men in apparent drug-related shootings at Sun Valley Park last week prompted Pastor David Martinez and about 50 of his followers to take their anti-drug message on the road Saturday, preaching from a parking lot across from the crime-plagued park.

“We’re not here to point a finger, we’re not here to condemn,” said Martinez, 43, a former drug addict whose congregation at Victory Outreach Church on De Garmo Avenue in Sun Valley consists of former gang members, dope-takers and alcoholics.

Members of the congregation stepped up to the microphone, one after another, and related how the church had saved them from lives that revolved around drugs and illegal activities that supported their habits.

Music blared from a four-piece combo as Martinez and his group sang, “Once I was a wino, but Jesus set me free” to a handful of people in the park.

The rally by Martinez and the Victory church congregation was held in the same parking lot in which police on Wednesday shot and killed a gunman who had shot another man to death and fired indiscriminately into the park. Two other men were slightly wounded in the early afternoon incident, police said.

Gun Victims Identified

The armed man was Dennis R. Hensley, 34, of North Hollywood, who was killed by police after he opened fire on officers with a shotgun. Police said Hensley had earlier shot and killed John M. Sell, 22, of Burbank.

The incident, which police believe was triggered by a drug deal that went sour, has focused attention on problems near the park, where residents say the sale of illegal drugs is a common occurrence.

But despite beefed-up security for shopkeepers in the neighborhood and the good intentions of the former addicts of Martinez’s church, not much will change, according to many who live nearby.

“The park is still the same,” said Raul Rojas, a 17-year-old senior at Birmingham High School who watched the rally from a distance. “Everybody is still getting loaded, everybody is still getting busted.

“As far as they are concerned, it’s just another death.”

Ten merchants at a small shopping center in the 8000 block of Vineland Avenue, across the street from the park, chipped in about two months ago to hire an unarmed security guard to control drinking and vagrancy in the center’s parking lot.

Asks Extra Guard

After the shooting, the firm supplying the security guard refused to allow its officer to work alone, and is asking merchants to pay for an extra guard, the owner of a store in the shopping center said.

“It’s a little scary around here sometimes,” said the man, who asked not to be identified.

Shopping center guard Scott Dudley, who witnessed most of the shooting incident, said many area residents saw the Victory church rally as a “joke,” although they welcome the increased security.

“Now that it’s over, people are really scared,” said Dudley, 20. “People are saying they should tear down the park, but that’s no good. They would just go somewhere else.”