2 Boys Held After Sniping Kills Worker in Pacoima

Two 14-year-old Pacoima boys have been arrested on suspicion of murder after separate sniper attacks with a rifle that killed a truck driver on “a spur-of-the-moment decision to see if they could shoot him” and wounded a 13-year-old girl, Los Angeles police said Friday.

The boys were taken into custody shortly after Mark Rodney Sanford, 26, of La Crescenta was killed Thursday as he worked at a Familian Pipe & Supply Co. plant in the 12600 block of Van Nuys Boulevard, Lt. Bernard Conine said.

A day earlier, one of the youths fired a shot into a Rapid Transit District bus traveling north on Van Nuys Boulevard, Conine said. The 13-year-old girl, a passenger, was wounded in the cheek, but police do not know whether she was hit by the bullet or fragments of glass, he said.

Held in Juvenile Hall

The youths are being held in Sylmar Juvenile Hall pending a hearing next week, police said. One is being held on suspicion of murder, the other on suspicion of murder and suspicion of attempted murder, police said.

“Both have admitted to involvement in the shooting” of Sanford, Conine said. “They didn’t say why but it just appears to be a spur-of-the-moment decision to see if they could shoot him.”

Investigators believe that the youths fired the shots from a second-floor window of an apartment where one of the boys lives, the lieutenant said.

Shot in Parking Lot

Sanford, a delivery-truck driver for Familian for four years, was in a parking lot next to the building, bent over to detach a truck from a flatbed trailer, when he was shot about 5:30 p.m. An autopsy Friday determined that a single bullet entered Sanford’s lower back and emerged from his upper chest, Conine said.

Sanford’s father, Charles R. Sanford, retired as a detective sergeant in 1978 after 20 years with the Los Angeles Police Department, a police spokeswoman said. The son was engaged to be married in August and is survived by a 7-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, said Mike Reinas, Familian security manager.

Neighbors told detectives Thursday that they had seen a boy with a rifle earlier that day in the apartment at Borden Avenue and Van Nuys Boulevard, Detective Al Ferrand said.

Separate Arrests

One of the boys was arrested at the apartment and the other was found at his home about three blocks away, Ferrand said.

The shootings do not appear to be gang-related, he said.

Both youths were in the apartment when Sanford was shot, and one of them took careful aim with the intent of hitting him, Conine said. Witnesses reported hearing more than one shot, he said.

“It was a loud noise,” said neighbor Sheila Scott, 46. “I thought it was a firecracker.”

The mother of the boy who lives in the apartment from which the shots were fired arrived home from work as police were canvassing the neighborhood, and she told police there were guns inside, Conine said.

3 Weapons Found

After obtaining a search warrant, detectives found three weapons in the apartment, Conine said, including a small-caliber rifle believed to have been used in the shooting. A small-caliber automatic pistol and a hunting rifle also were found, he said, along with several spent shell casings.

Only the boy who lives in the apartment was involved in the bus shooting, Conine said. Detectives were unsure whether he was aiming at a specific passenger or just at the bus, Conine said.

In that incident, a bullet passed through a window behind the driver and hit the girl, who was sitting across the aisle near the front of the bus, Conine said.

The name of the girl, a student at Reed Junior High School in North Hollywood, was not disclosed. She was treated Wednesday at Serra Memorial Health Center and referred to another hospital for possible plastic surgery, Conine said.