Blood Spills as Pomona Gang War Fails to Die

The war has been going on for so long that nobody can even remember what they are fighting about.

Bullets fly randomly. Cousins have shot cousins. In the violent rivalry between Pomona’s oldest Latino gangs--”Cherrieville” and “12th Street”--anyone on the other side is considered fair game.

“It reminds you of guerrilla-type warfare,” said Sgt. Gary S. Elofson, head of the Police Department’s Crimes Against Persons division.

Police say they respond to reports of gunfire once a week. Someone is wounded once a month. In the last eight years alone, according to police records, warfare between the two groups has claimed 32 lives.

Most recently, a graveside shooting on April 3 rattled this city of 113,000, causing police, community leaders and even some gang members themselves to shake their heads in disbelief and despair.

Four people, including two young girls, were injured at the Holy Cross Cemetery when a gunman, suspected of belonging to the 12th Street gang, fired a .22-caliber handgun into a crowd of 250 mourners.

Gang Members Present

Many members of the Cherrieville gang were present at the services, which were being held for 21-year-old Robert Hernandez, the victim of a drive-by shooting that police have blamed on 12th Street.

“That was the lowest of the low,” said a 22-year-old member of the Cherrieville gang. “As Hispanic people, that’s one thing we keep sacred. Can’t we bury our own in peace?” Like those injured at the cemetery, Hernandez had simply been a victim of geography. Although he was not considered a gang member, police said, he often associated with Cherrieville members and was in their territory when he was killed.

“They were trespassing,” said an 18-year-old 12th Street member, explaining that the south Pomona cemetery is in his gang’s turf. “They shouldn’t have been down here. We had to show them they were messing with the wrong guys.”

Separated by fewer than a dozen blocks, the barrios of Cherrieville and 12th Street differ dramatically.

A tiny cluster of about 75 homes clumped around a small park and horseshoe-shaped street, Cherrieville is by far the smaller and more insular of the two. Isolated by railroad tracks and commercial development, the gang’s 50 to 75 members have been unable to expand their territory beyond a four-block boundary.

Family Ties

“We’re all family here,” said one Cherrieville gang member. “It’s not really a gang. It’s more of a neighborhood.”

By contrast, the 12th Street gang has about 150 to 200 members, police say, although a hard-core nucleus of about 50 is involved in most crimes. Based in a community of lower-income, one-story homes, 12th Street is a larger and less cohesive group, with virtually all of south Pomona in its territory.

“Twelfth Street is more aggressive and more violent,” Elofson said. “They don’t get along with anybody.”

As a result, police say, Cherrieville has borne the brunt of the random violence that began more than two decades ago.

Last November, Robert Gonzales, 40, was killed while he slept on the back patio of his Cherrieville home. A 52-year-old transient who had been asleep in a nearby car was also shot and killed when he sat up to see what had happened. Although police suspect 12th Streete gang members were responsible for the slayings, no arrests have been made.

A year before that, 19-year-old Andrew Zapien died in front of his Cherrieville home after being shot in the chest. Eight months earlier, his father, Raul Zapien Sr., was killed in the same place by bullets from a passing truck. Before that, the elder Zapien’s mother and sister were both wounded while visiting the Zapien home.

‘A Tradition’

Of the 15 slayings involving the two gangs that have been solved since 1978, police say, 11 of them were committed by 12th Street members.

“It’s become a tradition,” said Sgt. Ralph Fry, head of the police department’s community programs. “It’s a continuing thing.”

But according to police and other area residents, even some 12th Street members were upset by the shootings at the cemetery.

“Normally, they’re glad when there’s a hit on Cherrieville,” Elofson said. “But some of the older 12th Streeters have indicated they were not pleased with the way this shooting happened.”

One 20-year-old woman, who said she is married to a 12th Street member, said that the people she knows also were disturbed by the incident.

“It’s sad enough that people are getting killed anyway,” she said. “Let them just rest in peace.”

Although officers say such combat is largely beyond their control, several programs aimed at diverting youths from gangs have been implemented recently in the Pomona schools.

One program, which presents fourth- through sixth-graders with alternatives to gang membership, such as sports and other activities, has been offered in six elementary schools since 1985.

This year, police implemented a $165,000 drug education program for the same age groups.

And, in February, the city was awarded a $170,000 grant from the state Office of Criminal Justice Planning to battle gang-related activity.

“You have to hit them real young, to try to teach them there are alternative ways of life,” Fry said. “We try to expose them to the realities of gang warfare. And the reality is . . . in this town, you have an excellent possibility of getting killed.”