Arcade Where Killing Occurred Has History of Gang Arrests, Police Say

Police said the popular game arcade near Marina del Rey where a suspected gang member was gunned down Friday night has a history of gang-related arrests.

The Westworld Electronic Game Center on Glencoe Avenue next to the six-screen Cinema Theaters is a hangout for gang members, and gang-related incidents have occurred before, said Los Angeles police Detective Kevin Rogers of CRASH, the department’s Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums unit.

“We’ve had problems there in the past with gangs,” he said. “CRASH officers . . . have made arrests there before for gang members with weapons, that kind of thing,” Rogers said.

The fatal shooting occurred at 10 p.m. Friday during an argument involving about a dozen members of two rival gangs, Rogers said.

While an arcade security guard escorted one suspected gang member out, another suspect pulled a gun and shot Carl Michael Gordon. The 18-year-old victim was pronounced dead at the scene. Police have not arrested anyone in the killing.

Rogers said members of both gangs were from outside the Marina del Rey-Venice neighborhood.

He said it is not unusual for gangs from other parts of the city to visit the arcade. “It’s not necessarily a place where just local gangs go,” Rogers said.

Rogers said about 200 people were inside the arcade when the shooting occurred, and that guards described the crowd as “elbow to elbow.” There are about 75 video games in the arcade.

The arcade is “always crowded . . . with lots of young kids,” said a worker at a frozen yogurt shop next door. The manager of the arcade, Art Fisher, said the neighborhood is affluent with little evidence of gang activity. He said he is not aware of gangs or past incidents at the arcade.

Representatives of Heitman Properties Ltd., which manages the shopping center and provides its security, did not return calls to their offices at Villa Marina, where the shooting took place.

Villa Marina is patrolled around the clock by two armed security guards, and the arcade has armed guards of its own on Friday and Saturday nights. In addition, the arcade activity is monitored by television.

The arcade’s armed security guard “was very alert to what was going on” but was “outnumbered,” Rogers said. He said security is “pretty good,” but “if somebody is getting killed there . . . they probably need more.”