Drug Dealers Suspected in Bomb Explosion

A bomb exploded early Sunday morning outside a Long Beach apartment house, injuring no one but raising suspicions among residents and police that the blast was a message from drug dealers who had threatened retaliation against neighbors for reporting their activity.

The bomb was detonated shortly before 12:30 a.m. outside a first-floor bathroom window at 1330 Walnut Ave. Police and residents say the area around the yellow stucco, four-unit apartment building--particularly its courtyard--is the site of frequent drug dealing and arrests.

“We can’t find any motive other than we have rumors that there have been some threats to get even with all the occupants of the building,” said Long Beach Police Sgt. Larry Hemeon. “Someone in that building apparently turned in some drug activity to the police.”

One occupant of the building, who has called police about drug trafficking, told a reporter Sunday that drug dealers had threatened tenants.

Threats Told

“They have said that they will kill dogs, baby kids and all,” said the occupant, who asked not to be identified. “They made statements that if certain of them got arrested that they would blow up the whole building.”

Hemeon said the bomb--probably a pipe bomb--was in a plastic bag suspended from an iron grate that protects the window. Police recovered bits of twisted metal and electrical tape at the scene and have turned the evidence over to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department crime lab for analysis.

The explosion tore through the iron grate, damaged the wall and shattered the glass, spewing shards into the bathtub and sink and nearby hallway. Police said seven adults and four children were in the apartment when the bomb went off.

The couple whose bathroom was damaged said they were entertaining guests and playing cards at the time of the blast. They said they thought a shotgun had been fired.

Now, they say, they will move as soon as possible.

“I don’t have the stamina or the nerve for this kind of thing,” said a woman who shares the apartment with her three children and her boyfriend. The woman, who asked that her name not be published, said she had no idea why her unit was targeted.

“I haven’t turned in anybody to nobody,” she said. “It’s bad to say you don’t want to get involved, but when you got kids you got to think of your kids.”

Although no arrest statistics were available from police, some residents of the ethnically mixed neighborhood said drug dealing is a fact of life. Even the children have learned to live with it. They say dealers stash their drugs in the trees, and sometimes sit on the wall that surrounds their courtyard or sneak behind the building to take drugs.

“At night, sometimes we can’t go to sleep,” said a 10-year-old girl. “I’ll be scared when I go to the store by myself.”

One parent, Sonya Williams, said children sometimes go out in the morning to find packets of drugs--mostly crack cocaine--hidden in toys they have been left out overnight. “The kids can’t even come out and play,” she said.

There was no sign of drug trafficking around the building Sunday when police cruised the streets and reporters swarmed the neighborhood. But none of the residents interviewed expected the calm to last.

One youth, an 18-year-old who gave his name “just Chino--I’d like to leave it like that,” summed up the situation this way: “You mind your own business and then you be safe. If you mess with the wrong people, they’ll come back for you. They always will.”