Blamed for 39% of Homicides in 4 Police Divisions : Gang Murder Rates Get Worse

Street gang members have been responsible for an increasing proportion of murders in South Los Angeles, but they still account for only about 10% of assaults and robberies, according to Los Angeles Police Department crime reports.

In the first two months of this year, the latest period for which statistics are available, gang members are believed to have committed 24 of 61 murders--39%--in the department’s 77th, Southeast, Southwest and Newton divisions.

Gang members were responsible for 30% of the murders in those divisions during all of 1986 and 33% of the homicides during 1987.

Citywide, gang members were believed responsible for 25% of 817 homicides last year. More than half of those murders occurred in the 77th, Southeast, Southwest and Newton divisions.

In tabulating gang crime, the Police Department counts any crime committed by a gang member. The crimes are not necessarily committed as part of gang activity.

During the first two months of this year, gang members committed 216 of 2,164 felony assaults reported in those four divisions, and 131 of 1,394 robberies.

The proportion of gang-member involvement in those crimes has not changed significantly during the last two years.

The Southeast Division, which covers several housing projects, including Nickerson Gardens and Jordan Downs, has the highest proportion of gang crime compared to total crime.

Last year, gang members were believed responsible for 47% of the division’s 109 homicides. The second-worst division was Newton, where gang members were blamed for 42% of that division’s 85 murders.

Gang members were believed responsible for 19% of Southeast Division’s 1,664 robberies last year. In the other three divisions, gang members were responsible for no more than 11% of robberies.

During January and February, 10 of the 14 murders committed in the Southeast Division were believed committed by gang members. Five of the 10 victims in the gang murders had no connection to street gangs, according to Sgt. Robert Jackson, a supervisor in the department’s gang section.

Of the 24 people believed murdered by gang members in the four divisions during January and February, at least 11 were not gang members, Jackson said. However, in surrounding territory patroled by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, murders by gang members doubled during the first two months of this year, to 20 from 10 in the same period of 1987.

Although gang killings have attracted considerable attention this year, the total number of murders in the four divisions was only one more than recorded during the first two months of 1987.

For Los Angeles County, at least 85 people have been killed in violence by gang members this year. In 1987, 387 people were killed in gang violence.