Teen-Ager Held in Good Friday Drive-By Killing

Police have arrested and booked on suspicion of murder a 16-year-old South-Central Los Angeles youth in connection with the Good Friday shooting spree that left one dead and 10 wounded.

The drive-by shooting--one of the worst in the city’s history--prompted Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates to field a special 1,000-man force to sweep gang members from the streets.

Gates said investigators are searching for two additional suspects who may have been involved in the series of shootings near the intersection of Raymond Avenue and 46th Street. One of the suspects has been identified and is being sought, but the other has yet to be positively identified, Gates said at a press conference at police headquarters.

‘Motive Was Retaliation’

“The motive was retaliation for a shooting earlier that day,” Gates said.

Identification of the suspects--all believed to be gang members--came from the work of Major Crimes Division detectives and not from any information gathered in last weekend’s massive arrests in the South-Central neighborhoods, Gates said.

Some of the victims were also gang members or associated with gang members, including the dead man, Gates said. Others, including a 4-year-old, were innocent bystanders, he said.

In an apparently unrelated development, police were investigating the shooting death of a 40-year-old woman whose teen-age son was killed a year ago by rival gang members. Thelma Smith was shot to death at 12:40 a.m. Tuesday at her 101st Street home, LAPD detectives said.

Conflicting Statements

Police were trying to determine whether the shooting was a drive-by shooting, and if gang members were involved. A police spokesman said witnesses had given conflicting statements to police.

One witness said he saw a car stop in front of the home, several shots were fired and Smith was struck in the chest, authorities said. The woman staggered into her kitchen and collapsed. She later died at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center.

Smith’s son, Akila Smith, 19, was kidnaped from a hamburger stand by rival gang members and shot to death a year ago. Known gang members were caught and convicted for that murder.