Gang Member Sought in Stockton Killing

An alleged member of a Los Angeles street gang was being sought Monday for the fatal shooting of a teen-ager, believed to be a rival gang member, who was waiting in line to see the controversial film “Colors” at a Stockton theater.

A felony warrant was issued by Stockton police for Charles V. Queen, 21, Deputy Police Chief Lucian Neely said.

Spokesmen for the Los Angeles Police and the Sheriff’s departments said Queen was still at large Monday night.

First Fatal Incident

Although some scuffles broke out in the Los Angeles area when “Colors” opened in California on April 15, the Sunday night shooting in Stockton was the first fatality connected to the film.

Witnesses, who said they knew Queen when he lived in Stockton, told officers one of Queen’s companions was wearing a red handkerchief, which could indicate Queens’ group was affiliated with a Bloods gang.

The victim, David Dawson, 19, of Stockton, was shot outside the Regency Theater in a North Stockton shopping center. Neely said a blue handkerchief was found tied around Dawson’s head, and that he also was wearing blue trousers and blue shoelaces, indicating he could belong to the Crips, a loose confederation of street gangs who outnumber their rival Bloods.

Los Angeles-based Mann Theaters Corp. of California, which owns the Regency, immediately pulled the film out of Stockton.

Theater Chain’s View

Mann President Jim Sheehan said, however, that the chain has no intention of closing down the film in the Los Angeles area, where it is showing at 10 Mann theaters. The movie is about Los Angeles gangs and the police officers who confront them.

“We have not had any problems in Los Angeles and we are not going to take the film off the screen,” Sheehan said in a telephone interview. “We are going to handle everything on a theater-by-theater basis.”

Joel Resnick, chairman of Orion Pictures Distribution, which distributed “Colors” throughout the country, said, “The Stockton incident should not be attributed to the film, which was and is a serious attempt to portray the problems of gangs in a sober, responsible way.”

Resnick, reached at his New York office, called the Stockton murder “deplorable,” but said that the film’s release in about 50 theaters in the Los Angeles area, “where the gang problem is worst,” has not triggered any serious violence.

Witnesses’ Description

According to witness accounts, Dawson, his girlfriend, sister and brother-in-law were waiting in line at the Regency at about 4:45 p.m. Sunday to buy tickets for the next showing of the film.

Witnesses said a suspect walked up to Dawson and asked: “Are you a ricket?”--which police said is a derogatory reference to the Crips.

Dawson’s girlfriend then stepped between the two to prevent a fight, witnesses said, and the suspect returned to his car, a 1988 Chrysler, which police said had been rented near Los Angeles International Airport.

But two other suspects began fighting with Dawson’s brother-in-law, witnesses said, and Dawson came to his aid. That was when the first suspect returned, they said, and shot Dawson as he attempted to flee.