Drive-By Slaying in Sunland Park May Be Gang-Related, Police Say

A Panorama City man sitting with friends at a park in Sunland was fatally wounded by gunfire from a passing car in what authorities said may have been a gang-related killing, Los Angeles police reported Monday.

Douglas Henegan, 21, died an hour after the 9 p.m. Sunday shooting at Hansen Dam Park, Detective Al Ferrand said.

The victim had been sitting with friends at the park when a recent model, black Ford Escort drove by with two young men in it, Ferrand said. Several shots were fired from the car, which then sped out of the park. Henegan was hit several times, he said.

No one else was injured by the shots. Henegan’s friends carried him to a car and drove him to Pacifica Hospital of the Valley in Sun Valley, where he died at 10 p.m., officials said.

Ferrand said the shooting was believed to be gang-related because of the method used.

“It was a straight drive-through-and-shoot type of killing,” Ferrand said. “It occurred in a park that is a frequent hangout of gangs.”

No suspects had been arrested and no motive had been established, Ferrand said. Investigators had found no ties between Henegan and local gangs and the friends he had been sitting with also were not known by police as gang members, he said.

“The suspects apparently didn’t know the victim,” Ferrand said.

Before Henegan’s killing, there had been 12 gang-related deaths in the San Fernando Valley this year, police said. Ten slayings were attributed to gangs in all of last year.