2 Arrested, 2 Hurt in Shooting as 4 Men Try to Enter House

Two men were arrested and two wounded in Pacoima in a shooting linked to a wrong-door raid in which one of the men was trying to recover money he had lost in a burglary, Los Angeles police said Saturday.

Christian Najera, 21, of Van Nuys led a group of four men who forced their way into a Pacoima house--the wrong one--at gunpoint Friday afternoon in search of $3,000 that Najera said was stolen from him, Detective Al Ferrand said.

“He was conducting his own investigation; let’s put it that way,” Ferrand said.

Najera and Alfredo Gamez, 19, of Pacoima were arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly using a shotgun as they and two others entered the house and ransacked it while a 22-year-old woman and her 2-year-old daughter looked on, Ferrand said.

Group Left

The group left after the woman threatened to call police and said the man they were looking for did not live there, the detective said.

Najera apparently concluded he had searched the wrong house, which was one of two on the property in the 12500 block of Wingo Street, Ferrand said. He returned to the same property with three men about 2 a.m. Saturday, but they were greeted with shotgun fire as they got out of their vehicle, the detective said.

Najera was slightly wounded and was being treated at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, Ferrand said. A man identified as Kenneth Walker, 39, was recovering from more serious wounds at a local hospital, he said.

Investigators do not think Walker was among the group that raided the wrong house the previous afternoon, police said.

Police think the shooting may have been in self-defense as Najera’s group approached armed with a shotgun, Ferrand said. Police did not know who shot the men.

On Wednesday, a locker Najera had rented at Panorama City Mini Storage was burglarized, Ferrand said.