Police Search for 4th Victim in Lake View Terrace Attack

Los Angeles police are looking for a fourth victim of a shooting spree at a Lake View Terrace home that left a woman and a young girl dead Sunday and injured a small boy.

Detectives late Monday were still attempting to piece together what happened at 5 p.m. Sunday at a house in the 11400 block of Wheeler Avenue, where the shootings occurred.

Neighbors said in past years the house was often the scene of drug dealing and gunfire. Police said the house was raided twice by drug teams in 1985.

Police have not been able to identify the victims, described as a woman in her early 20s, a girl about 2 or 3 years old, and a boy, thought to be about a year old, who survived with minor injuries.

Police said they think the woman and children may have been driven to the house by a man who was also killed by gunmen. The driver apparently parked the car and went into the house, police said. Evidence there, including a large amount of blood, indicates a killing took place.

“We are pretty sure we have another person who was killed,” Lt. Bernard Conine said. “We just haven’t found him yet.”

Detective Al Ferrand said officers were called by neighbors who heard gunfire and saw a man come out of the house and fire several shotgun blasts into a red car. Witnesses said the gunman then got into the car and drove off.

Police said at least two other men fled in other cars after the shooting, apparently taking the fourth victim with them. When officers arrived, the house was empty.

Found in Alley

While police were at the house about 7 p.m., they received a report that a red car with two bodies inside had been found by a passer-by in an alley in the 11300 block of Osborne Street, less than a mile away.

Police found a 1988 Toyota Camry with three victims. The woman and girl were dead, and the boy had been injured by flying glass. He was treated for cuts and placed in the custody of youth authorities.

The motive had not been determined, and police had not identified the three suspects who fled from the house.

“We believe it was drug-related,” Conine said. “They were selling cocaine out of that house.”

The house was equipped with security equipment, including iron grates over windows, steel doors and electronic alarm systems and door openers, police said. Residents on Wheeler Avenue said the house has been a neighborhood sore spot for several years and that drug dealing problems have persisted even after police raids.

“I see a lot of people in and out of there 24 hours a day,” said a woman who lives nearby and saw part of the shooting spree Sunday. She said several people appeared to live there. She said she often saw visitors coming and going, driving expensive cars and carrying suitcases.

Sgt. Roger Dunn of the narcotics unit said the house was raided in 1985 by narcotics detectives and Special Weapons and Tactics teams. He said a Jan. 22, 1985, raid netted one arrest and one ounce of cocaine. A Feb. 22, 1985, raid, in which a Police Department battering ram knocked down the front door, resulted in one arrest and the seizure of 137 grams of cocaine.

Dunn said the narcotics unit had received no information or complaints about the house from nearby residents in recent months.