Tipsters Targeted : Gunshots Terrorize Members of Family Who Aided Police

A family who tipped off police to an alleged rock-cocaine house next door, and were promised anonymity, were terrorized Saturday night by a gunman who riddled their Los Angeles home with bullets after police compromised the family’s cover by questioning them in full view of the key suspect.

Police confirmed Sunday that an unknown gunman sprayed 14 bullets from an automatic weapon through the living room walls of the home of Pedro Pagan, the day after Pagan was singled out for questioning by police as he and other neighbors stood watching the arrest of the suspected drug dealer.

Anonymity Lost

A sobbing Amparo Agosto, 32, Pagan’s daughter, said Sunday that her family is now “terrified for our lives, my little boy’s life especially. We have learned there is no such thing as being anonymous, and we can only wonder what is in store for us.”

She said that if the family’s broken-down television had been working when the attack occurred at 9:30 p.m. Saturday, the family probably would have been sitting in the living room watching the Olympic Games when bullets showered the room.

Instead, she said, “We had all gone to bed early, and I thank God. The sofa and walls behind it are filled with bullet holes.”

Officer Wouter Von Lutzow, who investigated the shooting in the 300 block of West 46th Street, said Sunday, “It’s just lucky nobody was injured, and it could have been pretty bad because they had a little boy in that house. If the TV had been working, we’d have a different story.”

Von Lutzow confirmed that a police investigator on Friday questioned Pagan in Spanish in full view of the suspected neighbor, who is not Latino.

The suspect, a resident of the home next door, was arrested Friday but was quickly released, according to several neighbors who said they saw him on the street Sunday. Police did not release his name.

The police investigator, whose name was not released, “apparently talked with Mr. Pagan concerning what was going on next door involving narcotics,” while the suspect waited a few feet away, Von Lutzow said.

“I don’t know the officer who interviewed the victim, but if I get an anonymous tip from somebody I have always called them into the station, or if they don’t want to be interviewed, I have just left it at that,” Von Lutzow said. “I would never go directly to their house and question them in the open air, where everyone can see.”

Von Lutzow said, “Apparently, one of the suspect’s cohorts believed the father next door was the one who told us what was going on with narcotics.”

Pagan said he and many residents in the neighborhood had gathered to watch Friday as the police arrested the suspect and forced him to kneel with his hands behind his head.

Suddenly, Pagan said, one arresting officer turned and walked directly up to Pagan and asked him in Spanish, “Where are the drugs?”

Stunned, Pagan said he knew nothing, and went inside his house.

“I immediately called the Newton Division police station and asked them, ‘Why did this officer come up and ask me? Now look what a mess I am in!’ ” Pagan recalled, angrily. “The girl who answered the phone told me, ‘Well, the police are supposed to interview the witnesses.’ What kind of an answer is that?”

Source of Gunfire

Von Lutzow said he recovered 14 empty shells from a 9-millimeter automatic weapon, but was able to pry only one bullet out of the walls and household furnishings where they were embedded. He said the 14 shells were concentrated in a small area of the yard and sidewalk in front of the drug suspect’s home.

“Whoever fired that automatic weapon was standing right in the yard of the arrested man, that’s what that means,” Von Lutzow said.

He said police have no description of the gunman. When the gunfire awoke the household Saturday, the father and daughter crept to the front of the house to investigate, but saw nothing when they peered beneath their curtains.

Amparo Agosto said the family kept the lights turned off, not wanting to attract attention, and it was not until Sunday morning that they discovered their walls and furniture riddled with bullets.

Von Lutzow said numerous neighbors confirmed that the house next to the Pagan home is a well-known center of cocaine dealing, especially at night, when traffic in front of the house “is very heavy.”

The officer said he also recognized the home as one that has been the site of cocaine activity in the past.

“There’s been a lot of narcotics sold there, heavy drug activity that we have been aware of,” Von Lutzow said.

Several neighbors on Sunday said they have also complained anonymously to police about drug dealing at the house for the last three years, but the stream of cars and strangers has gone on unabated.

Von Lutzow said he has tried to allay Amparo Agosto’s fears for her family, promising that he and other officers on his shift will keep an eye on their house during patrols.

“I told her I will come by and check the neighborhood, but I only work until 3:30 p.m.,” he said.

Pagan, a retired Teamster who has owned the home since 1967, said he plans to contact an attorney about the police handling of the matter.

“I know that police officer did wrong,” he said Sunday. “It was common sense that we were dealing with people who just don’t care.”

No matter what happens, he said, he may be forced to move to ensure his family’s safety.

“We have lived here many years, and we have seen the neighborhood when it was a good place to be,” Pagan said. “But now we must live behind our bars.”

“It’s really tragic,” Von Lutzow said. “The father said to me, ‘My (6-year-old) grandson cannot even play in the street. And this is America.’ ”