176 Arrested in Sweep but 4 Die in Weekend Burst of Gang Violence

While Los Angeles police pressed a campaign against gang violence--arresting 176 people during sweeps near downtown--four more people were killed in gang-related shootings in the county over the weekend, authorities said Sunday.

The killings brought this year’s gang-related death toll in the city to 209, surpassing the 205 who were killed for all of last year.

“We gotta keep after the gangs,” said one police anti-gang officer. “This has to stop.”

A 22-year-old man was shot to death early Sunday during an apparent robbery attempt in a parking lot on Pacific Coast Highway, just south of Sunset Boulevard, in Pacific Palisades.

Sgt. Jeff Hanson said Francisco Gutierrez of Huntington Park was fatally wounded when he was hit by shots fired from a passing pick-up truck near Will Rogers State Beach at 12:35 a.m. A man standing near Gutierrez, James Whitley, whose age and hometown were not immediately released, was wounded in the arm.

The Police Department’s West Bureau anti-gang unit was investigating the attack, which Hanson said appeared to be gang-motivated. He did not elaborate.

A Los Angeles man, Augustino C. Rodriguez, 23, was shot to death by a gunman in a passing car early Saturday as he walked with friends near Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, police said. Rodriguez was pronounced dead at the scene.

Officers said they did not know what caused the attack, but added that they believed it was gang-motivated.

On Friday, police said a 16-year-old gang “associate,” Monique Murphy, was gunned down as she sat with two friends in a parked car in South-Central Los Angeles. Investigators said rival gang members used assault rifles to riddle the car with bullets.

The two friends escaped injury, police said.

In the suburban community of Hawaiian Gardens, alleged gang member Joseph Patrick Tomelty, 15, was stabbed in the upper chest in an incident near his home. Sheriff’s deputies said he was rushed to Pioneer Hospital in Artesia, where he died.

No arrests have been made in any of the four homicides, authorities said.

More than 200 Los Angeles police officers swept through the city’s central districts Saturday night and Sunday morning in an anti-gang operation dubbed “The Hammer.”

Of the 176 people arrested, 103 were identified as gang members. Most of the people were arrested on suspicion of weapons and narcotics violations. Ten cars, 11 pounds of cocaine and a small amount of cash were seized in areas patrolled by the Central, Rampart, Hollenbeck, Northeast and Newton stations.

Officers also issued 134 traffic citations.