2 Men Shot to Death in Bedrolls at the Beach

Two homeless men were shot to death in a Santa Monica park as they slept under a gazebo where they had apparently sought refuge from the elements, police said Thursday.

The men were still covered by their bedding when a passer-by found their bodies at 6:50 a.m. Wednesday in Crescent Bay Park, a block from the beach, police said. Investigators said the men probably had sought shelter from the rain late Tuesday or early Wednesday.

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office said the identities of the victims were being withheld until relatives could be notified. Police said both men were black, ages 32 and 45.

Sgt. John Miehle said the gazebo, at the top of a small bluff overlooking the Pacific, is a gathering place for small groups of homeless men. The gazebo area was deserted Thursday morning, however.

Unaware of Killings

At nearby Palisades Park, the homeless men who had gathered on the benches and lawns to take in the late morning sun said they were unaware of the killings and did not know the victims.

Jim Henri, 63, said he and his friends avoid Crescent Bay Park because it is the site of heavy drug activity.

“We don’t go down there,” he said. “There’s a lot of narcotics. In this area, we don’t do drugs. We’re just down and out.”

A man wearing a long blue coat and a camouflage cap, who identified himself only as “Two Air Corps General,” said he slept in his car to avoid the dangers of the street.

“At night, the creepy crawlers come along,” he said. “There’s just junkies and prostitution people around.”

John Drosos, 47, said he often sleeps near the park where the killings took place and carries a hunting knife to defend himself.

“They say now they’re doing it just for the kicks of it,” Drosos said of the killer, or killers. “It’s like a sport to them.”

Miehle said there are no suspects.

The sergeant said Santa Monica police contacted authorities in Bell Gardens and San Diego, where killings of transients have also occurred recently, but no link was found to the local murders.

Dec. 1 Case

Nor has any connection been found to the Dec. 1 robbery and stabbing death of a homeless man, whose body was found on a bench in front of the Heritage Museum in Santa Monica, Miehle said. A fellow transient has been charged in that case, Miehle said.

Officer Mario Toti of the Police Department’s mounted patrol said the number of homeless people gathering in beachside parks has diminished in the last two months. City law prohibits sleeping in the parks from midnight to 5 a.m., he said.

Christopher Cardinali of St. Joseph’s Center, a social service center in nearby Venice, said the threat of violence leads many homeless people to avoid the beach areas and seek shelter inland.

“They’re isolated and away from the street lights (at the beach). That makes them fall prey to being victims,” he said.

Most of the men at Palisades Park on Thursday seemed resigned to the dangers of living on the streets, however.

Percy Youngblood, 29, said the killings will not keep him from using the beachside parks.

“If you’re out in the open, you’re open to anything,” he said.