Guard, 4 Others Slain in Gang Shootings

Five people were killed in gang shootings in Los Angeles County during the weekend, including a security guard who was shot several times as he tried to stop gang members from crashing a party in Wilmington, police said.

Saturday night, gang members, wielding pipes and bats, tried to get into the quinceanera at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall, Los Angeles police said.

After security guard David Eugene Ryan, 41, locked them out, the gang members fired shots, killing Ryan and injuring a 5-year-old girl and 16-year-old boy.

In South-Central Los Angeles, Robert Hughes, 18, was killed, and a passenger in his car was wounded after an argument with suspected gang members who were in another car Saturday night, police said.

Police said Hughes was driving near Figueroa and 54th streets when he exchanged threats with the occupants of another car and one of them fired shots.

Several bullets hit Hughes, fatally wounding him, and his car crashed into a utility pole. Hughes’ passenger, Shandell Milligan, 15, was shot in the side as he ran from the car, police said. He was hospitalized in serious condition. No arrests have been made in either incident.

In other weekend gang violence:

* Miguel Jimenez, 15, a reputed gang member, was shot to death Friday in a brawl with a rival gang in Newhall. Alphonso Tapia, 18, was booked on suspicion of murder.

* Charles Thomas, 30, was killed Saturday in a gang shooting as he stood on a sidewalk in Pomona.

* An unidentified man was killed in Pomona on Sunday night when a carload of gang members apparently entered another gang’s turf and gunfire erupted. Five people were wounded, police said.