Two Runaway Girls Abducted, Attacked

Two teen-age runaways said they were raped in Griffith Park by two men who shot one of the girls early today after ordering them to their knees and firing a bullet into the victim’s head, Los Angeles police said.

The wounded girl, a 15-year-old whose name was not released, was in serious but stable condition at County-USC Medical Center with gunshot wounds to both hands and her scalp, Officer Bill Frio said.

Her 14-year-old friend, whose identity also was withheld, somehow escaped without being shot, Frio said.

The girls had taken a bus to South-Central Los Angeles on Sunday after staying at Rosemary’s Cottage, a shelter for runaways in Pasadena, Detective Joe Friend said.

They were picked up by the two suspects in a dark car, possibly a brown Cadillac, near 66th and Main streets on Sunday night, Friend said.

The younger girl told investigators that she was acquainted with one of the suspects, who told her and the other girl that the men would drive the pair back to Pasadena, Frio said.

Instead of driving to Pasadena, the suspects took the girls to Griffith Park, where they raped them and “the suspects attempted to execute both of them,” Friend said.

The suspects had ordered the girls to their knees and had them place their hands behind their heads, Frio said.

One of the gunmen shot the 15-year-old and the bullet struck both her hands and then her scalp, Frio said. The shot was apparently deflected by the bones in her hand, preventing more serious injury.

The 14-year-old escaped and hid until the suspects left. She then made her way to the Griffith Park Ranger Station, Friend said.

Her wounded friend, meanwhile, managed to flag down a passing ranger about 1 a.m. and the ranger called paramedics, he said.