‘Stop the Madness’ : Backlash Against Gangs Expressed by Friends of Norwalk Youth Who Died in Drive-By Shooting

The car they are riding in winds through their east Norwalk neighborhood presided over by lavender trees. No graffiti is evident. “This is a nice place, nice people living here,” Paseka Teo, 17, says, pointing to homes on neat lawns bordering clean streets.

His friend, Ernie Gutierrez, 16, says, “It’s like a Leave-it-to-Beaver neighborhood. There are really no gangs here. But the overpass over there is a good place to stay away from.”

Although they do not belong to gangs, Teo and Gutierrez, popular and respected sophomores at John Glenn High School, have been touched by gang violence.

The two football players were friends of Juan (Chaka) Enriquez, the Glenn senior football and wrestling star who was killed May 9 in a drive-by shooting in the barrio, a low-income, mostly Latino area of small modest homes in the southern section of Norwalk.

Teo and Gutierrez had spoken emotionally during a memorial service at the school a day after Enriquez’s death. Gutierrez, president of the sophomore class, angrily asked the gang members among the students: “Chaka wasn’t even in a gang, what do you think the chances are for you?”

Sheriff’s authorities believe the killing was gang-related. A 20-year-old Fullerton man who had been arrested in connection with the shooting was released Tuesday because of lack of evidence.

The anger had not subsided for Teo and Gutierrez last week. Before accompanying a reporter and photographer on a ride through the city, they stood outside the school weightlifting room and discussed their views on gangs and gang violence.

“I feel like (gang members) have no respect for other people,” Teo said. “I think they pick on innocent people. They shouldn’t kill no one.

“I never hang around kids who join gangs. If kids want to be in gangs, they act and dress like it. They wear their pants real low and wear white T-shirts.

“To me, they’re not really tough; they think they’re tough. People who join gangs, they think that’s the way to meet new friends. It’s a waste of time.”

The car is on Pioneer Boulevard in south Norwalk. “Behind all those businesses is the barrio,” Gutierrez says. “I have a lot of friends in there. Never have been hassled. They knew me when I was in eighth or ninth grade. My dad grew up in the barrio.” The car turns into the barrio. “Look at that fence,” Teo says. It has Varrio gang graffiti: “VNWK.”

Gutierrez said he knows gang members. “Some are here (at school),” he said. “Why do kids join gangs? If they have an older brother in a gang, they look up to him, want to be like him.” Youths also join, he said, because many of their friends are in gangs.

“It’s stupidity,” he said. “It’s just dumb. Sooner or later you’re going to pay for what you’re doing. Eventually they get hurt.”

Teo and Gutierrez try to avoid confrontations with gang members.

“I turn around, don’t say nothing, don’t even look at them,” Teo said.

Last summer, Gutierrez said, he saw two gangs ready to fight in a parking lot near Glenn. “I saw guns in a car, I knew that was my cue to get out of here,” he said.

Gutierrez, who, like Teo, has a muscular build, recalled an incident about a year ago: “I was walking across the street and came upon a couple of guys. I was outnumbered. When they walk by you, you don’t know what to expect.”

He said he was prepared to use his pencil as a weapon.

“Chances are they have something on them,” he said. “Most of them carry something because they never know when they will be confronted. In gangs you have to be ready, so they all have something on them. They are cowards. If they’re looking for trouble, a fistfight would settle it. Using a gun is spineless. A drive-by is the easiest way to get out of a fight. They are afraid they will get hurt.”

Since Enriquez’s death, Gutierrez said, gang members are more cautious around the Glenn athletes. “Now they would have a few problems with us,” he said. “They give me my space.”

The car approaches 166th Street. “Down there are the Chivas,” Gutierrez says, mentioning the Artesia gang that authorities say frequently fights with the Norwalk Varrios. “The little kids (Chivas and Varrios) throw bottles at each other. When they are 6, 7 or 8.”

On into Hermosillo Park at 162nd Street. “They like to play handball,” Gutierrez says of the Varrios. A man in a white T-shirt walks near the courts. “There’s a chola (Latino gang member),” Gutierrez says, nodding toward the man. “A retired one.”

Moments later they pass the spot where Enriquez was gunned down. A memorial has been erected: candles, flowers, wreaths and scores of “CHAKA R.I.P.” inscriptions on the sidewalk. A banner reads, “Stop the Madness.”

The two students do not foresee an eradication of gang problems.

“The writing on the wall and the gangs, you’re never going to stop it,” Gutierrez said. “Maybe it can be slowed down a little. You’ve got to get to the kids when they’re little. Parents have to set an example. Parents have a lot to do with it.”

“They don’t give a damn about their kids,” Teo said.

Gutierrez seemed well aware of the danger of being a teen-ager in Norwalk.

“I know the same thing that happened to Chaka could happen to me tonight when I go home,” he said.

High-pitched screams fill the air.

“There’s a jumping,” Gutierrez says.

On a sidewalk about a block from Glenn High, five teen-age girls stomp fiercely on a well-dressed young woman and beat her with their fists.

In a moment the fight is over. The girls pile into the back of a truck and take off. The victim, after picking herself up, screams obscenities at her attackers. She is comforted by a passer-by.

“The girls didn’t have the guts to fight her one-on-one,” Gutierrez says.

He says he has seen flare-ups like this several times.

The gangs, the boys had said earlier, come out at night. But even this quiet afternoon had not passed without violence.

“You can’t stay in the house all the time,” Gutierrez said when the car pulled back into the school. “It’s something you have to deal with. You continue on, and hope it doesn’t happen to you or someone else you know.”