3 Hurt as Snipers Fire on Crowd

A Sunday morning sniper attack on a crowd in Watts wounded three people and sent sheriff’s deputies, suspected gang members and bystanders scurrying for cover, capping another weekend of violence in Los Angeles.

Eight people were killed in the county since late Friday in gang-related violence. Nearly a dozen others were seriously injured, police said.

Two deputies responding to a report of gunfire in Watts about 12:30 a.m. Sunday had begun to question a group of suspected gang members when snipers opened fire. Sheriff’s Deparment officials said bullets barely missed the deputies, instead striking two alleged gang members and a woman bystander in the legs.

“The deputies saw the muzzle flashes and saw the people shooting at them but couldn’t see them well enough to return fire,” said Lt. Charles Schultz of the Sheriff’s Department Lennox station.

The injured woman and one of the men were taken to Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center. The second man was treated at the scene. About 40 deputies and a helicopter combed the area, but a search near Century Boulevard and Vermont Avenue failed to uncover any suspects, Schultz said.

Deputies said they knew of no motive for the attack, which they described as a rare and random assault.

“It’s just one of those incidents that happen once in a great while,” said Lt. Ray Gonzales. “We were trying to determine a motive for it, but it could be anything from a retaliation for past arrests or just a case where someone doesn’t like representatives of authority. We doubt that it was premeditated, but it could have been.”

Also Sunday, an unidentified 15-year-old gang member was fatally shot in the head by a gunman in a passing car, police said. The juvenile was standing with several other people in front of a house on East 54th Street when the gunman fired two bullets. The boy, whose name was not released, was taken to King medical center and died shortly after.

Two teen-age boys were also killed in gang drive-by shootings in Inglewood Sunday evening, police said. Few details were available late Sunday on the shootings--one in the 3100 block of 99th Street and the other near 111th Street and Prairie Avenue. Neither victim was identified, and investigators had not determined whether the shootings were related.

In other fatal incidents:

* Deputies searched in Azusa Sunday for suspects in a stabbing. One man was killed and another critically wounded after a fight broke out during a party at a house on Suzanne Marie Court. Neither of the victims was identified.

* On Friday, Lorenzo Albarran, 24, was killed and Phillip Lopez, 30, was seriously injured when a street fight broke out involving 14 men. Leovardo Garcia, 31, was booked by deputies on suspicion of murder.

* Los Angeles police detectives searched for two alleged gang members suspected in the fatal shooting of an unidentified man during a Saturday night robbery.

* Also on Saturday, Adan Guerrero, 18, was shot to death in Bell Gardens. Deputies arrested Jose Huerta, 23, and two juveniles on suspicion of murder.

* Police said an unidentified man was shot to death during a gang-related attack late Friday in South-Central Los Angeles.