Gunfire Kills 3 Men, Woman in Southland

The death toll in Memorial Day weekend violence in Los Angeles County rose to at least eight Sunday, with three men and a woman killed by gunfire in separate incidents. In one instance, a motorist was shot by Hawthorne police after he allegedly drove his car into an officer on an undercover assignment.

Another 10 people, including a 9-month-old girl, were injured late Saturday and Sunday.

A 29-year-old Long Beach man was killed about 1:30 a.m. Sunday when his car hit one of five Hawthorne police officers working an undercover burglary-prevention assignment, and the officers opened fire, Sheriff’s Deputy Bill Wehner said.

The motorist, who was not identified, suffered a single gunshot wound and was pronounced dead at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. The officer, who was on foot when he was struck at 132nd Street and Yukon Avenue, was treated at Robert F. Kennedy Hospital for arm and back injuries as well as a concussion, then released.

About the same time he was struck, another car--this one with two men in it--hit a second Hawthorne plainclothes officer, who was riding a bicycle, Wehner said. The officers fired at those men as well, wounding one in the arm, the other in his leg and hip.

The two men were being held at the jail ward at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center on suspicion of attempted murder of a peace officer and murder related to commission of a felony.

It was not known what prompted the suspects to drive at the officers, Wehner said.

In a fatal shooting called possibly gang-related, a 34-year-old man was killed about 1:40 a.m. in an apartment in an unincorporated area near Carson, Sheriff’s Deputy Kathryn Nielsen said.

About 1 a.m., Los Angeles police answering a 911 call found the body of Burner-Dean Gladden, 29, who also had been shot, at a residence in Southwest Los Angeles.

Outside the World on Wheels roller skating rink at Venice and San Vicente boulevards in Los Angeles, an unidentified man was killed and a second wounded by a rival gang member after an argument about 11:45 p.m. Saturday, police said. Police said a security officer at the rink shot the suspected triggerman, a juvenile. The youth was treated and then booked on suspicion of murder.

The 9-month-old girl who had suffered a head injury was discovered by sheriff’s deputies in Lennox responding to a 7:20 a.m. disturbance. The mother’s boyfriend, Jasinto Peres, 31, was booked on suspicion of child abuse. The girl, Roxanne Diaz-Molina, was on life support at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

Four people were killed in earlier weekend violence.

Through Sunday afternoon, authorities also reported three traffic fatalities around Los Angeles County and the arrest of 951 people in a weekend crackdown on drunk driving.