Skies Clear for Windup of Holiday Festivities

After overcast skies over the weekend gave way to a clear and sunny Memorial Day, more than 400,000 Southern Californians marked the traditional start of the summer season by heading to local beaches.

Although winds hovered around 20 m.p.h. and temperatures failed to rise above 70 degrees in some places, visitors sunbathed, picnicked and roamed the piers and beach bicycle paths.

“It’s not a perfect beach day,” said Los Angeles County Lifeguard Lt. Wally Millican at Hermosa Beach, “but it’s the perfect way to end the weekend.”

The final day of the long holiday weekend saw other time-honored Memorial Day activities, including a ceremony at the Los Angeles National Cemetery in Westwood--this one marking its 100th anniversary.

About 1,000 veterans and family members gathered to hear Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) remember servicemen and women who have died in American military conflicts.

Cannon Fired

“What we owe to the men and women in this garden of stone is that their sacrifice was not in vain,” Wilson said. The ceremony included the firing of a Civil War cannon that was damaged by vandals eight years ago but was recently refitted.

Elsewhere as the tourist season unfolded, thousands of visitors jammed into Yosemite National Park, claiming all available campground and hotel space. Heavy traffic forced some motorists in the park to spend more than two hours in their vehicles, rangers said.

Traffic fatalities across the state, meanwhile, claimed the lives of at least 43 people, the California Highway Patrol reported. At least five of the fatalities were in Los Angeles County, the coroner reported.

In addition, nearly 1,000 motorists had been arrested in the county as of Monday morning for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs during the holiday weekend. About 400 of the arrests were made Saturday night in a coordinated effort by 33 law enforcement agencies at 16 sobriety checkpoints, according to Gardena police, who tallied results of the effort.

Statewide Totals

An additional 577 people were arrested in the Los Angeles area by the CHP, which made a total of 2,105 such arrests statewide.

The CHP statistics, which covered the period from 6 p.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Monday, were running higher than a year ago, Officer Andy Gutierrez said, with 10 more traffic deaths and 334 more arrests than over the same period of 1988.

The holiday weekend also was marked by tragedy and violence. An 11-month-old Lennox girl, Roxanne Diaz-Molina, died Monday of head injuries inflicted by her mother’s boyfriend, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said. The baby was injured early Sunday morning in a quarrel between her mother, Rosa Molina, and Jacinto Peres, 31, of Lennox, authorities said.

“Peres is being charged with murder and will remain in custody without bail,” Sheriff’s Deputy Bill Wehner said. The infant’s mother, who also was injured, was treated at County-Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and released.

An 8-year-old Lancaster girl, Saquita Marie Simons, apparently drowned about noon Monday when the 19-foot ski boat in which she was riding sank after it was was swamped by high winds and waves in Lake Isabella in Kern County.

Two 19-year-olds from Lancaster, who also were in the boat, were pulled to safety by another boater. But the child, who was not wearing a preserver, sank with the boat, the Kern County Sheriff’s Department said. A two-hour search failed to find the body.

There were no casualties, however, when a 50-foot yacht sank in heavy seas Monday while returning to Santa Barbara from a holiday trip. Two couples aboard the mahogany-hulled Royal Caprice, heading back from Santa Cruz Island about 3:40 p.m., were rescued when a fleet of boats responded to its distress call, authorities said.

Before the rescue boats arrived, the four passengers “got into a skiff, but it quickly capsized,” tumbling them into 62-degree water, said Steve Lewis, harbor master with the Santa Barbara Harbor Patrol. One of the women was treated for hypothermia.

Drowning Victim

On Sunday, a Huntington Park man drowned while swimming in Lake Mead, Nev., the National Park Service reported, as winds gusted up to 60 m.p.h. and caused choppy water. The victim, who was not identified pending notification of relatives, “had been drinking” and then decided to swim, Park Service spokesman Don Hamilton said.

“He went into an area six to eight feet deep,” Hamilton added. “His friends stated he was yelling in Spanish and waving his hands, but didn’t appear in any difficulty. For some reason he went underwater and did not come back up.”

Over the long weekend, authorities reported that at least 13 people were killed in the Los Angeles area in shootings and other violence.

In an apparently gang-related incident in South-Central Los Angeles, five people at a back-yard barbecue near 78th Street and Stanford Avenue were shot by an unknown number of assailants about 1 a.m. Monday, Los Angeles Police Lt. Frank Valdez said.

The victims, three males and two females aged 15 to 24, never saw their attackers, he said, because “their backs were to the street.” One victim was hospitalized and listed in serious condition, Valdez added, while the others were treated and released. The attackers fled on foot, police said.

In a second gang-related incident Monday, a 17-year-old youth was shot in the abdomen in a drive-by shooting at 62nd Street and Vermont Avenue, Valdez said. He was listed in critical condition at Martin Luther King General Hospital.