5 Fall in a Fierce Street-Gang Gun Battle : 2 Killed, 3 Badly Wounded as Bullets Fly Near Coliseum

Two rival gang members were killed and three others wounded early Wednesday morning in a bloody shoot-out that erupted just eight blocks from the Los Angeles Coliseum, spraying bullets over a residential block in Southwest Los Angeles, police said.

More than 50 shots were fired in the gun battle that killed 17-year-old Edward Cory Brown, said Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Lt. Robert Kimball. A second victim, Jerry Knox, 33, was struck and killed by a car during the gunfight, which started about 1:15 a.m. in the 1000 block of 43rd Street.

Later, a fire was set inside a house near the spot where Knox’s body was found. Neighbors said the arson fire was in retaliation for the incident, but police said the incidents were unrelated. The blaze engulfed a room on the second floor of the two-story house shortly after 11 a.m. but a Fire Department spokesman said there were no injuries.

Police said that the brief but fierce gun battle was one of the most intense ever seen between two rival gangs. Most such confrontations involve brief attacks by gang members against unarmed rivals, police said.

“Oh, it was automatic (gunfire) all right,” said William Guy, 56, who has lived on the block for 10 years. “I was in the service and I know automatic gunfire when I hear it. And I heard it last night. It was like Vietnam.”

Neighbors said the two warring gangs were rival Crips “sets,” but police would not confirm the reports.

“What we have here is an escalating gang war that culminated in the 43rd Street shootings,” said Kimball, a detective in the Police Department’s South Bureau.

Two of the wounded, Beatrice Moore, 19, and Rigoberto Valdivia, 22, were taken to County-USC Medical Center. Moore, who neighbors said was Brown’s former girlfriend, was in critical condition after surgery for a gunshot wound in the abdomen, said hospital spokeswoman Adelaide De La Cerda. Valdivia, shot in the back, was listed in serious condition and was scheduled for surgery.

Shot Paralyzes Youth

A third victim, Lorenzo Hall, 19, was shot in the neck and listed in critical condition at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center. Kimball said that Hall was paralyzed from the neck down.

The incident, which began with a fistfight among gang members at the corner of 43rd Street and Kansas Avenue, grew fiercer after Knox’s gang left the intersection, returned and began firing weapons, police and neighbors said.

“We’re still sorting out who got shot first and who was killed first,” Kimball said. “We’re still trying to find the (participants) who are still alive.”

The detective said that gang members in a black-and-burgundy 1977 Oldsmobile Cutlass and a lime-green Suzuki Samurai drove up 43rd Street, firing randomly with a rifle, handgun and shotgun. Kimball said police found no weapons at the scene but recovered more than 50 shell casings.

When the shooting finally ended, five people lay dead or wounded along 43rd Street. Knox was killed when he was run over by the Oldsmobile, Kimball said.

Kimball said the violence appeared to be connected to a pair of drive-by shootings that occurred July 10 and July 11.

On July 10, police said, 23-year-old Sliei Gago was wounded by a gunshot as she stood at the intersection of Cimarron Street and Vernon Avenue. “She was a friend of the Brown, Moore, Hall, Rigoberto gang,” Kimball said.

‘Handle It Himself’

A day later, Jerry Knox was wounded by gunfire. “He wouldn’t tell the police anything,” said Kimball. “And he refused medical attention. He just said he would handle it himself.”

Residents of the 1000 block of 43rd Street said they were awakened by the crackle of shots from an automatic weapon about 1 a.m.

“I don’t know if it was an Uzi, AK (47) or what,” said one 17-year-old youth who lives on the block. He refused to identify himself for fear of retaliation by gang members.

“It was automatic, though,” the youth said. “Heavily automatic. I woke, listened for a minute and just went back to bed. I got up this morning and I see this.”

Residents of another house on 43rd Street said they heard about 12 shots fired from the corner of Kansas Avenue and 43rd. “There were about seven fast shots,” said one woman, who also refused to give her name. “Then there were five afterward. They came about a minute apart.”

An hour after the woman spoke, her house was in flames.

After firefighters extinguished the 15-minute blaze, neighbors said that they had overheard gang members planning to torch the building. Tenants said that Brown had recently moved from a green house that sits behind the burned building and that rival gang members had mistakenly burned the wrong house.

‘Let’s Burn It’

“There were two guys at the corner saying, ‘What should we do, man, what should we do?’ ” said a girl who lives on the block. “Then they said, ‘Let’s burn it.’ ”

The girl said she saw the pair run into the house and run out seconds later, just as smoke began billowing from second-floor windows. Despite the neighbors’ claims, police denied that the fire was linked to the shootings.

Despite police assertions that all of the victims were gang members, neighbors said most were not. They described Moore and Brown as recluses and Valdivia as a man who “worked all the time.”

Kimball said that police were increasing the number of officers who patrol the area to ensure that the “gang war will not escalate. It’s over.”

Times staff writers Andrea Ford and Bob Baker contributed to this report.

RISE IN GANG CRIMES

Gang-motivated crimes increased 31.8% citywide, Los Angeles police said. Page 3