237 Held in Sweep; Violence Continues

A task force that police call “Operation Hammer” swept through South Los Angeles, arresting 237 people in an assault on gang violence and drug dealing, police said Saturday.

But gang violence continued to claim victims in that and other parts of the Los Angeles area, with a teen-ager shot dead in Lennox and a 56-year-old woman and three men wounded in separate drive-by shootings late Friday and early Saturday, authorities said.

A special detail of 225 Los Angeles police officers began a two-day crackdown Friday evening, arresting 133 suspected gang members on charges ranging from selling drugs and drunk driving to failure to pay outstanding traffic tickets, police said. Another 81 people, none believed to belong to any gang, were also arrested in the sweep.

On Saturday night the effort continued, with police logging 23 arrests--13 involving suspected gang members--by shortly after nightfall. The crackdown was to continue into the early morning hours Sunday.

Sending a Message

Operation Hammer, which has been employed by police several times this year in different parts of the city, is an effort to notify gang members that police are not going to “go away,” Lt. Bruce Hagerty said.

“We make a statement to gangs and to the public that we’re here to make the community safe and return the streets to the citizens,” Hagerty said.

Officers in Operation Hammer also recovered several ounces of cocaine, marijuana and other drugs, as well as seven guns, police said. The area of the police sweep, which continued Saturday night, was roughly bounded by the Santa Monica Freeway on the north, Imperial Highway on the south, the city of Inglewood on the west and Alameda Street on the east.

Despite the crackdown, one man was wounded in a drive-by shooting at the corner of 89th and Baring Cross streets at about 9 p.m., Sgt. Frank McManus said. The unidentified man is reported in stable condition at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center.

Man Shot Dead

A 19-year-old man was shot in the forehead by a rival gang member at about 6 p.m. Friday during an argument in a Lennox alley, Sheriff’s Deputy Gabe Ramirez said. The victim, Thomas Courtney, of Los Angeles, was pronounced dead at the scene. There have been no arrests.

A woman standing in her home in the 300 block of East Edgeware Road shortly before midnight was struck in the face with a bullet from a semiautomatic weapon that was fired by one of several men in a Toyota pickup truck. Witnesses said that minutes earlier the men had fired shots at parked cars and yelled gang slogans at passers-by two blocks away, Sgt. Robert Plassmeyer said.

The woman was reported in guarded condition at County-USC Medical Center. There have been no arrests, police said.

North of downtown, an 18-year-old admitted gang member told police that he was shot in the finger by someone in a passing car at about 7 p.m. Friday at Temple Street and Union Avenue. The man was treated and released from County-USC Medical Center, police said.

In the Wilshire area, a man was wounded by shotgun pellets fired from a passing car Saturday as he stood in front of his house in the 2400 block of Burnside Avenue, police said. The unidentified man was reported in stable condition at County-USC Medical Center.