Shots Kill 2 Near MacArthur Park; Another Man Slain Near Airport

Two men were shot to death within hours of each other in apparently unrelated incidents that occurred two blocks apart near MacArthur Park in a neighborhood plagued by crime related to narcotics and gangs, police said Sunday.

Police learned of the second shooting as they were on the scene investigating the first, according to Sgt. Alan Bollinger, watch commander of the Rampart Division.

In a third fatal shooting, a man believed to be a gang member died late Saturday in the parking lot of the Proud Bird restaurant near Los Angeles International Airport.

In the first incident near MacArthur Park, witnesses told police that a gunman fired several shots from a car at a group of people standing in front of an apartment building at 11th and Grand View streets near the park about 11 p.m. Saturday, Bollinger said.

An unidentified man in his 20s died at the Hospital of the Good Samaritan. The second victim, a 20-year-old man whose name was withheld, was in serious condition at California Medical Center with a hip wound.

Detectives were investigating that killing when they heard gunfire about 2:55 a.m. Sunday, but initially dismissed the sounds. Firefighters, who had been called to the scene, located the detectives and told them that another man had been shot.

Witnesses told police that a man shot the victim at close range as he entered the security gate at his apartment building in the 900 block of Grand View, two blocks from the first attack, Bollinger said.

The gunman fled in a large white car, he said. The victim, a man in his 40s whose name was not released, died at the Hospital of the Good Samaritan.

No one was arrested in either attack, and the incidents were not believed to be related, police said.

In the restaurant parking lot shooting near the airport, which occurred about 9:20 p.m. Saturday, Vicente Gamez, 23, and his cousin, Noe Macias, 21, were walking to their car when another vehicle drove up, two men got out of the car and both fired several shots, police said.

Gamez, of Inglewood, was hit several times in the upper torso and died at the scene. Macias, of Culver City, was treated at the scene by paramedics.

Police investigators said that the motive for the shooting was gang rivalry.