Teen-Ager, Boy, 7, Die in Assault Rifle Attack

A 7-year-old boy and a teen-ager were shot to death Wednesday outside an apartment building in South-Central Los Angeles when two men walked up and began firing with AK-47 semi-automatic rifles, police said.

The outburst of violence at 3:45 p.m. near the intersection of 111th Street and Broadway was apparently gang related although Los Angeles police investigators said they had not determined a motive for the attack.

The gunmen first fired on Melvin Morris Gentry, 17, striking him once in the chest.

Several feet away, a bullet hit the boy, identified as Lamont Compton, in the head while he sat in a parked car with Judy Moore, 29, who suffered a gunshot wound to her arm, according to Lt. Doug Collison.

Police said the victims later died of their wounds at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center.

Moore was treated and released from the same hospital.

Collison said two young assailants drove up to the apartment building in a pickup truck and “approached a guy in front of this building.”

“Both suspects were armed with rifles, and a large number of shots were fired,” Collison said.

The suspects, who remain at large, fled in a blue pickup truck. They were described as 18 or 19 years old and were armed with AK-47 assault rifles.