Crips Member Gets 17 Years in Shooting of 5

Under the terms of a plea bargain, a 22-year-old member of the Crips gang was sentenced Thursday to 17 years and four months in prison for shooting five members of a rival gang during a dispute over drug-selling territory, prosecutors said.

Darnell Young, originally charged with seven felonies, pleaded guilty to four counts of attempted murder for the June 30, 1987, attack. Five Bloods were shot with a .45 semiautomatic pistol at a Van Nuys apartment complex, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Ed Nison.

Two of the five were seriously wounded, including one who was shot seven times. All recovered.

In connection with the same attack, Bruce Lee, 22, of North Hollywood was sentenced Thursday to seven years in state prison in exchange for pleading guilty to three counts of assault with a firearm.

On the evening of the shootings, Lee--also a Crip--accompanied Young to the apartment complex in the 12700 block of Van Nuys Boulevard, Nison said. Lee had a gun but did not fire, Nison said.

Nison said Young belonged to a downtown Los Angeles group of Crips and was trying to link up with Valley gang members to expand the gang’s drug network. He and Lee, a local gang member, had argued with the Bloods earlier in the day and returned to the complex to “settle the score,” Nison said.

Police were in the complex responding to an unrelated call and heard the gunfire in the courtyard. Young and Lee escaped but were arrested three days later. They pleaded guilty on Sept. 25, moments before lawyers were to begin picking a jury for the trial.