3 Die in Drive-By Shootings, 2 More in Other Incidents

Three more Los Angeles County residents, including a South-Central Los Angeles man returning to his business from a neighborhood store, were killed in gang-related drive-by shootings, law enforcement officials said Saturday.

Two other men were fatally shot after arguments unrelated to gang activity, police said.

The five deaths in a seven-hour period Friday night and Saturday morning come on the heels of the Los Angeles Police Department’s grim report that the city’s 1989 murder rate is up nearly 16% from last year. The increase--649 murders were reported through Sept. 30--was attributed largely to increased violence due to drug-dealing and gang activity. Another 280 murders were reported in areas patrolled by the Sheriff’s Department, up from 268 in the same period in 1988.

In addition to the latest killings, several people were injured in street violence, including a 21-year-old Modesto man shot by sheriff’s deputies who were breaking up a gang fight in Lynwood.

The weekend death toll began Friday evening when several shots were fired from a passing car at a group of people near a gang hangout at 61st Street and Vermont Avenue, police said. Walter Graham, 36, who was not a gang member, was fatally wounded and later died at Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital, police said. Graham had walked to a store and apparently was returning to his Vermont Avenue business when he was hit, police said.

A 34-year-old man, whose name was not released, was wounded in the hip by the gunfire, police said.

A few hours later, a 17-year-old East Los Angeles youth described by sheriff’s deputies as a known gang member was gunned down in the 1200 block of South Townsend Avenue and died at County-USC Medical Center. Deputies said the victim, Richard Marquez, was walking along the street when he was shot in the head and chest by someone in a passing pickup truck. Gang slogans were yelled back and forth before the shooting, police said.

The same pickup may have been used in two other Eastside drive-by shootings early Saturday in which two people were wounded, police said.

Sheriff’s deputies spotted a truck fitting the description about 2 a.m. and booked two alleged gang members, Aurelia Garcia, 21, and Eddie Perez, 20, both of East Los Angeles, on suspicion of murder, Sheriff’s Sgt. Ernie Roop said. Both were being held without bail Saturday.

At about 1:20 a.m. Saturday, Jorge Soto, 28, was killed in what appeared to be a gang-related shooting near Koreatown, police said. Los Angeles officers said Soto was standing on 8th Street near New Hampshire Avenue when he was hit by gunfire from a passing vehicle carrying two men.

Soto was pronounced dead at the scene. No arrests have been made, police said.

About the same time in Lynwood, sheriff’s deputies shot 21-year-old Juan Salazar Sandoval of Modesto while trying to break up a gang fight in the 11800 block of Long Beach Boulevard.

Roop said two patrol deputies, who were not identified, spotted a fight involving about 20 gang members. Sandoval was wielding a 3-foot-long, steel car jack, Roop said. When Sandoval raised the jack, after several orders by deputies to drop it, one deputy fired, wounding Sandoval in both legs, Roop said.

Sandoval was arrested and hospitalized, but the other gang members fled, Roop said.

In another shooting, a 43-year-old man was killed early Saturday at a Washington Boulevard liquor store in Los Angeles after arguing with a customer, police said. Don Patterson of Los Angeles, who, the liquor store owner said, had been hanging around the shop for about a week, questioned whether a customer was old enough to buy beer.

An argument ensued, and the customer left, but returned a short time later with two others and assaulted Patterson near the rear of the store before one of them fatally shot Patterson, police said. Patterson died at the scene. No suspects had been arrested Saturday.

Sheriff’s deputies also were seeking a suspect in a shooting in Bell. Roop said Jorge Pelayo, 34, allegedly shot and killed his brother-in-law, Martin Vasquez, 25, after an argument over rent at the Flora Avenue apartment the two shared with Pelayo’s sister, Ieneida.