Man’s Beating Said to Be Gang Try at Revenge Against Police : Inglewood: Officers are warned to take extra precautions after receiving telephone threats. Gang members may try to retaliate for the death of one of their ‘homeboys,’ police say.

A 25-year-old man who was beaten and robbed last week apparently was the victim of a bungled attempt by street thugs to retaliate against Inglewood police, who shot one of their buddies to death a month ago.

Inglewood police have been told to use extra caution following an attack Thursday night on Raymond Mark, whom gang members mistook for a police officer, Capt. James Seymour said.

Mark was about to go shopping when he was accosted at 8:35 p.m. Thursday in the parking lot of the Home Club store at 3560 W. Century Blvd. Mark said in an interview Saturday that he was driving a 1978 Plymouth Fury, a one-time police car that he bought about two months ago at a city of Los Angeles auction.

Two men used a gun to force their way into the unmarked car, then drove him to a nearby alley where they met several other assailants.

“They got into the car and they just said, ‘Move over you (expletive) cop,’ ” Mark said. “I said, ‘Hey man, I ain’t no cop.’ ”

The men took his wallet--which held his last $85 in Christmas shopping money--watch, a gold chain and a jacket. “They hit me over the head with a gun, hit me with a pipe and then hit me a couple of times in the face,” Mark said. “I thought the only reason to take me to an alley was to shoot me. I thought it was all over.”

Mark said he finally convinced the men he was not a police officer by showing them his identification badge from the Hyperion Treatment Plant near El Segundo, where he works in a warehouse.

Mark said his assailants told him to walk down they alley, saying: “You’re lucky you’re walking away from here right now, because if you were a cop, you wouldn’t be.”

Mark, a lifelong Inglewood resident, hopped a fence and ran to an apartment, where a family let him telephone police.

At 8:52 p.m., police spotted four men driving the stolen Plymouth a dozen blocks south of the Home Club. After a chase of several blocks, the Plymouth stopped and police arrested three men from Inglewood: Duane Carter, 25; Ivory Stewart, 22, and Ruben Young, 18.

The fourth suspect, 20-year-old Kenneth Gaines, ran behind a house on Lawrence Street with a gun in his hand and then whirled toward two officers, Seymour said. The officers fired, hitting Gaines in the legs.

Gaines was in stable condition Saturday in the jail ward at County-USC Medical Center. He and the three other suspects are being held for assault with a deadly weapon and kidnaping.

Mark was treated by paramedics for head injuries and released.

Inglewood police say they believe the four men were retaliating for the death of Michael (Murder Rock) Washington, 20, reputed to be a member of a Bloods gang set.

Officers answered a call on Nov. 24 that shots had been fired near West 85th Street and 5th Avenue. Several suspects fled, but Washington allegedly turned and leveled a pistol at two policemen, who killed him with two gunshots, Inglewood police said.

The four suspects in Thursday’s attack belong to another Bloods set that is allied with Washington’s, police said.

After Washington’s death, the Police Department received several telephone threats that someone would “get the officer who shot their homeboy,” Seymour said. Near the shooting scene, graffiti reading “IPD 187” appeared. Police said the spray-painted messages--the abbreviation for Inglewood Police Department and the Penal Code section for murder--are threats.

“I take it very seriously, and I think it’s a very serious problem,” Seymour said. “I think the officers are being much more cautious. They are very careful about their tactics and not to put themselves unnecessarily into a position of danger.”

Mark said he was upset that police did not give him back his $85, so he could finish his Christmas shopping, and that he had to pay $90 to free his car from an impound lot.

“But it’s nice to have my life for Christmas,” he said. “At least I have that.”