Athlete Dies in High Desert’s First Student Gang Slaying

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s detectives were looking for a suspected San Fernando Valley gang member Monday after a shooting at a house party in Lancaster that killed a high school athlete, the first student gang slaying in the Antelope Valley.

Deputies said Antelope Valley High School soccer goalie Christopher Sanford, 18, was hit by a stray bullet when the gang member opened fire after a confrontation at a crowded party Saturday night. Another man was wounded.

Sheriff’s deputies and school officials said Sanford was the first student to die in gang violence in the Antelope Valley, where authorities have been trying to control a gang problem that has grown rapidly with the high desert’s population boom.

Sanford was not a gang member, deputies said.

“You can talk about wanna-be gang members, you can talk about what problems we think we have out there, but this really brings it home,” said Dave Rich, a school district administrator who heads a team of school counselors trying to help students cope with Sanford’s death.

The wounded man, 20-year-old Sheldon Culver of Lancaster, was in stable condition Monday at Antelope Valley Hospital Medical Center, deputies said.

Sgt. Ron Salo, a homicide investigator, said the unidentified suspect, described as a Latino between 16 and 18, is believed to be a member of a San Fernando Valley gang.

He was in a group of three to five youths who exchanged gang slogans and insults with people at the party in the 44700 block of Benald Street, Salo said.

Most of the more than 100 partygoers did not appear to be affiliated with gangs, Salo said. He said Culver became involved in the altercation and was shot in the neck with a small-caliber handgun.

Some of the partygoers chased the gunman into the street, where he fired on his pursuers, hitting Sanford in the right eye as the athlete left the party wearing his letterman’s jacket, deputies said. Sanford was not chasing the gunman but was hit by a stray bullet, deputies said.

Principal Yvonne Healey described Sanford as an outstanding soccer player and “great leader,” who acted as a counselor in a program in which students help peers with personal problems.

Memorial services are being planned and Sanford’s teammates plan to wear black armbands as a symbol of mourning during a game today, Healey said.