Two Slain as Gang Tension Turns Birthday Party Into Battleground

Stunned party-goers and neighbors stood on a blood-spattered sidewalk amid shattered beer bottles Sunday, trying to understand why, hours earlier, a birthday celebration had ended with a battle that left two alleged gang members dead of gunshot wounds and four others hurt.

“It was a great party, everyone was dancing and having a good time. When it was over, we opened the gate to the back yard, and they just started fighting,” said Elizabeth Rivera, a student at Crenshaw High School. Rivera is a friend of Roberto Moreno, 19, who was shot to death in the fighting.

Rivera and three girlfriends stood huddled together in front of the house at 1530 Spaulding Ave., just east of the Fairfax District, where fighting broke out at 1:45 a.m. between members of what witnesses said were two usually friendly gangs.

Before the bloody confrontation, members of both gangs had mingled peacefully among more than 100 young people, witnesses said.

“I have had parties with the same gangs before, and it was no problem,” said Sandra Barcelo, a Cheviot Hills High School student. “They sometimes would have arguments, or fistfights, but using guns . . . ?” her statement trailed off as she shook her head.

Los Angeles police said Moreno and a 21-year-old man were killed when an argument erupted between members of the two gangs as the party was ending and people congregated in the front yard. The 21-year-old man, whose name was withheld pending notification of relatives, began arguing with another man, who pulled a handgun and shot the 21-year-old in the face.

When Moreno approached the gunman, he was shot in the abdomen, officers said. The gunman then turned on the crowd, firing several shots and injuring three males.

A second man who apparently had attended the party with the gunman then brandished a sawed-off shotgun before both men fled, Detective Dan Andrews said.

Members of the crowd then turned on an unidentified member of the assailants’ gang. His skull was fractured, and he was rendered unconscious when struck with a beer bottle.

Both Moreno and the 21-year-old man died at nearby hospitals.

The other three males who were shot and the male assaulted with a beer bottle were all reported in stable condition at area hospitals. Police and witnesses did not identify them.

Police were en route to the party because of a noise complaint when the shooting started. The violence was over by the time officers arrived, and witnesses said they could not identify the assailants.

While Moreno’s friends said he often carried a gun “for protection,” both they and police said there was no indication that members of Moreno’s gang were armed.

Rivera and others whispered among themselves Sunday, trying to understand how the routine minor squabbles they were accustomed to had turned into bloodshed.

But Wilshire Division police said the situation was ripe for confrontation.

“Even when you have two gangs that are normally allied, frequently when there is not a rival around, they will turn on each other,” Andrews said.

A neighborhood of neatly manicured lawns and graffiti-free houses, the block of Spaulding Avenue near Pico Boulevard seemed an unlikely scene for a gang battle. Police said the area had been previously untouched by serious violence.

“(Moreno’s) gang is one of the largest and most active in Los Angeles, and we know they are here. But we haven’t had a lot of problems in this neighborhood before. It wasn’t known as a hot spot,” Andrews said.

Three other people were killed in separate gang-related incidents over the weekend, and four people were wounded in drive-by gang shootings, police said.

There were few details surrounding the early Sunday shooting death of a 17-year-old girl who was a passenger in a car in Pacoima. Police anti-gang officers were investigating the case.

Police believe two other drive-by shootings that wounded four people in the Pacoima area may be related to each other.

In two earlier incidents, one man was killed Friday in a drive-by shooting in Inglewood, and a 16-year-old gang member was killed Friday as he rode in a car through a rival gang’s territory west of downtown Los Angeles.