2 Deaf Brothers Attacked; 1 Is Slain, the Other Wounded

Two deaf brothers on a motorcycle were forced off a Granada Hills street by a car carrying a group of teen-agers who then shot them during a confrontation, killing one and wounding the other, Los Angeles police said Monday.

No arrests have been made and the motive behind the Sunday night attack remains a mystery, police said, although family members speculated that the incident might have escalated because the assailants had trouble understanding the brothers.

Cesar and Edward Vieira, who each had limited vocal skills and communicated mostly through sign language, apparently did not know why they were forced off the road and attacked, according to detectives.

“It is unlikely that they understood what was being said or what was happening,” Lt. Harvie Eubank said. “It was just a senseless shooting.”

Cesar Vieira, 30, a father of two children whose wife is nine months’ pregnant, died at 1 a.m. Monday from chest wounds at Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, about five hours after the shooting in a shopping center parking lot.

Edward Vieira, 25, married and the father of a young son, was in good condition with hip and shoulder wounds.

The brothers’ immediate families share a house in Palmdale. Family members were stunned by the shooting.

“They never started trouble,” said the victims’ older brother, Marco, 29. “They would always mind their own business. They were innocent victims. It’s like their handicap got them shot. People didn’t understand them so they shot them.”

The victims had visited their mother and brother in Reseda on Sunday and were heading home when the shooting occurred, police said. At a traffic light on Devonshire Street at Balboa Boulevard, the brothers noticed that five young men in a car next to them were yelling and making obscene gestures. When the light turned green and the motorcycle pulled away, the car sped up and forced it into a parking lot.

“We can only surmise that they possibly had some kind of traffic dispute” with the Vieiras, Police Lt. L. A. Durrer said. “But the brother who survived doesn’t have any idea what they did wrong that could have caused it.”

The Vieiras got off the motorcycle and the driver and at least one passenger got out of the car--described as a late-model, light-blue, two-door Hyundai hatchback. Police said the assailants apparently began to yell at the brothers and then one of the passengers opened fire with a handgun. After both brothers fell wounded, the car’s driver walked over to the motorcycle and kicked it.

On Monday, police released composite drawings of two of the suspected assailants.

Family members said that Edward Vieira is able to make only vocal sounds but that Cesar could form words by speaking slowly. However, in a tense or fearful situation, Cesar may have sounded unintelligible and the teen-agers may have taken his speech for ridicule, the family said.

Cesar Vieira worked as a carpenter. Edward is an auto mechanic. However, neither was currently employed.

Deaf since childhood, the brothers were dependent on and very loyal to each other. In addition to living together, they attended church together and had many mutual deaf friends.

Cesar Vieira’s wife, Delores, 25, who is also hearing-impaired, was too distraught to discuss her husband’s death Monday. The brothers’ mother, Bernice Cree, said she did not believe her sons knowingly did anything to provoke the attack.

“I know my sons,” she said. “They never hurt anyone.”