Drive-By Shooting Near School Leaves 1 Man Dead, 2 Injured

Gunmen killed one man and wounded two others Friday afternoon in Koreatown in an apparent gang-related shooting near an elementary school that was in session at the time, police said.

The principal of Hobart Boulevard Elementary School held the 1,700 students about 10 to 15 minutes past normal dismissal time until police signaled an all-clear. None of the students were injured.

The dead man was identified as Carlos Alberto Ventura, 19. The identities of the other victims were not immediately known. One was not seriously wounded; the other’s condition is unknown.

Detective Dan Andrews said Ventura was in the back seat of a gray car that stopped at the corner of Harvard and Olympic boulevards around 3 p.m. Two other vehicles--one an old yellow car--pulled alongside.

“Words were exchanged,” Andrews said.

Then, he said, gunfire erupted from the yellow car, striking Ventura and his two companions. Investigators estimated that at least a dozen shots were fired before the gunmen sped away.

“It looks like straight-out street gangs . . . a plain, old drive-by shooting,” said Lt. Willie Pannell.

It was learned that photographs of young men painting gang signs were found in the car carrying Ventura.

As Ventura’s body lay covered by a sheet, the youth’s mother arrived and became hysterical, crying in Spanish, “It’s my son. It’s my son. I want to see my son. Let me see him.”

Her daughter, also crying, said, “Calm down, Mother. Calm down. Maybe it’s not him.”

But when the daughter’s husband viewed the body, he quickly turned away and shook his head, confirming it was Ventura, who used the moniker “Iceman.”

His twin brother, called “Icer,” paced back and forth at the scene. He refused to talk to reporters and eventually was taken away by officers.