Street Crime Death Toll Exceeds 20 for Weekend

Over the three-day Memorial Day holiday--a weekend usually punctuated by tributes to the nation’s war dead and tallies of highway death statistics--law enforcement officers in Los Angeles County were investigating more than 20 homicides.

The dead included a man shot over a drug deal; a security guard gunned down in a parking lot, and a West Hollywood man who died at a hospital after being found wandering the streets with slash wounds.

Most of the weekend incidents were gang-related, law enforcement officers said. But as is often the case, innocent victims also got in the way of feuding rivals.

“There were a lot of people who died,” said Sheriff’s Deputy Gabe Ramirez, reading from a long list of shooting reports that sheriff’s detectives were investigating. “It’s a real shame.”

In one incident, David Lesperance was shot early Sunday after an alleged drug deal apparently went sour at Aliso Village housing project in East Los Angeles, officers said. He drove his car several blocks before crashing into a building, and died at the scene.

The security guard was shot in the parking lot outside a Whittier Boulevard night club about 10:30 p.m. Friday, deputies said. There were no suspects.

A 9-year-old boy was critically wounded Friday night while was playing ball in front of his home in South-Central Los Angeles. Police did not release his name, but they said he “apparently got in the way of a bullet meant for a gang banger.”

Los Angeles Police Sgt. Chuck Brown of the 77th Division in the South-Central area of the city said that between 6 p.m. Friday and noon Sunday, there were a dozen reports of shooting incidents in the area, resulting in three deaths.

“But the count doesn’t surprise me,” he said tiredly. “It’s like that any night of the week.”

Gang members were thought to be responsible for two of the deaths Saturday night, Brown said. At about 8:45, two men standing near 70th and Hoover streets were shot by assailants in a passing car.

Five minutes later, the same suspects drove by a group of people at 80th and Hoover streets, killing another man and wounding three others, police said.

In a third incident in the area, an unidentified man was shot to death Saturday night in in the 4500 block of Van Ness Street.

Deputies were also investigating the gang-related stabbing deaths Saturday night of two youths. Ricardo Hernandez, 16, and Jesus Coronado, 15, were stabbed during a party in East Los Angeles on Friday night. A companion was hospitalized with wounds.

A man identified as Alvaro Ortega, 26, of Willowbrook, died early Sunday at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center after friends brought him into the emergency room with numerous gunshot wounds in the neck and torso. He had been shot in front of a home in Lynwood, officers said.

In La Puente, an assailant opened fire with a semiautomatic weapon at 1 a.m. Sunday, killing Phillip Juarez, 20, of Valinda. Three other men were wounded, deputies said.

An unidentified West Hollywood man was found by deputies after they received an emergency call complaining of a man exposing himself on the street. When officers arrived, they found a dazed man, who had slash marks on his wrists. The man died later at a local hospital. Deputies said they could not determine his cause of death until an autopsy was conducted.

Other incidents included:

* A 23-year-old man killed by automatic-weapon fire early Sunday in Maywood.

* A 21-year-old man killed in a drive-by shooting in mid-city Los Angeles early Saturday.

* Warren Pena, 18, of Compton, killed in a drive-by shooting early Saturday.

* Roberto Nunez, 21, killed in a street shooting in West Los Angeles Friday evening.

* Aaron Hernandez, 23, killed in Sepulveda. A suspect was later arrested, but police did not disclose a motive for the shooting.