Gang Dispute Brings Death to Norwalk Party

Three gunmen, believed to be gang members, poured shotgun and pistol fire early Friday into a high school graduation party under way in a Norwalk backyard, killing one reveler and wounding nine others in a crowd of 100 youths.

The attack was linked by police, witnesses and neighbors to a raging and deep-rooted territorial dispute between two street gangs. In the past year, the conflict has ravaged a one-square-mile neighborhood on the border of Norwalk and Artesia--a neighborhood where residents say they live in fear of stray bullets and wounded teen-agers roam the streets on crutches and in wheelchairs.

“I don’t think it will ever end, because as soon as one gang member falls, another rises up to take his place,” one neighbor said wearily Friday. “The war is over for those who died. Those who live only wait to see more die.”

The latest attack occurred shortly after 1 a.m. Friday. Firing over a brick wall, the attackers fatally wounded Jesus E. Diaz, 16, of Artesia. The nine injured--most of them teen-agers--were treated mainly for buckshot wounds.

By late Friday, no suspects had been arrested, and law enforcement officials expressed frustration over the escalating violence between two gangs that have been at each other for several years.

“This is the fourth gang-related murder this year in the city of Norwalk,” said Sheriff’s Sgt. Al Grotefend. “But we’ve had in excess of 30 shootings in this particular area over the past two months. We’re talking about second- and third-generation gang members here.”

Anticipating more parties this weekend, sheriff’s deputies in Norwalk braced for possible “pay-back” violence in the battle between the so-called Chivas and Norwalk gangs, whose members are mainly youths who, in some cases, have replaced their parents as front-line street fighters.

“We’re going to have manpower from throughout the Sheriff’s Department focused on this area over the weekend,” Grotefend said. “But our biggest problem is that residents are so intimidated by gang members that we can’t get successful prosecutions.”

The latest shooting came one day after a random bullet killed 4-year-old Gilbert Perez Jr. in a Pomona drive-by incident blamed on gang rivalries, which law enforcement officials say are increasingly claiming non-gang members as victims.

Said Sheriff’s Capt. Doug McClure: “It’s appalling and senseless and . . . it is getting worse.” The Sheriff’s Department reported 31 innocent bystanders killed in gang-related shootings in 1989, compared with 30 in 1988, 26 in 1987 and 11 in 1986. No figures are available for 1990.

The party that began Thursday night was for a Tracy Continuation High School student was winding down when gunfire sent revelers scurrying for cover, authorities said. The 17-year-old guest of honor was not hit.

Witnesses said the gunmen shouted the word “Norwalk”--the name of a gang whose territory extends to the brick wall of the house where the party was held. The other side of the wall, they said, is Chivas territory.

“We were dancing in the backyard to disco music at a private party for my brother-in-law,” said the owner of the home, who like many interviewed asked that his name not be used. “The shots started coming in and everybody started running, screaming and crying. . . . Some people came in the house shot in the head, the shoulder and leg. It was like a nightmare.”

A neighbor said he heard three or four shots before people began shouting “Norwalk” and “Chivas” at each other.

“I heard the shots and all of a sudden the music stopped and people started screaming,” the neighbor said. “Then I heard the sound of fences rattling when the guys with the guns ran away through my yard.”

Tracy Principal George Hershey said the shooting “had nothing to do with our school. It was a party . . . that unfortunately became a tragic incident.

“We try at the school level to be as positive as possible by looking for jobs and activities to keep the kids involved in something other than gang competition. But some of this gang stuff has very deep roots in the neighborhood.”

The violence, Hershey said, “tends to go in cycles. It is pay back, pay back, pay back until someone runs out of gas and it quiets down for a while.”

Residents of the low-income, mostly Latino neighborhood of small stucco homes seem worn down by all the warring.

“What can we do?” muttered one woman. She was stroking the head of a 16-year-old neighbor boy. The boy was paralyzed from the waist down, speechless and blind in one eye, the result of being run over by a truck last year. The truck was driven by gang members. The boy was not a rival; he was just out riding his bike, neighbors said.

Ever since, Chris Segovia has communicated with a card on his lap that shows the alphabet and the numbers 1 through 10. Asked how many times he was run over, Segovia held up three fingers. Asked why he was run over, he pointed to the numeral 4, and then to the letters F, U and N.

Around the corner, Salvador Maldonado, 17, steadied himself Friday on the crutches he has relied on since being shot in the back last September.

“I was walking home, a car drove by, somebody yelled ‘Norwalk’ and started shooting,” Maldonado said. “It’s a war. I have three friends who have been shot in the past year.”

He was among a throng of residents gathered Friday across the street from the house that had been attacked. They watched with tense faces as detectives, reporters and other strangers did their work. The neighbors shook their heads from time to time, but they said little.