Man’s Death Heightens Anti-Police Tensions

When John Santos collapsed in a courtyard at Dana Strand Village last weekend, the stage was set for a new kind of gang war in Wilmington--this one against Los Angeles police.

The housing project long has been under siege by gang members and drug dealers. Police sweeps are common and unpopular. And because of a recent wave of pay-back shootings throughout Wilmington, tensions in the project were already high when Santos died last Saturday morning, choking on a tiny plastic bag he apparently swallowed as he ran from two officers.

So those who know Dana Strand will tell you it was no surprise that gang members swore revenge on police. What was a surprise, though, were the direct threats painted on the project’s walls. And when shots rang out from the projects early Sunday morning, grazing one of two officers patrolling the area in a squad car, those who know Dana Strand knew they had trouble on their hands.

“It was just a matter of time before something like this happened,” said Dee Wiggington, president of the Harbor area’s Mothers Against Gangs Support Services. “Some gang members were looking for someone to die so they could say, ‘See. See. See what the cops do to us.’ ”

Added Harbor Division Detective Kim Wierman: “This wasn’t just one big step. The gang violence has been escalating for the last year.”

Rumors that Santos had been the victim of police brutality immediately spread through the project after his death.

On Wednesday, however, the coroner’s office confirmed the initial police reports--that Santos choked on a baggy containing a still-undetermined white substance. Further tests will be done to determine the substance.

“I just hope this puts things to rest,” Harbor Division Cmdr. Joe DeLadurantey said late Thursday.

But neither he nor others could say for sure that it will.

“It’s been dirty rough lately,” one senior citizen said this week as he slowly walked away from the project, just east of the Harbor Freeway.

Rough enough that Harbor Division’s officers were warned during this week’s roll calls to be especially careful. Rough enough that community activists have descended on Dana Strand, urging gang members to keep cool. And rough enough that Capt. DeLadurantey was persuaded by the mothers against gangs group and others to postpone a visit to Dana Strand.

“We know he wants to do right, but we’re afraid things are too hot right now,” said Wiggington.

Whether or not they are overreacting, DeLadurantey has honored their request. “They may know better than I do,” he said.

According to police and Dana Strand residents, it was just after 3 a.m. Saturday when “Big John” Santos, a stocky 21-year-old who lived a block away from the project, walked toward its nerve center--a circular driveway where sundown brings out gang members and some of Los Angeles’ most active drug trade.

Some homeboys from Hawthorne were there that night, partying with the regulars. By the time Santos arrived, the police were already there. And he, like other gang members, began running when officers began making arrests, according to witnesses.

“Some gang members ran because they were carrying drugs. And when one runs, they all run,” explained one mother of a gang member.

As Santos ran west through the project, he began to move almost in slow motion, according to Sylvia Hernandez, a longtime resident of Dana Strand.

“He was running so slow, he looked like he was almost limping,” she said. “And then he fell.”

At that point, according to police and witnesses, it was clear that Santos was choking. “He kept saying, ‘I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe,” said Hernandez.

Some residents said that moments before they had heard a young man yelling as if he was being hit. But police insist that no officers touched Santos until after he had collapsed. According to police, the two officers closest to Santos were 20 feet away when he fell.

As the 5-foot-11, 220-pound Santos lay choking, a small crowd of bystanders demanded that the officers use cardiopulmonary resuscitation. But that was useless, the officers explained, because Santos’ windpipe was blocked.

For several minutes, the officers unsuccessfully attempted to clear Santos’ throat by using the Heimlich Maneuver. When that failed, paramedics also tried in vain to clear Santos’ windpipe before rushing him to nearby Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Harbor City.

There, at 4:05 a.m. Saturday, Santos was pronounced dead.

By Saturday night, word had spread through the projects that the officers were to blame for Santos’ death--that they had beaten him and didn’t take the right steps to save him. The gang members held a wake, promising revenge, and aired that threat with graffiti that covered several walls of the project. The threats, such as “LAPD Wanted 1 Dead,” were painted over Monday morning by city work crews.

Before the graffiti was removed, however, two officers driving past Dana Strand at 2 a.m. Sunday were fired on by someone in the projects. A bullet ricocheted off the patrol car, grazing Officer Don Linfield’s arm.

Even as community activists, gang specialists and Santos’ family pleaded for calm in the aftermath of the shooting, some gang members continued to make threats.

“It’s bad, really bad,” Christina Luna, a longtime Wilmington resident said Wednesday after she visited Dana Strand as part of the effort to calm tensions. “They keep saying they want to take out an officer. And that’s crazy. We don’t need any more of this,” she said.

Despite the threats, police response to the gang threats so far has been measured. DeLadurantey has declined offers from LAPD headquarters to temporarily provide the Harbor Division with more officers. For the time being, he said, he wants the tensions eased by his own officers. And the community.

“We just want everyone to know the truth of what happened. This is not somebody who died at the hands of a police officer. This is someone who, we believe, died by his own hands,” DeLadurantey said. “And we believe he died because of a disease that this community has to rise above. Drugs and gangs are not just police issues.”