Youth Killed as ’90 Homicides Match ’89 Toll

A 16-year-old youth was killed Sunday in a gang-related shooting in northeast Los Angeles and seven others were wounded in weekend gang shootings, police reported.

The slaying brought the number of homicides in the Police Department’s Northeast Division to 39, equaling the division’s homicide toll for all of last year, Detective Ron Whitt said.

Javier Ruiz, 16, of Highland Park was fatally shot when two rival gangs met about 10:30 p.m. on South Avenue 50 in Highland Park, police said.

He was riding in a pickup truck with seven other youths when a car approached and the passenger got out and fired eight shots. The victim died at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, where doctors treated four of his companions for minor bullet wounds, police said.

Two people were wounded by gunfire in unrelated incidents Saturday at Berkeley Avenue and Glendale Boulevard, police said.

Michael Mallorey, 17, of Silver Lake, an admitted gang member, was shot once in the right buttock about 3 a.m., police said. A passenger in a car asked Mallorey where he was from, then fired three shots at him.

Mallorey was taken to Queen of Angels-Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center. His condition was withheld at the request of his family, a hospital spokesman said.

About 10:15 p.m. at the same intersection, a shot fired by one of a group of six gang members hit Erica Burbank, 16, of Silver Lake in the leg. The bullet was intended for a gang member using a phone booth next to Burbank, police said.

Burbank was taken to County-USC Medical Center, where she was in serious condition Wednesday.

In another incident Saturday, Gary Turner, 17, of Atwater Village was shot once about 4:15 a.m. as he stood outside his home in the 1300 block of Atwater Avenue, Whitt said.

Police said Turner was talking with two friends when two men drove up and asked him where he was from. Turner replied that he was not a gang member and tried to return to his friends, but the passenger in the car shot him in the lower back.

He was in serious condition Wednesday at County-USC Medical Center.