Three Fatal Inglewood Shootings Prompt Call for Anti-Gang Summit : Crime: Community leaders cite the deaths of local high school students as evidence of escalating street violence.

The shooting deaths of three local high school students has prompted a call from Inglewood community leaders for an anti-gang summit to address an escalating level of street violence.

The most recent incident was Sunday night, when seven teen-agers who had gathered on a street corner were sprayed with bullets by two gunmen across the street, killing two and injuring three others.

The week before, a 17-year-old boy who had recently broken off ties with a local street gang was killed in a gang-related shooting.

School board President Lois Hill-Hale said Tuesday that she will call for a gathering of community members at the board’s meeting tonight to come up with a plan to address the violence.

“This seems to be an escalating problem in the community,” she said. “We have to map out a plan to prevent this from happening. Law enforcement cannot do it alone.”

The Rev. Luther Keith, pastor of the Central Baptist Church, planned a candlelight vigil next month “to reclaim our community from the gangs. . . . It’s getting pretty rough. If we don’t stand up and do something, it will get out of hand.”

School board member Joseph Rouzan, a former Inglewood police chief, added: “Unfortunately, I think this gang stuff is out of control. It’s just unmanageable.”

Rouzan called for a meeting of city and school officials to coordinate strategy against the violence.

On Sunday the teen-agers were standing in the 10200 block of Crenshaw Boulevard about 11 p.m. when a car with its lights out pulled slowly past before parking across the street, according to witnesses and police. As many as 20 shots were then fired at the group by the two occupants of the car.

“This was a deliberate ambush of these men by persons unknown,” Police Sgt. Harold Moret said Tuesday. “It was a concerted effort meant to kill all of them. These shooters meant to kill them all.”

Moret declined to label the incident gang-related, pending completion of the police investigation. But friends of the victims and area gang members said the teen-agers were associated with the Crenshaw Mafia, an Inglewood gang connected to the Bloods. They said the word on the street was that an unknown set of rival Crips was responsible for the shooting.

“It was Crips, and if we find out who did it we can’t help but get our revenge,” said a gang member who knew the teen-agers. “These guys were kids that hung out with us, innocent bystanders.”

Eric Malone, 16, a student at Morningside High School, died at the scene. Edgar Cole, 16, a former Morningside student, died Sunday night at an area hospital. School officials said a counselor had been working with both victims to steer them away from gangs.

Two other victims remained hospitalized in stable condition, and another sustained a minor wound.

“I looked out the window and I saw two boys laying right there,” said area resident LaRonda Sims, 15. “One was moaning and the other was just laid out.”

She said her classmates at Morningside High were all talking about the shooting, which took place a few blocks from campus, on Monday. “Everybody knew about it,” she said. “Everybody was crying and stuff.”

LaRonda said the group often hung out on the street “giving their little (gang) signs” to passing motorists.

In the earlier incident, Norman Smith was riding home from a school dance in the back of a pickup truck on Oct. 13 when an unknown assailant fired at the truck with a shotgun after asking about the passengers’ gang affiliation.

Norman had broken off ties with the Inglewood Trece Demon Locos earlier this year, his family said.