Some Cities Post Record Murder Tolls but Others Escape Unscathed

Fueled largely by an upswing in gang and drug violence, the year-end tally of murders climbed to record levels in some South Bay cities in 1990, while other areas remained insulated from Los Angeles County’s deadliest year.

It was a year in which bullets aimed at rivals rang out from speeding cars. Arguments escalated into stabbings. In some robberies, victims lost their lives as well as their property. In all, the coroner’s office reported nearly 2,000 homicides countywide.

“We don’t have enough people to handle all the new cases,” said coroner’s spokesman Bob Dambacher, who has seen homicides increase nearly tenfold in his 32 years on the job. “It troubles me greatly to see life held so valueless.”

The South Bay accounted for about 200 of those cases. Inglewood had 55 murders, tying the city’s record set in 1980. Gardena, which had 10 homicides last year, also tied its high, set in 1978. Sheriff’s deputies in Lennox reported 48 murders in their coverage area, up four from 1989, and the Los Angeles Police Department’s Harbor Division had 39 murders, an increase of seven over the previous year.

Despite the rising violence in some areas, anti-gang efforts were credited with cutting the murder rate in the sheriff’s Carson patrol area. Torrance, Hawthorne and Redondo Beach also reported declines. Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Catalina Island and the entire Palos Verdes Peninsula escaped the year without a single murder.

The mixed results drew varied responses: pride and relief from those in the cities reporting declines and frustration and resolve from those who received grimmer news.

“I’m devastated by those numbers,” said Bishop Clarence Hill of Tabernacle of Evangelism Community Church in Inglewood, reacting to both the local and countywide tolls. “Black kids and Hispanic kids are killing themselves. Something really needs to be done about it.”

Inglewood Police Sgt. Harold Moret said the rising murder rate reflects other problems, such as a criminal justice system that returns violent criminals to the street, the widespread availability of guns and the “failure of people to resolve their conflicts peacefully.”

“Murder is one of the least repressible kinds of crimes for the police,” he said. “A black-and-white police car may have an effect on people out of doors, but inside there are no police officers.”

In Hermosa Beach, which had no murders, Police Cmdr. Anthony Altfeld attributed the city’s clean slate to an active police force that prevents violent crime while also handling such routine matters as noise complaints and illegal skateboarding.

“Crime and criminality generally go where it’s comfortable, where the going is easy and there are not a lot of police,” he said.

Although officers reported spotting a record number of gang members in the beach town in 1990, Altfeld said most were at the beach to relax and escape their feuding neighborhoods.

El Segundo, which had no homicides in 1989, had two last year--a cab driver who was stabbed by one of his fares and a love triangle that turned violent.

“The kind of people who come here are not the type to shoot people,” El Segundo Lt. Robin Radford said. “They are trying to get away from the violence.”

Gardena police saw the city’s 10 homicides, a three-death increase over 1989, as part of the countywide and national trend toward an increasing number of violent deaths.

Half of the 10 homicides in Gardena were gang-related, but Lt. Jeff Finley said all of them involved outside gangs passing through Gardena.

“They’ve been outside gangs coming in,” Finley said. “We don’t have any tremendous gang war going on here.”

Torrance had two killings in 1990, five fewer than 1989. Redondo Beach ended the year with two murders, down from four the year before.

Carson sheriff’s deputies, who patrol Carson and unincorporated areas in Willowbrook and east Compton, credited the department’s anti-gang patrols with controlling street violence.

A rise in gang violence was blamed for the higher numbers of murders in the Los Angeles Police harbor area, which includes Harbor City, Harbor Gateway, San Pedro and Wilmington, and in the sheriff’s Lennox patrol area, which includes Lawndale and the unincorporated areas of Lennox and Athens.

“You have to look at the future as being pretty bleak,” said Steve Valdivia, director of the county’s Community Youth Gang Services. “The bottom line is that we will continue to see gang violence spreading in areas we never thought of. Gang membership has doubled since 1985. The types of gangs we’re finding now are multiethnic and include kids who wouldn’t have a sociological reason to join them.”

Nonetheless, Valdivia said he is encouraged by his organization’s ability to influence select areas and by the increased consciousness of the gang problem in the community.

Valdivia said his group, which counsels at-risk youths and conducts community awareness programs in Los Angeles and some unincorporated areas, uses the year-end homicide figures to allocate its limited resources.

“You almost have to get cold about it,” Valdivia said. When a particular area drops in homicides, he said, it may no longer qualify for service.

In Inglewood, police blamed gang violence and drug dealing for raising the murder rate during the last two years. For most of the 1980s, Inglewood reported between 21 and 32 murders per year. However, the number rose sharply in 1989, when 46 murders were recorded, and it rose again last year to 55.

A police analysis of last year’s murders in Inglewood found that young males were the most likely to be killed, that gang and drug activity was the primary motive, that handguns were the most popular murder weapon and that Saturday nights were the deadliest time of the week.

Of the 55 murders, 19 were connected to gang activity, nine to drug activity, six to robberies, eight to fights that escalated to murder and five to domestic disputes. The remaining eight were classified as “other” or “unknown.”

Murders in all categories rose from 1989, with those in the gang and drug categories showing the largest increases.

Thirty-seven of the 55 murders were committed with handguns. Three others used shotguns or rifles. Most of the victims, 23, were in their 20s. The second-highest category, those under 18, accounted for 11 of the deaths.

A breakdown of the ethnic background and sex of the 55 victims found that 29 were black males, 13 were Latino males, five were white males, six were black females and two were Latino females. Thirty-four of the victims were from Inglewood and 12 were from Los Angeles.

The Rev. Luther Keith, whose Central Baptist Church was broken into four times last year, said Inglewood’s record number of homicides in 1990 only increases his resolve to combat the rising lawlessness.

Keith, who has worked with Bishop Hill in sponsoring communitywide marches to protest street violence, vowed, “My effort is going to be much stronger in 1991.”

HOMICIDES BY CITY IN 1989, 1990

1989 1990 Carson area* 31 21 Catalina Island 1 0 El Segundo 0 2 Gardena 7 10 Hawthorne 15 11 Hermosa Beach 1 0 Inglewood 46 55 Lennox/Lawndale area** 44 48 Lomita 0 2 Manhattan Beach 1 0 Palos Verdes Estates 0 0 Redondo Beach 4 2 Rolling Hills 0 0 Rolling Hills Estates 0 0 Rancho Palos Verdes 0 0 Torrance 7 2 Harbor area*** 32 39

* Includes Carson and unincorporated areas of Willowbrook and East Compton. In 1990, 7 of the 21 homicides occurred in Carson.

** Includes Lennox, Lawndale and unincorporated Athens area. Most of the killings occurred in the Athens area.

*** Includes Harbor City, Harbor Gateway, San Pedro and Wilmington.

SOURCE: Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and city police departments