Tension Takes a Toll : Feuding Gangs, Drive-by Killings Spread Fear in Pasadena Area

Residents of a poor neighborhood at the northwest corner of Pasadena are edgy and watchful after two weeks of a gang feud that has left two people dead and three wounded.

In addition, half a dozen drive-by shootings have shattered the tree-lined streets of this largely minority neighborhood that has long dealt with crime, unemployment and poor housing. Now, residents are dealing with death.

“There’s a lot of tension,” said Audrey Brantley. “People are frightened.”

The two deaths bring to four the number of murders in Pasadena in the first month of 1991. The city had 13 murders in all of 1990.

The latest victims are Anthony Dwayne Shaw, 25, shot Jan. 22 while driving on the Foothill Freeway in Pasadena, and Chanette Daniels, 17, shot Wednesday night while sitting in a parked car near the intersection of Washington Boulevard and Glen Avenue. Both lived in neighboring Altadena.

A passenger riding with Shaw was injured, as were two people in the car with Daniels. Police did not release their names for their protection.

Two suspects are in custody in connection with the Shaw death. They are Lonnie Laselle Burnett, 23, of Duarte, and Ronald Earl Hopkins Jr., 24, of Pasadena. Police have made no arrests in Daniels’ death.

Daniels, a Pasadena High School dropout attending the Alternative Education Work School in Pasadena, testified for the prosecution last year in the trial of Michael Peterson for the drive-by shooting of Jimmy Wilburn. Peterson was acquitted. Police linked Wilburn and Peterson to rival gangs.

Theresa Walker, Daniels’ mother, believes her daughter’s death may have been in reprisal for her testimony.

“I’m scared to death,” Walker said. “What do you think is going to happen next?”

Pasadena Police Sgt. Monte Yancey said police had no indication the shooting was in reprisal.

Yancey said the recent killings “may all be part of a recent increase in violent conflicts between two of our local rival gangs.” Police do not know the cause of the conflict, Yancey said.

“Things happen in prison and they get out, or it’s some incident not reported. Sometimes they don’t know themselves.”

Some residents said the violence was predictable. Pastor Tyrone Cushman of the Neighborhood Church of God on East Washington Boulevard said he saw an increase in graffiti two weeks ago. He said graffiti appeared in areas where it had never been before.

“Generally, it’s the thing that tips you off,” Cushman said.

The violence has sparked outrage from candidates in the March 5 election for the Board of Directors, Pasadena’s city council.

District 2 candidate Ed Bryant held a press conference Friday to demand more action. He accused city officials of failing to provide recreation programs and youth counseling in Northwest Pasadena and ignoring the gang problem.

“They didn’t want people to know we had a gang problem,” Bryant said. “I think they thought it would be bad for business.”

Police Lt. Van Anthony said the department has for the last six years employed former gang members as youth advisers, counseling teen-agers. Twenty-five advisers are now on the payroll, he said. Also, he said police vigorously enforce all laws against gang crimes.

District 1 candidate Isaac Richard said the gang violence is a result of decades of City Hall ignoring Northwest Pasadena’s problems.

Now, he said, the problem is hurting the whole city. “When newspapers report a shooting on the Foothill Freeway, it brings down residential home values in all of Pasadena,” he said.

District 1 candidate Mildred Lee White said she sometimes has to dive under her bed at night when shots are fired near her home.

But she added: “I think we’re past being upset. Down here it’s a way of life.”