17-Year-Old Murder Suspect Arrested in Gang Raids : Crime: Officers hoping to quell a street war of retribution sweep down on the homes of 35 members of two rival groups.

Prompted by killings blamed on a gang war in the northeast San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles and San Fernando police conducted two days of raids on the homes of gang members, seizing 23 weapons and arresting a 17-year-old boy on suspicion of murder, police announced Thursday.

A task force of more than 75 officers, armed with search warrants, launched the sweep at dawn Wednesday, fanning out from Mission Hills to Sylmar to North Hollywood. They raided the homes of 35 members of two gangs believed responsible for as many as five killings in four weeks, said Capt. Tim McBride.

Police said the pressure placed on the gangs, which were not identified by name, would help quell a “little gang war” involving retribution killings and the deaths of innocent victims.

“We are taking the offensive in this gang war,” said McBride, who directed the operation involving officers from detective, gang, narcotics and patrol units from both cities’ police departments.

“We anticipate solving several crimes with this,” McBride said of the guns and other undisclosed evidence collected during the searches. “I think this action will remind the citizens of the community and the gang members that we are doing our job. This year, gang violence has had an escalation. There needs to be a message sent to the community and the bad guys.”

Last year, there were 11 gang-related killings in the Foothill Division, which includes most of the northeast Valley. In the last four weeks alone, detectives have investigated five killings attributed to the two gangs targeted in this week’s operation.

It was those killings and several gang assaults that spurred homicide investigators to seek search warrants for the homes of identified members of the two gangs, Detective Al Ferrand said.

During the two-day operation, 29 gang members were questioned about the slayings but released. Ferrand said 14 handguns and nine rifles were seized.

A 30th gang member--a 17-year-old from the Sun Valley area--was arrested on suspicion of murder because a handgun in his possession was believed used in the Feb. 11 slaying of Francisco Javier Gonzales, 16, who was gunned down at Paxton Street and Laurel Canyon Boulevard in Pacoima.

Ferrand said Gonzales and the suspect were members of rival gangs and the shooting may have been retribution for an earlier shooting.

“I have a feeling a lot of this violence involves retribution for shootings going back as long as 18 months,” Ferrand said.

Police said two other slayings involve victims believed to have been gang members killed by rivals--the March 4 shooting of Mario Hernandez, 18, in his garage in the 14100 block of Claretta Street in Pacoima, and the Feb. 8 shooting of Francisco Perez Gonzales, 24, in the 10500 block of El Dorado Avenue, also in Pacoima.

The Hernandez case remains unsolved, but two juvenile gang members have been charged with the slaying of Gonzales, who was not related to Francisco Javier Gonzales.

Not all of the victims of the violence have been gang members, Ferrand said.

Kenneth Pagaduan, 22, was fatally shot Feb. 23 by a gunman believed to be a gang member who robbed him at Polk Street and San Fernando Road in Sylmar. Police said Pagaduan was not a gang member. No arrests have been made in the case.

Police said Clinton Shane Peterson, 21, of Sun Valley, was an innocent victim of a drive-by shooting by suspected gang members. Peterson, vice president of a mini-truck club that shunned gang members, was fatally shot Feb. 20 while standing with club members at Brand Park in Mission Hills.

Peterson and members of the club were gathered in the park for their weekly meeting when shots were fired from a passing car, striking Peterson. No one else was injured. No arrests have been made in the case.