Police Added to Fight Gang-Related Violence : Crime: The harbor area has had six murders and 70 drive-by shootings this year. The LAPD dispatched more than 50 officers to bolster the force there.

The Los Angeles Police Department has dispatched more than 50 additional officers to the harbor area in recent days in an effort to curb an unprecedented level of gang-related violence that has resulted in six murders and 70 drive-by shootings since January.

The violence, fueled by turf wars involving a dozen gangs, has resulted in a staggering 46% increase in gang-related felonies for the first four months of this year compared to the same period in 1990, according to the LAPD. And that increase has pushed the Harbor Division into third place citywide among the department’s 18 divisions in the number of gang-related crimes.

Just as troublesome, according to detectives and community activists, is the fact that the level of gang violence in San Pedro, Wilmington, Harbor City and Harbor Gateway shows no sign of abating any time soon.

“Every gang in our area is just going crazy right now,” Harbor Division Detective Kim Wierman said.

Since the first of the year, police statistics show, more than 250 gang-related crimes--from assaults to attempted murders--have occurred in the harbor area, compared to 173 crimes for the same period a year ago. That 46% jump has pushed the Harbor Division, for the first time ever, past two inner-city divisions in the number of gang-related crimes. Citywide, the downtown Ramparts and east side Newton divisions continue to have the highest levels of gang violence, according to the LAPD.

In the harbor area, there have been 70 drive-by shootings resulting in injuries since the year began. Police could not immediately provide statistics on drive-by shootings for the same period in 1990, although Wierman estimated that such shootings had more than doubled this year compared to last. Similarly, the six homicides so far this year were twice the number recorded for the same period a year ago.

Unlike shootings early last year, which were largely concentrated along a stretch of Pacific Coast Highway that straddles Harbor City and Wilmington, the current wave of gang violence has occurred throughout the harbor area, with gang members injuring and killing each other in revenge shootings and battles over turf, police officials say.

Within the last week, for example, two shootings--one in San Pedro, the other in Harbor City--were blamed on gang violence.

In one case, police said, Antonio Martinez, 19, of Wilmington was shot to death in his car Sunday evening when one of his passengers, a gang member, flashed a sign at a car carrying members of another gang. The shooting, which occurred near Point Fermin Park, led to the arrest of an 18-year-old gang member from San Pedro.

Four days earlier, Raul Romero, 20, was critically wounded by an unidentified gunman while walking along 253rd Street a few blocks from his Harbor City home. Los Angeles detectives said the shotgun attack was a revenge shooting for the April 21 murder of a former Wilmington gang member.

In all, according to police, a dozen gangs throughout the harbor area are involved in the violence.

“It’s not something where they are taking it out on the community . . . it is something that is among the gangs,” Harbor Division Commander Capt. Joe DeLadurantey said.

But troubled by the escalating violence and mindful of the danger to bystanders, police officials have more than tripled the Harbor Division’s normal contingent of nighttime patrol officers, DeLadurantey said. That deployment, which includes officers from the department’s Metro Division and South Bureau gang details, is expected to last for weeks, he said.

“We are trying to suppress it with a show of force. Historically, we have been successful in doing that,” DeLadurantey said.

Last weekend, for example, the South Bureau’s entire division of 30 gang officers was sent to the harbor area, according to the division’s Sgt. Nicholas Titiriga. During that deployment, Titiriga said, more than a dozen gang members were arrested for crimes ranging from carrying a concealed weapon to attempted murder.

Still, department officials and community specialists on gangs fear it will take time for the deployment to dramatically curtail the violence, in part because gang members are boldly striking out at rivals.

“It’s out of control,” said Eleanor Montano, a longtime Wilmington activist who described the recent level of gang violence as the worst ever in the harbor area. “People are afraid to go out. They don’t even want to go to the store after dark.”

“The tensions are high all over,” agreed Natalie Salazar, executive director of the Community Reclamation Project, a Lomita-based anti-gang agency funded by the U.S. Justice Department. “And we are even seeing some alliances (between gangs) that are not good. They’re scary.”

While applauding the increased LAPD deployment, Salazar and others said that the current rise in gang activity will require other law enforcement agencies and community groups to quickly organize efforts to curb the violence by reporting crimes and, if possible, arranging truces between the warring gangs.

“The bottom line is that we need more people working the area. People can’t be complacent just because there are some (anti-gang) programs in place,” Salazar said.

Added Montano: “We need more gang counselors here. And we need the clergy and community to get involved.”

The call for community assistance was echoed by DeLadurantey. “We’re going to need the community’s help,” he said. “I know they are looking at us to handle it, to come up with the answers. But I don’t have the answers.”

GANG-RELATED FELONIES, LAPD HARBOR DIVISION Chart shows the number of gang-related felonies recorded in the LAPD Harbor Division for the first four months of this year compared to the same period in 1990. Figures show that such felonies rose 46%. Among the felonies recorded this year were six gang-related homicides, compared to three homicides in the first four months of last year.

1990 1991 January 49 45 February 42 42 March 37 75 April 45 90 TOTAL 173 252

SOURCE: LAPD Harbor Division