Gunfire Brings Terror to Idyllic Day in Park : Gangs: Witnesses say it started after the youths confronted picnic-goers. There are no reported injuries.

Picture the idyllic scene at Rancho Park on Motor Avenue last Saturday afternoon.

Small fry playing tee-ball on one diamond, a church softball league playing on a field at the other end of the park. Children’s birthday parties and hand-holding sweethearts. A large picnic where someone had just announced it was time for the sack race.

And then, according to police and witnesses, about 20 Rollin’ 60s Crips showed up, some opening fire with assault weapons on a few picnic-goers with whom they had a beef.

There was no question about the name of the gang because they were “dressed down” in blue jackets with the gang’s insignia, said Los Angeles Police Department Lt. Roy Kautz.

“These guys have the gall to come into a public place and open fire,” said Senior Park Ranger Tom Cotter.

As bystanders realized the popping noises were not firecrackers, they took cover, fled or simply hit the dirt.

A 41-year-old West Los Angeles man who was playing center field in the softball game said he dropped to the ground, as did his teammates. The man, who asked not to be identified, said he lay on the field as throngs from the picnic ran by his prone body trying to get out of danger.

The ballplayer said he could hear his 9-year-old son crying and calling for him from the dugout where other adults tried to shield him from the gunfire.

Others took shelter inside the recreation center at the park, which is officially called the Cheviot Hills Park and Recreation Center.

Park rangers called police as soon as the shooting broke out about 4:30 p.m., but by the time officers arrived, the gang members were gone. So were their victims if there were any. No bystanders were shot, but many were frantic.

“It was chaos when I got there,” said Kautz, the watch commander at West Los Angeles station.

All that was left were shell casings from weapons described by witnesses as looking like Uzis or Mac-10s, according to the police report. Witnesses interviewed by the police estimated that 20 to 30 rounds were fired from as many as five weapons.

Police said they had no idea what prompted the unusual showdown, but witnesses said it appeared to start when the gang members confronted one or several of the people attending the large picnic.

The picnic was variously described as organized by a restaurant and a Crenshaw-area car club. Neither group is associated with gangs, police said. One witness told police they had chosen Rancho Park to avoid problems in their own neighborhood parks.

Lt. Brad Merritt, an LAPD gang specialist, said the gang was from South Los Angeles and that it was unusual for them to be on the Westside.

Kautz said the same group of gang members is suspected in two other incidents that occurred about the same time on Saturday. In one, a Rottweiler dog was taken at gunpoint from a man who was walking the animal along Motor Avenue. Just after the shootings, a nearby restaurant was robbed.

This is not the first incident in the park. Gangs have been showing up increasingly on Saturday afternoons, police said. Last Saturday’s incident prompted a meeting on Tuesday between city officials, police and park rangers, with promises to beef up patrols of the park between 3 and 6 p.m. on weekends.

Cotter said groups of gang members will sometimes journey to a freeway-convenient park that is out of their territory to relax and get away from rival gangs. But Saturday’s incident was different and mystifying to police because no victims have come forward. Area hospitals have not reported treating anyone who might have been a victim of the barrage of gunfire.

Cotter said he is uneasy about fostering a public paranoia that would keep people out of the parks. “I don’t think people should stop going to parks because of it,” he said. “If normal people stop attending parks, there’s only one group (the gangs) left.”