Gang Sprays Crowded Park With Gunfire

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.

Bystanders 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 him 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.