Woman Shot to Death at Wedding Party

A joyous triple wedding in Lynwood ended in bloodshed when reputed gang members--apparently angry that they were not admitted to the reception--opened fire from the rear of a pickup truck, killing the host’s sister and wounding two others, officials said Sunday.

Laura Montez Guizar, 22, was among more than 100 guests who had gathered at her brother’s one-story stucco house to feast on enchiladas, dance to rancheras and offer a toast as three members of the same family simultaneously married their true loves.

The house, with wrought-iron bars on the windows and a wood carving on the wall that says “Pray for Peace,” was packed with relatives and friends exchanging kisses and presents. A white, three-level wedding cake sat on the table, adorned with lacy swans and three identical cardboard cutouts of a smiling bride and groom.

But the merriment ended shortly after 10 p.m. Saturday when a light-colored pickup truck, its chassis lowered, turned onto the eucalyptus-lined street. Before anyone sensed the danger, at least two men--dressed, witnesses said, in black hooded sweat shirts or ski masks--sat up in the bed of the truck and unleashed a torrent of gunfire.

Guizar, who had just arrived from her job at a Huntington Park discount store and was standing in the driveway, was hit once in the chest. Her brother Mario, who was hosting the party, ran to her side.

“She said: ‘Mario, Mario,’ and looked like she was trying to open her eyes,” said her 24-year-old brother, his eyes puffy as he stood outside the house Sunday, still wearing his pleated tuxedo shirt. “I couldn’t believe it. It’s so crazy, I just wanted to walk away.”

Another brother, Raymundo Guizar, 25, was treated for a gunshot wound to his hand at St. Francis Medical Center and released. A friend, Araceli Nunez, 21, also suffered a minor wound to one of her arms. Sheriff’s deputies had no suspects in custody, but they did question two associates of the alleged gunmen, witnesses said.

Family members said they found at least 15 casings in the street. Bullets pierced several parked cars. Another left a hole the size of a quarter in the living room window, slashing the white curtains and lodging in a wall.

Distraught relatives were left groping for answers, saying that no one in their families was linked to gangs, nor had they been in trouble with the law.

“I open the paper and see this kind of thing every week,” said Armando Hernandez, 30, one of the grooms and a resident of the house. “I don’t know when all this crap is going to stop.”

The shooting--one of at least eight homicides in Los Angeles County over the weekend--abruptly ended a day of festivity that had been months in planning.

Three siblings--Hernandez’s bride, Josefina, along with her brother and sister--stood with their fiances that afternoon before a priest at St. Catherine Laboure Church in Torrance. They recited their vows together, then returned to the Banning Avenue home in a working-class Lynwood neighborhood for the reception.

“This was the biggest house in the family, so we decided to do it here,” Hernandez said. “We were just having a good time.”

Their mood was first interrupted sometime after 8 p.m. when about a dozen teen-agers arrived on foot and tried to crash the party. Although no one seemed to know the youths, the guests suspected them to be members of a neighborhood gang, which has scrawled its monikers six feet high on the walls of a corner grocery store a block away.

The teens were intercepted in the driveway and told to leave, which they did--but not before one of them pulled out a pistol and, threateningly, clicked the trigger or hammer in the direction of the house, Hernandez said.

Deputies at the sheriff’s Lynwood station were called, but by the time they showed up, the youths were gone.

A short while later, Laura Guizar arrived at the house, which her brother purchased with Hernandez earlier this year. She was the shyest of eight children born to her immigrant parents, who moved from Mexico to Huntington Park about 15 years ago.

She rarely dated, her brothers said, preferring instead to stay home cooking recipes from her native Guadalajara and sewing clothes for herself and her siblings. She had taken some computer classes at a community college, but for the last two years had seemed content behind the counter of the National Dollar Store.

“The first thing that went in my mind was my parents,” said Raymundo Guizar, whose mother and father did not attend the party. “We’re a close family. I just can’t believe it.”

His brother Mario, an inspector at a factory in Chino, said he had been planning to begin a two-week vacation today. Now, he will use the time to move out of the house.

“I’m going to get out of here,” he said. “That’s for sure. Today’s my last day.”

Meanwhile, a steady stream of family members and friends returned to the scene to offer their condolences. There were teary phone calls back to Mexico. A relative stood with a hose, unsuccessfully trying to wash the bloodstains off the street.