Party Crashers Blamed in Gunfight That Killed 2, Wounded 4 at Picnic

The principal antagonists in a gun battle that killed two men at a fraternity-sorority picnic in Van Nuys were party crashers, but return fire came from at least six other locations at the crowded event, Los Angeles police said Monday.

Investigators said at least 10 people had brought guns to the Sunday picnic, at which four young adults were also wounded, although not critically.

The amount of gunfire was so great at Woodley Park that police Monday were still picking through the grass with metal detectors, seeking cartridge casings that might have been trampled into the ground as people fled for their lives.

The estimate of the number of guns involved was based on weapons confiscated, witness accounts and spent cartridge cases, Deputy Police Chief Mark A. Kroeker and Detective Joseph Aparicio said.

“We’re still trying to sort out what happened,” Kroeker told a news conference. “There’s still lots of confusion.”

Neither of the men killed were members of the UCLA fraternities that helped organize the event. One was identified Monday as a Navy veteran attending Compton Community College to become a probation officer.

Ironically, for the past four years, the picnic’s organizers have chosen Woodley Park in the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area because they thought that the San Fernando Valley would be a safer location and less likely to attract strangers than south or central Los Angeles, where many of the black fraternity and sorority members grew up.

The shooting ended an otherwise peaceful celebration of the 14th annual African People’s Step Show Weekend, a gathering sponsored by the UCLA chapter of the National Pan-Hellenic Council, an umbrella group that represents black fraternities and sororities nationwide.

“Any time you have an event like that, you’ll attract an outside element,” said Anthony Thomas, 22, a UCLA senior and co-chairman of the event. “We’ve had the event at Woodley Park, outside of Los Angeles, for these reasons.”

Kroeker said the picnic with food, music and beer drew more than 1,500 people at its height--many of them unaffiliated with the sponsoring fraternities or sororities and apparently uninvited.

Police arrested Calvin Peter Maspero Jr., 21, of Los Angeles on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon but released him on $1,000 bail after questioning. Kroeker said: “We don’t believe he was a shooter.”

In addition, police impounded five cars that did not belong to fraternity or sorority members and confiscated four guns, Kroeker said.

Several people who attended the picnic said that it was widely advertised on college campuses throughout Southern California, and that many guests who weren’t in fraternities or sororities were alumni or invited by friends.

Police initially thought that the group had failed to obtain a permit for the picnic and Kroeker suggested during the news conference that proper notification would have enabled police and park officials to provide security. It was later ascertained that the Pan-Hellenic Council did obtain a permit from the city Recreation and Parks Department, but for only 200 guests.

A fight about 6:40 p.m. among a group of apparently uninvited picnickers led to the shooting, Kroeker said, declining to discuss details.

A witness, 22-year-old Scott Charles of Carson, said the shooting began after a group of six to eight youths provoked a dispute with a young woman. One of the men, Charles said, fondled the woman’s breast, angering her and a male friend.

“They didn’t even start a fight; they just started walking through the crowd,” shouting obscenities, Charles recalled. They returned to where they had parked “like they were leaving,” but two men in the group got guns from one or more cars and began shooting--one in the air, the other indiscriminately at the crowd, Charles said.

With that, Charles said, other people in different parts of the park began shooting back with their own weapons.

“There were gunshots going off consistently for like 10 minutes,” said Charles, who went to the picnic with his childhood friend, Charles Wright, 22, of Los Angeles, one of the two men killed.

The other man killed was identified Monday as Eric Carver, 23, of Carson, who also did not belong to a fraternity.

Injured were Tanisha Tate, 18, wounded in the leg; Reginald Patterson, 21, wounded in the arm; Candice Givens, 18, wounded in the neck, and Michael Crump, 21, wounded in the leg. All were in stable condition Monday, police said.

Charles and other witnesses described a scene of pandemonium with 300 to 500 remaining picnickers diving for cover under cars and in large concrete pipes stacked along nearby Woodley Avenue.

“People started fighting and the fighting started into shooting,” said Tomeko Rogers, 20, Wright’s girlfriend.

“It sounded like a war,” said 23-year-old Dayna Moore, a 1991 UCLA graduate. “There were shots coming from everywhere.”

Charles said he was looking for Wright when he found Givens, another friend, lying wounded on the ground and helped her until paramedics arrived.

“I took off my shirt and put it under her neck,” Charles said. “I was just talking to her, praying with her, till paramedics got there. Then I found out Charlie was over there.”

Wright died at Northridge Hospital Medical Center from a gunshot wound to his chest, police said. He had graduated from James Monroe High School in North Hills, completed four years in the Navy and was studying to become a probation officer at Compton Community College, Rogers said.

At UCLA on Monday, free counseling services were available for students traumatized by the previous day’s shootout, according to Joan Brown, spokeswoman for fraternity and sorority relations at the university’s Center for Student Programming.

At a news conference Monday morning in the university’s gymnasium, Brown said she and the students who coordinated the fete were “deeply saddened by all loss of life,” which came as a complete shock in what had traditionally been a peaceful, black cultural celebration.

“It has been a very positive event,” she said. “It usually is; we’ve never had any problems.”

“The event has been peaceful for the last 14 years,” said Mark McCannon, 22, a senior who was one of the co-organizers of the weekend’s events.

Thomas, the other co-chairman, said he remains convinced that the attackers were not affiliated with any of the university’s eight black fraternities and sororities, which together sponsored the annual event.

Other students agreed that the assailants seemed to come from outside, but said they knew of party-goers who also carried guns to the picnic, some out of fear for personal safety.

“When you go to these things, you know everyone has a gun--especially the brothers,” said Ava Du Vernay, a 19-year-old UCLA sophomore. “You just hope nobody pulls them out.”

Times staff writer Sam Enriquez contributed to this story.