Efforts for Gang Truce Continue, but So Do Drive-Bys

Fledgling efforts to create a truce among Los Angeles gang members continued Sunday, but gang-related shootings elsewhere killed one man and wounded several others, authorities said.

“We want peace in the community,” said Ruby Johnson, a community activist and organizer of a gang meeting at St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Catholic Church in the unincorporated Athens area adjacent to South Los Angeles. “We are trying to bring about a lot of unity, love and caring.”

Despite frantic last-minute efforts to attract gang members to the church by word of mouth, the handful who showed up for Sunday afternoon’s unity rally--about 14--were outnumbered by reporters and broadcast news crews.

“We just want to give them some encouragement and show them that somebody out there cares about them,” Johnson said of the efforts begun after the recent riots.

A few members of once-rival gangs also showed up at another rally in Leimert Park Plaza at Crenshaw Boulevard and Vernon Avenue.

The purpose of that gathering was to put forth a political agenda to promote collective ownership of economic institutions, jobs, elective representation and direct community control of police and sheriff’s departments, said Ron Wilkins, co-chairman of the Patrice Lumumba Coalition.

“We want to make clear that what the community needs and deserves is justice and empowerment,” said Wilkins, the meeting’s principal organizer.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said that some gang members not involved in the rallies may have engaged in drive-by shootings over the weekend. Seven people were wounded in a shooting in East Los Angeles early Sunday, while in the Athens area a man was killed and two teen-agers seriously wounded by gunfire from a passing truck Saturday night.

Meanwhile, on Sunday some gang members milling in the parking lot at Cabrini Catholic Church seemed to exhibit little interest in the proceedings. After demonstrating their driving skills for the television cameras, many worked on their cars rather than attend the rally.

But one gang member who did attend said: “We’re just trying to get it together.”