Shooting Sparks Melee, Car Crash Outside Club
A shooting outside a nightclub in the Crenshaw district touched off a melee involving about 150 people early Saturday, leading to three additional shootings and a traffic accident. No one was seriously injured in the incidents, police said.
The ruckus erupted outside Sparkles, a club on Crenshaw Boulevard, about 1:30 a.m. when a suspected gang member shot and wounded a teen-ager outside the building, said Sgt. Tony O’Brien of the Los Angeles Police Department. The victim was not seriously hurt, but the shooting triggered street fights among scores of youths--many of them suspected gang members--and apparently caused a head-on traffic accident as the driver of a passing car ducked because of the gunfire.
About 20 police officers were sent to break up the crowd, but no one was arrested because of difficulty identifying the gunmen, said Sgt. Craig Kaul.
One car involved in the accident careened into Leimert Park and the driver, who had suffered a broken leg, was robbed of her purse, Kaul said. “They tore the car apart.”
The other driver also was injured, but not seriously, he said.
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