Violent Pace Continues--21 Killed, 24 Wounded : Crime: The dead include an off-duty LAPD detective. One victim is a woman who was shot as she sat in a wheelchair.

Violence carved a bloody trail through Los Angeles over the weekend, leaving at least 21 people dead and 24 wounded in what is traditionally the hottest, most murderous month of the year.

The dead included an off-duty police detective who apparently was shot by a prowler in a Palms back yard and a Little League coach who was killed near an Eagle Rock ball field as children played.

Since 1988, August has averaged 86 killings, which police attribute in part to frayed tempers brought on by the heat. On Sunday afternoon, with the death toll for this month hitting at least 70, police appeared nonplussed.

“It’s nothing out of the ordinary; it’s just considered a bad weekend,” said Los Angeles Police Officer Cruz Lopez.

The violence included the wounding of a woman in a wheelchair who was shot when she failed to give directions to two men in a car. But police believe many of the shootings were gang-related.

Fernando Miranda, 32, was shot to death Friday night and two other men were wounded as they drank beer with friends in a South Los Angeles back yard. Police said the victims were gang members.

Desiree Macias, 14, was shot during a gang fight early Sunday morning in Boyle Heights and died shortly afterward, investigators said. In Hawthorne, an 18-year-old man was shot and killed and his 15-year-old companion was wounded Friday night when a gunman walked up to them on the street and opened fire.

In at least one case, the killer and victim may have known each other. Police suspect that Little League Coach Ralph Q. Elquezabal, 25, may have been murdered by his girlfriend’s former husband, Darrell Mora of Highland Park. On Saturday morning, Elquezabal, who coached Mora’s son, was shot numerous times after arguing with Mora in the parking lot across from the baseball diamond, officers said.

There are no suspects in the murder of 19-year LAPD veteran Edward Kislo, 50, who was killed when he went to a neighbor’s back yard early Sunday to investigate reports of a prowler, Officer Barbara Carranza said.

In Glassell Park, two men sitting in their car were killed early Saturday when a gunman in a second car opened fire.

At 135th and Figueroa streets in South Los Angeles, Lorenzo J. Perkins, 22, and Paul A. Haughton, 20, were found fatally shot in their car Saturday evening.

Two people died Saturday night when fighting erupted at a block party near 99th and Main streets in South-Central Los Angeles, Sgt. Lon Salzman said.

In Boyle Heights on the Eastside, police Saturday found the body of a man lying on the shoulder of the eastbound San Bernardino Freeway. Investigators said the victim had been in an argument about a block from where he was discovered.

In Pacoima, police were searching for the killer of Mark S. Gasca, 17, of Pomona, who was gunned down in a gang-related shooting as he stood with friends in a gas station parking lot early Sunday, Detective Percy Morris said.

Authorities said weekend violence also claimed eight other lives:

* Robin Alvarado, 23, was stabbed to death Saturday during a fight in the Rampart area.

* Jesus P. Valdez, 20, a reputed gang member, was shot on a Sun Valley street in a drive-by attack late Friday.

* Harry A. Morgan Jr., 30, was fatally stabbed near Exposition Park early Saturday.

* An unidentified man was shot and killed late Saturday at the Ramona Gardens housing project on the Eastside, and another unidentified man was shot to death early Saturday on Halldale Avenue in South-Central Los Angeles.

* A drive-by shooting Sunday in Boyle Heights claimed the life of an unidentified man shortly before 6 p.m.

* In Long Beach, Tony Proxmire, owner of an ice cream stand in the 1400 block of Pacific Avenue, was found shot to death on the floor of his shop at 1:45 p.m. Sunday. Shortly after 2 p.m., a man was shot and killed during a fight at a house in the 4000 block of Rosada Street.

Even hardened police officers said they were appalled early Sunday after Veronica Nunez, 19, was shot in the lower back and knocked out of her wheelchair on a South Los Angeles street by a gunman who stopped to ask directions. Lt. David Rock said the man stuck a gun out the car window and fired when she failed to respond. Nunez was in stable condition at County-USC Medical Center.

Times staff writers Aaron Curtiss and Tina Daunt contributed to this story.