Marchers Trek to Gang Turfs Hailing Peace : Demonstration: Politicians and activists join celebration of a relatively violent-free weekend in South-Central. Hymns, prayers, high-fives mark the procession.

For two decades, Wilmington Avenue was the dividing line between Crips and Bloods in Watts, the artificial boundary between Imperial Courts and Nickerson Gardens that could mean life or death for some residents caught on the wrong side.

On Monday, while police held back traffic, a group of ex-gang members, politicians and community activists stood in the middle of that street to celebrate a successful “no-killing” weekend in South-Central Los Angeles, crediting a reduction in violence to a summer-long truce that has united some factions of the two gangs.

“This is a new day--a new beginning,” said the Rev. Carl Washington, leader of the Ministers’ Coalition for Peace, as he sweltered in a hand-painted sweat shirt that declared: “One Color, One ‘Hood.”

The marchers, whose numbers fluctuated between about 20 and 50, then began a trek that took them through four Watts housing projects--and the turfs of four formerly warring gangs.

They sang hymns, chanted “Watts Up!” and “We Will Cross the Boundaries,” stopped to pray, gave high-fives to cheering residents who lined the streets and listened to words of praise from Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) and Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, a candidate for Los Angeles County supervisor.

“I love you,” Waters told the ex-gang bangers, who had joined her Thursday to call for a peaceful Labor Day weekend. “You are sending a signal across this nation . . . that you want the same thing that everybody else wants--just a decent quality of life.”

Law enforcement officials said there were only two killings in South-Central Los Angeles during what they described as a relatively quiet weekend. However, one slaying occurred in Watts and, according to Los Angeles police, involved a gang member from the Nickerson Gardens housing project.

On Friday at 3:30 p.m., the suspect entered The Happy Man Auto Center and demanded that the shop owner, Augustin Ledezman, 38, empty his pockets, said Sgt. Jim Larkin of the LAPD’s Southeast Division. When Ledezman resisted, he was fatally shot once in the face.

The suspect, who fled on a bicycle, was identified by officers as a 20-year-old gang member affiliated with the Bloods. No arrest has been made.

Monday’s peace rally took marchers through Nickerson Gardens and they walked right past The Happy Man Auto Center in the 10800 block of Compton Avenue. Its gates were shut.

Although leaders of the truce concede that gang members have been involved in some killings, they contend that homicides are the work of a small group of desperate individuals--some of whom may have drug addictions or are struggling to feed their families.

“We been killing each other so long, you’re going to go through little difficulties,” said Tony Bogard, a former gang member from Imperial Courts. “But you can’t let that reflect on the whole majority. What you witnessed today shows that the truce is alive.”