16 Die in Weekend Violence; Traffic Accidents Kill 3

At least 16 people were shot, stabbed or beaten to death during Labor Day weekend violence in Los Angeles County, including four killed in what appeared to be gang-related shootings, officials said Monday.

Another three people died in holiday traffic accidents.

The weekend’s first shooting victim was Nelson Flores, 16, shot at 8 p.m. Friday while dropping off his mother at a West 7th Street nightclub in Westlake, police said.

Miguel Cubillas, 22, walked around Flores’ mother, leaned into Flores’ car and shot once, hitting the teen-ager in the face, said Sgt. Ron Moen of the LAPD’s Rampart Division. Cubillas was arrested by police shortly afterward, Moen said. The killing was believed to be gang-related.

Rampart detectives also handled two other shooting deaths. An unidentified 30-year-old Latino man was shot and killed at 12:40 a.m. Saturday while standing at Burlington Avenue and Miramar Street in Westlake, police said. Gang members are suspects in the shooting.

On Monday, Luis Quintanilla, 17, was shot by suspected gang members as he and a friend were “cruising” with a friend in an alley behind South Berendo Street in Koreatown.

“Today was quiet, but the weekend as a whole for murder was sort of right on schedule,” Moen said Monday afternoon.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigators handled the other shooting believed to be gang-related--the killing early Saturday of John Diaz, 27, in La Puente. Diaz was walking on Prichard Street when several shots were fired from a passing car.

Other homicides included:

* An unidentified 25-year-old man was stabbed to death Saturday in a family dispute in Van Nuys.

* Richard Goodlitt, 38, was shot to death during a fight with his stepson in the 1800 block of 35th Street in Los Angeles.

* Daniel Kalanozhyan, 32, was killed during a family dispute Saturday on Taft Avenue in the LAPD’s Hollywood Division.

* Mingus Meriweather, 32, was stabbed to death Saturday after an argument in Sunland.

* In Lynwood, sheriff’s deputies said two men were killed and one was injured in a shooting Saturday in a Wright Road apartment. The dead were identified as Jaime Lopez and Mario Saldierna, both 32.

* An unidentified 30-year-old man was shot to death Sunday on Hawthorne Avenue in the Hollywood area.

* Lester Wells was stabbed to death Sunday near 7th and Merchant streets in Los Angeles. Juan Oliveres is being held on murder charges. Police said the two men appeared to be homeless.

* Mary Glover, 34, was shot to death Sunday afternoon while housesitting for friends in Agua Dulce near Newhall.

* The body of Morris Bocites, 70, was discovered Sunday morning in his Tujunga apartment. He had been stabbed to death.

* An unidentified man was shot during a possible robbery Monday at Pleasant and Michigan avenues in Los Angeles.

* An unidentified man was beaten to death and his body found Monday in a dirt lot across from apartments in the 3400 block of Andrita Street in Los Angeles.

In traffic fatalities, an unidentified 26-year-old man driving a truck cab with no trailer lost control of his vehicle Sunday afternoon heading onto the Vincent Thomas bridge in San Pedro. The vehicle crashed through the guardrail and plummeted onto Regan Street, killing the driver on impact, said CHP Officer Frank Lewis.

A 27-year-old man was killed on the San Bernardino Freeway early Saturday morning when his car overturned after hitting a curb on the Ramona Boulevard off-ramp in Monterey Park.

Two hours later, an unidentified woman died when her car burst into flames after a collision on the northbound San Diego Freeway at Western Avenue in Torrance.

The weekend saw CHP officers arrest 1,992 people for drunk driving; 489 of them in Los Angeles County.