D. A.’s Office May Enter Probe of 2 Firebombings

Despite the fact that there have been no arrests, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said Friday that it will look into the racially charged investigation of two recent firebombings of African-American families at the Ramona Gardens housing project in Boyle Heights.

Meanwhile, City Councilman Richard Alatorre said he had met with about 50 youths from the project and learned that the bombings were committed by one or two teen-agers who were high on PCP.

“This was an isolated criminal incident,” said Alatorre, who held a press conference with tenants at Ramona Gardens to beseech the press to avoid portraying the firebombings as a flash point in rising Latino-black tensions.

“I want to make sure that whoever did the firebombings be apprehended and be brought to justice,” Alatorre said. “But I’m more concerned about the long-term impact of this issue. We don’t need to incite or inflame things. . . . I want to put an end to this too.”

The Aug. 30 firebombings, which targeted two of the housing project’s seven African-American families gutted two apartments, forcing those families out. Since then, two other black families also have moved out of the housing project, reportedly fearful that the attackers may target them as well.

Authorities and the only victims to speak out say they believe some residents know who threw the firebombs, but are afraid to step forward for fear of retaliation by gang members.

The Los Angeles Police Department, which normally investigates crime in the city’s housing projects, says it is not investigating the case because arson falls under the jurisdiction of the Los Angeles Fire Department.

However, the battalion chief in charge of the Fire Department’s arson section said earlier this week that the case was “inactive” because of a lack of witnesses. Late Friday, Assistant Fire Marshal Dal Howard said he knew of no major break in the case, but stressed that it was still open. He appealed for any witnesses to come forward.

On Thursday, Deputy Dist. Atty. Frank Sundstedt, whose criminal conspiracy section oversees the prosecution of hate crimes and riot-related arson cases, told The Times he will look into the seemingly stalled investigation. The district attorney does not enter most cases until investigations are completed.

“Because nothing’s been referred to me, no review (of this case) by the D. A.’s office has ever taken place,” he said. “But I’d be tremendously interested in evaluating whatever evidence there is and offering the D. A.’s Bureau of Investigation to assist in an investigation.”

The Rev. Carl Washington, an activist who works with the Ministers Coalition for Peace, had already scheduled a press conference Friday to ask the district attorney to intervene because he was afraid of possible retaliation from some African-American gang members.

“I was told from some of the young gang members that they would retaliate if something wasn’t done in terms of finding the people who were responsible for the firebombing,” Washington said.

He said he also plans to ask the City Council to offer a reward for information about the incident.

By all accounts, there has been little racial discord at the largely Latino housing complex. However, because racial tensions between Latinos and African-Americans have escalated citywide since the riots, media reports of the firebombings have prompted fears of racial violence inside and outside Ramona Gardens.

Some Latino residents are said to have received calls from relatives in Mexico urging them to move out for their own safety because of media reports there that they interpreted as suggesting retaliation by African-American gangs.

After his press conference Friday, Alatorre told a reporter he had met with 50 youths from Ramona Gardens Thursday night to ask what they knew about the incidents.

“I know how it happened, OK?” he said. “This was not a racial incident. . . . I now know it was one or two people who were loaded.” Alatorre said he will talk with investigators next week.

The incident has struck hard at the spirit of the city’s oldest housing project, which has attempted to improve life for its residents with community programs, job development and anti-drug programs.

“We have lived in harmony for many years,” said Isabel Ayala, president of the Ramona Gardens Resident Advisory Council. “Our children have grown up together. . . . The problems we face in the housing development are countless, and we do not need to add racial conflict to the list.”

Ayala and others--including Clifford Warren, whose family of nine lost virtually all their possessions in the late-night firebombing--said the publicity has unfairly tarnished hundreds of Latino families who were shocked at the events.

But because the incident happened in the context of citywide tensions, Ayala said some residents felt “it was like someone spilled a little gasoline and everybody’s waiting for the spark.”