Shootings Leave Police Searching for Answers : Violence: Three men are dead, two people injured and three officers shot at. Authorities are investigating whether the incidents are related to guilty verdicts in a murder case.

Two and a half weeks ago, Eric Fuller, an Altadena gang member, was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole for murdering a rival’s pregnant girlfriend and her unborn fetus.

In the nights that followed, northwest Pasadena and Altadena were rocked by a series of drive-by and walk-up shootings, mostly aimed at gang bangers and police. Three young men died. A man and teen-age girl were injured. Three Pasadena police officers were shot at but none was hurt.

In response, authorities have bolstered their presence in the affected areas as they try to determine what prompted the violence.

“There’s obviously something going on,” Pasadena Police Lt. Rick Law said. “We’ve got to see if we can intercede to prevent more killings.”

Authorities think that the shootings may have been related to the verdicts in criminal cases against Fuller, 18, and co-defendant Eric Crutcher, 16. The two were convicted earlier this year of fatally shooting Tyra Warren in April, 1990, as her boyfriend, Jason Williams, pleaded for her life.

Warren, 18, was eight months pregnant with Williams’ child at the time of her death, court records show. Her fetus could not be saved. Although Williams was shot in the head at close range, he survived to testify in separate trials against the assailants.

On Oct. 19, Pasadena Superior Court Judge Jack Tso denied a prosecutor’s request to sentence Fuller to death and ordered him to spend the rest of his life in prison.

“Unlike the defendant, this court does value life so very very much,” Tso said in explaining his decision.

The killings began the next night. The first victim: Williams’ brother, Buford Newborn, 21. He was shot in the head as he stood near Fair Oaks Avenue and Claremont Street, an intersection frequented by gang members, Pasadena Police Lt. Wayne Hiltz said.

Although Newborn may have been a random victim, detectives were investigating the possibility that he was killed in retaliation for his brother’s testimony, Hiltz said.

So far, no suspects have been arrested and no definite link has been established between the Newborn shooting and the trial, Hiltz said.

“Clearly it is possible” that Newborn was killed for revenge, the lieutenant said. “We just don’t know. There were a lot of people out there. And bullets have no name written on them.”

Law said that Williams’ family was threatened during the trial and that authorities eventually relocated them. He declined to elaborate.

Newborn’s mother and sister said they think that his death was just a tragic coincidence and was in no way connected to Williams’ testimony.

“It was just a drive-by shooting. They weren’t aiming at him. He just happened to get hit,” Newborn’s sister said in a telephone interview. “If they were trying to retaliate against Jason, it would have happened a long time ago.”

Citing the potential for further violence, Newborn’s mother declined to comment.

Whether or not Newborn’s death was prompted by Fuller’s sentencing, authorities think that the fatal shooting set off a cycle of violence.

Shortly after Newborn was killed, youths in a car fired on Gary Michael Tolbert, 24, as he walked in the 2600 block of North Fair Oaks Avenue in Altadena. Tolbert escaped injury, but his luck did not hold for long.

The next night, Oct. 21, Tolbert was struck in the head and the back by bullets in another drive-by shooting in the same block. He was dead at the scene.

Three Pasadena gang members--all associates of Buford Newborn--were arrested after their car crashed while being pursued by sheriff’s deputies, Sheriff’s Sgt. Don Garcia said. Although Tolbert was not a gang member and was not thought to have been involved in Newborn’s death, he was apparently friendly with some people who might have been connected to the earlier killing, Garcia said.

“We feel one of the reasons they shot at Tolbert is because of Buford’s death,” the sergeant said.

When gang members seek revenge for an act of violence, they do not necessarily go after the responsible individual, Garcia said. Instead, they “retaliate in a direction.”

On the night of Tolbert’s death, three Pasadena officers were shot at in separate incidents near the spot where Newborn was killed, Hiltz said. One police car was struck by gunfire but no officers were injured. There are no suspects in any of the incidents.

The next night, Oct. 22, Gregory Castanedez was shot to death as he stood in front of a friend’s house in the 2500 block of North Lincoln Avenue in Altadena. Although the 23-year-old Fontana man was not affiliated with either of the warring Pasadena-Altadena area gangs, his friend apparently was, Sheriff’s Lt. Derry Benedict said. There are no suspects.

“There is a possibility that Castanedez was a retaliation for a retaliation, but we haven’t proved that yet,” Benedict said. “It probably is linked.”

After Castanedez’s death, the streets were relatively quiet until Oct. 28, when three men in a car fired on six people standing in front of an apartment building in the 600 block of North Los Robles Avenue, Hiltz said. A 38-year-old man and a 17-year-old girl were injured, neither seriously. The shooting is thought to be connected to the earlier killings, Hiltz said, but he declined to elaborate.

The shootings have led to attempts by law enforcement officials and some community leaders to set up meetings with local gang members to urge them to stop the violence.

“We hope that they will be convinced that that’s not the way--that retaliation only escalates and doesn’t bring on any good for anybody,” said Tony Stewart, president of the Altadena branch of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People.

Stewart is working with pastors and other community leaders to organize a meeting of Altadena gang members. In addition to urging youths to stop the violence, he said, officials plan to “talk about what it is they really want out of life to see if we can help them find it.”

Stewart said that her organization had been thinking about such a meeting for a long time but that recent events are bringing it about quicker.

In Pasadena, Law said police are also trying to set up a meeting with gang members to try to gather information and alert the youths that police are keeping an eye on them.

“We want to know what’s going on and if there is anything we can do to stop it,” Law said.