2 Youths Arrested in Funeral-Site Slaying : Crime: Police credit community assistance for finding the suspects, 14- and 17-year-old gang members.

A pair of teen-age gang members who were among the mourners at a comrade’s funeral have been arrested in the widely publicized shooting death of a gang rival outside the church memorial in South-Central Los Angeles, police announced Thursday.

Los Angeles police credited an outpouring of assistance from witnesses and other community members for the arrests of the 14- and 17-year-old suspects in the Monday slaying of Vernon Lincoln--an incident that was captured on videotape by a television news crew covering the funeral.

Lincoln, 22, was fatally shot at Broadway and 109th Street, across from the church where a memorial service had just been completed for 16-year-old Anthony Deon Bowie. The funeral attracted wide press coverage because of the controversy surrounding Bowie’s death Dec. 15 while in custody at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey, where a staff member allegedly administered a chokehold to subdue him during a confrontation with other youths.

Downey police said Bowie was a member of a Crips gang set, but that they are unsure whether the shooting outside the church was tied to the incident in Juvenile Hall, or possibly even to the location of the memorial service.

“One of the basic problems is that the funeral was held in the enemy (gang) turf,” said Los Angeles Police Lt. Sergio Robleto.

The names of both suspects were withheld by police because they are juveniles. Police said the 14-year-old was arrested Wednesday afternoon and the 17-year-old Thursday morning.

At a news conference at the LAPD’s South Bureau headquarters, Robleto said authorities will seek to have the older suspect, the alleged gunman, tried as an adult. He declined to describe the role of the 14-year old, except to say he was considered an accessory to murder.

Police used subpoena powers to obtain television videotape of the shooting, but Robleto and others said community outrage over the incident was more vital to their ability to quickly make arrests.

Witness to gang crimes are often reluctant to cooperate with authorities because they fear retaliation, police said. But in the Lincoln slaying, many community members provided information, including some who watched TV news reports of the shooting. “To their credit and courage, people came forward,” Robleto said.

Police said both suspects are affiliated with the same gang as Bowie. They reportedly confronted a group of rival gang members--including Lincoln--outside the service. Detectives haven’t determined whether the encounter was intentional or coincidental.

Robleto declined to identify the gangs involved, saying that might “magnify the need for revenge from one gang or the other.”

City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who joined police officials in the news conference announcing the arrests, said the assistance reflected shock that such a crime would occur outside a memorial service. “The community ought to be able to appropriately bury the dead without further violence and mayhem,” Ridley-Thomas said.

In the news conference, Deputy Chief Matthew Hunt said an internal investigation is continuing into a report that members of an LAPD gang detail received advance knowledge of a possible confrontation at the funeral service.

One officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told The Times on Monday that gang details had received warning that a shooting might occur at the funeral, but that no police were sent there.

“We know of no one at this time in the Police Department who had such knowledge,” Hunt said.

Police officials said Tuesday that they will seek better communication with mortuaries about the potential for violence in a funeral involving gang members.

Ridley-Thomas said he would also call on the clergy to do more to discourage “displays of disrespect” at funerals.