Carjackers Wound Couple, 2-Year-Old Son

A man, his wife and their 2-year-old son were wounded by gunfire Tuesday morning during an attempted carjacking in South-Central Los Angeles, police said. It was the third shooting stemming from a carjacking incident in 24 hours.

Officers said that despite a stomach wound, Emmett Barney, 22, managed to drive his bleeding wife and child two miles to a fire station, where they received emergency treatment before being transferred to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Barney, his 19-year-old wife, Mignon Taylor, and their son, whose name was withheld, were later reported in stable condition at the hospital, where Barney underwent surgery. Doctors said the woman had suffered minor wounds in both arms and the boy was shot in both legs.

Lt. Thomas Maeweather, commander of the Los Angeles Police Department’s 77th Street Division detective bureau, said Barney and his family were heading west on 47th Street in their 5-year-old Dodge van about 11:30 a.m. when a tan Buick sedan cut them off near Western Avenue, forcing Barney to stop.

There were two to four people in the Buick, Maeweather said. One of them got out of the sedan and Barney got out of the van. The suspect demanded Barney’s vehicle.

“Barney said, ‘OK, but first I want to get my son out,’ ” Maeweather said. The gunman shouted profanities and started shooting up the van with a handgun, he said.

Abandoning their robbery attempt, the gunmen fled, Maeweather said. Barney got back into his van and drove to Los Angeles Fire Station 34 at Exposition Boulevard and 7th Avenue.

On Monday, a carjacker shot a 74-year-old man to death at a gas station in Chatsworth. In an unrelated incident a short time later, an off-duty Los Angeles police officer shot and wounded a suspect in a Beverly Hills carjacking.

The killer of Naghi Ghoraishy remained at large Tuesday.

Witnesses said the gunman ordered Ghoraishy out of his car, then shot him in the head after a brief struggle. The gunman fled in Ghoraishy’s gold

Ghoraishy’s daughter Meece said Tuesday that she doubts her father resisted his robber, as police have suggested. She said her father, a retired porcelain importer who immigrated from Iran years ago, was too smart and too much of a free spirit to value his car over his life.

In the Beverly Hills incident, LAPD Sgt. David Breedlove happened by just as David Campbell, 24, tried to take a car from two women in a parking lot near the Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry store on Rodeo Drive Monday afternoon, Beverly Hills Police Sgt. Richard Westfall said.

“The suspect produced a handgun, the officer observed the crime, the officer shot the suspect and the crime ended,” Westfall said.

Campbell was later reported in serious condition at the County-USC jail ward.