PICO RIVERA : Sign-Language Gestures May Have Sparked Attack
A gunman opened fire on a couple in Pico Rivera apparently because the two had exchanged a series of hand signals that may have been interpreted as the flashing of gang signs.
Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials said Friday that the gunman fired at a 22-year-old woman as she and her 25-year-old boyfriend sat in the parking lot of El Rancho High School on Feb. 4. The woman was wounded in the right cheek and shoulder.
Neither the woman nor her boyfriend, both of whom are deaf, is a gang member, and a motive for the shooting has not been determined, Sheriff’s Sgt. Pat Fallis said. But American Sign Language hand gestures have occasionally been misconstrued as gang signs.
For safety reasons, authorities have not released the identities of the couple.
Fallis said the gunman was one of seven youths who was riding in a pickup truck that followed the couple’s car into the high school parking lot on the night of the shooting. The youth jumped out of the truck and fired several rounds at the car’s windshield.
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