Slaying of Student Rocks Washington High--Again : Crime: Basketball player Antonio Lewis is fourth student or recent graduate to die violently this school year.

Washington High School is in mourning again. This time students and staff are grieving for basketball player Antonio D. Lewis, who was shot in the back outside a Gardena house party he attended just four days after his 18th birthday.

One other student and a recent graduate of the 3,000-student school in South Los Angeles were shot and killed in the last three weeks. Another student was killed last fall.

“When is it going to stop?” asked tennis Coach Sylvia Collins. “It’s just unbelievable.”

Said Principal Marguerite P. La Motte: “The entire student body has been traumatized.”

They have good reason.

Three weeks ago, senior Michael Nasir, a member of the school’s hip-hop club, was shot in the back on his way home from his girlfriend’s house. Graduate Wallace Dumas, who played for the Generals’ 1991-92 basketball team, was shot and killed by suspected gang members in front of his home while working on his car. La Motte said Dumas was mistaken for a gang member. And last fall, Ibn Shadeed-Glenn was shot in his home, a victim of a domestic incident, police said.

“I feel drained,” La Motte said. “It’s really difficult to describe the number of students who are getting killed. No one seems to find out who (the killers are). You reach a point where you don’t know what to say to the other students.”

Lewis’ death probably has had the most impact, because several Washington students witnessed it.

Lewis attended a party with two friends when some intruders tried to crash the party. Lewis stood outside and witnessed a fight between the party crashers and some party-goers.

Dempsey Lewis, 37, a U.S. Postal Service supervisor, said the party crashers approached his son and demanded to know where the youth was from. He said his son’s friends, who were at the party, told him that Lewis failed to respond and was told: “Today, you’re going to regret you came here. You belong on the other side.”

When one of the party crashers flashed a gun, Lewis ran down the street while others fled into the house. He was shot in the back and he died at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, according to a nursing supervisor.

Gardena police said Lewis apparently had no gang ties, and Lt. John Fodor said there are no suspects in the killing. “Based upon what we know now, we cannot determine if it is a gang situation,” he said.

But some of the party-goers said gangs were involved.

Frances Lewis, 36, described her son as quiet but friendly. “He liked to stand off in the corner and let other people do the talking,” she said. “People thought he was cool.”

She said her son liked to collect basketball and football cards, and he dreamed of having a son to give the cards to. He planned to attend college to play basketball and then raise a family, she said.

“Antonio was a real good boy,” she said. “Two months ago, he told me that I would never have to tell him to do something twice. I said, ‘What, Tony? Are you doing something wrong?’

“He said, ‘No, I’m going off to college and I know it’s time to act responsible.’ ”

Lewis’ mother said she and her husband had warned their son about attending house parties. “I said, ‘Antonio, I don’t like house parties because they can get out of hand,’ and he says, ‘Ma, I will always try to stay out of trouble and watch my back.’

“He never messed with anyone. That’s why I can’t understand why my son is dead.”

Lewis, a 6-foot-2 1/2-inch starting forward for the Generals, averaged eight points and six rebounds in his senior season. He played basketball as a sophomore and part of his junior year at Gardena before he moved to Minnesota to live with an uncle. Lewis returned to Los Angeles to be with his family because he was homesick; his parents were planning to return to their hometown of Memphis, Tenn., but were delayed while they tried to sell their home.

“Students walk by, see me and start crying,” Washington Coach Andy Davis said. “In the 21 years I’ve been here, I’ve never seen so many people grieving. It’s a combination of all the deaths that happened this year. Everyone has known at least one of the kids who have died.”

Basketball Coach Rodney Tange of Gardena said Lewis was a typical teen-ager. “He got along well with everyone,” Tange said. “I was shocked when I heard the news. It’s unfortunate to keep saying it, but I think he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Lewis’ girlfriend said she received a telephone call early the morning after the shooting from one of Lewis’ friends. “I cried when I heard the news,” she said. “He was going to be my prom date. Normally, he doesn’t go to house parties, but his friend said he thought it was safe.”

A press conference is scheduled for Monday at the Washington High gymnasium to discuss the dangers high school students face in the inner city.

La Motte has invited Mayor Richard Riordan, Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams, County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite-Burke, ministers and media to discuss solutions with selected Washington students. A charity basketball game will follow with proceeds going to the Lewis family. Lewis’ jersey, No. 30, will be retired at halftime.

“It’s unbelievable, a fine young man like that,” said Collins, the tennis coach. “It shattered me.

“I think people need to witness death from a closer view and not standing away holding a gun. Maybe then they will understand what it is like to take a life away.”

Lewis is also survived by his half-sister, Latoya, 19, and sisters Stacey, 10, and Yolanda, 9.

A memorial was held for Lewis on Saturday at Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Lewis was to be buried today in his birthplace of Memphis.

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