VENICE : Police Beef Up Patrols for Graduation Parties

Graduation partytime started in Venice Thursday night and police were planning to be out in force in the community where a racially motivated gang shooting left two people dead and four wounded last week.

“The area is saturated (with police) and will be until at least the end of the week,” said Los Angeles Police Sgt. Ted Matthews of the Pacific Station.

Officers flooded the area six days ago after three shootings that day. The most serious shooting left two Dorsey High School students dead and two wounded. The killers are still at large, Matthews said.

After the violence, patrol officers at Pacific Station were placed on 10-hour shifts, Matthews said. The officers on extended shifts are being joined by a squad from the Metropolitan Division, he said, and gang investigators are being based in the area. The department’s Mobile Field Force also has been deployed, Matthews said.

The 12 to 14 patrol officers normally in the field for the morning watch, or “graveyard shift,” is up to between 75 and 100 now, he said.

The result is predictable.

“It’s been very, very quiet,” Matthews said. Although there have been a few reports of shots fired, no one has been wounded since the officers were added, he said.

Police believe the recent round of shootings in Venice are part of a gang war that erupted about a year ago between once-friendly gangs. Since then, 17 people have died in gang-related shootings.