Man in Wheelchair Run Over, Shot to Death

A 25-year-old man in a wheelchair was run over and shot to death by suspected gang members at a Westlake-area intersection known for drug deals and shootings, Los Angeles police said Sunday.

The victim, whose name was not released, was crossing the intersection of 11th and Arapahoe streets Saturday night when a car full of young men hit him, knocking him out of his wheelchair, Detective J. Crawford said. Witnesses said the car made a U-turn and stopped near the man as he tried to crawl away. They said a person inside the car fired about 20 shots from a semiautomatic pistol.

“At first I thought I heard a flat tire, but I guess that was when they hit the poor man,” said Cynthia Receros, who lives in a nearby apartment building. “Then I heard all the shots and I got down.”

By the time Receros looked out her window at 9:45 p.m. Saturday, the shooting victim was dead, lying in a pool of blood on the sidewalk. “I went out to check and see if it was any one of the guys that I know who live around the neighborhood, but I never saw him before,” she said.

One of the bullets passed through the front door of Edgar Camp, 77, who said drug deals and shootings are commonplace along Arapahoe between 11th and 12th streets.

After the shooting, the occupants of the car were heard yelling gang slogans, police said. They were being sought late Sunday.