Gang Truce Still in Effect Despite Killing, Police Say

A 19-month truce among Latino gangs in the San Fernando Valley is still in effect despite a drive-by shooting Monday night that left a 19-year-old Panorama City man dead and two others injured, police said Tuesday.

Rodolfo Barcelo Jr. died from multiple wounds after he was shot while walking with two friends in the 14600 block of Blythe Street, police said. Although it was the fourth gang-related shooting in the Valley in a month, police and others said it was an isolated incident and does not signal the end of the truce.

“A single incident by itself is normally not indicative that . . . the truce is breaking down,” said Lt. Fred Tuller, head of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Valley Bureau gang unit.

“I can’t look at this as other than an isolated incident, but it still hurts when you lose a kid like this,” said William (Blinky) Rodriguez, one of three key organizers of the gang truce.

According to Barcelo’s father, Rodolfo Barcelo Sr., the younger Barcelo and two friends, Juan Aguilar, 22, and Jose Banuelos, 20, went to the corner of Van Nuys Boulevard and Blythe Street so Barcelo could talk to his girlfriend. The young men saw a small car slowly drive past them before Barcelo made the phone call.

Barcelo’s father said neighbors told him that as the three men walked back to Barcelo’s home, they had either passed or had stopped in front of 14617 Blythe St. when a car drove up and the gunman fired several shots, hitting all three men.

Aguilar and Banuelos were treated at a nearby hospital, police said. Barcelo, who was nicknamed “Lumpy” by friends and “Rudy” by family members, was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Rodriguez said he believed Barcelo was in a gang, but would not specify which one. Rodriguez did not know if either Aguilar or Banuelos belonged to gangs.

Barcelo said he does not believe his son was in a gang, but was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. “In this neighborhood just because the young people live here or dress a certain way, [people] think they belong to gangs, even if they don’t,” he said.

“I told him every time not to go in the street at all,” the elder Barcelo said. “I don’t know if they got in the way of somebody or not.”

By Tuesday afternoon, there were no signs of a shooting on the street, except for seven faded chalk circles in the middle of the road, fronting the building where the three men had stood.

A small group of women, gathered at a neighboring building, said they had all heard the shots. One of the women, who lives across the street from where the shooting occurred, said it was nothing new for her block, which has long been notorious for gang fights.

“The shootings have been fewer [now] than way back, but they haven’t stopped,” said the woman, who asked not to be identified. The woman said she believed the gang truce had ended, and that this was the reason the shootings had started again.

But police and advocates of the peace treaty say she and other residents who believe the same are mistaken.

“The fact that we’ve been able to hold on for this long, a year and seven months, is really important. There’s been a real drop in the killings and people have got to realize that,” said Rodriguez, who had been organizing weekly meetings at Pacoima Park with several gang members until last month.

Rodriguez started the meetings shortly after the truce took effect on Oct. 31, 1993. A reported decree from the Mexican Mafia, a prison-based gang, to Latino street gangs to end drive-by shootings is credited by police and gang members in part with stanching the killings.

There were nine gang-related deaths in the Valley in 1994, down from 11 the previous year, police said. During the first three months of 1995 there have been seven gang-related killings in the Valley. Gang violence is up roughly 5% over last year, according to police statistics.

Rodriguez said he ended the meetings about three weeks ago because “it was time for these guys to stand up by themselves for a while,” hoping that gang members will continue the truce without the meetings. He is not certain whether the meetings will resume.

Tuller said there would have to be several more shootings over a short period to signal the end of the truce.

“If during a one-week period we were to have three, four, five or six gang-related incidents, yeah, then there would be a breakdown in the truce,” he said. “But to have two homicides in a one-month period--it’s important, because homicides are important--but it’s not a flashing neon sign that the truce is breaking down.”