2 Killed, 1 Wounded in Apparent Gang Ambush

In what authorities described as an ambush by members of a major Asian gang, assailants gunned down a group of young men and women outside a bowling alley in Covina early Thursday, killing two and wounding another.

A 20-year-old La Puente man and a 26-year-old West Covina man died at Covina Bowl, a 24-hour bowling and billiards facility in northwest Covina, said sheriff’s Homicide Lt. William Sieber.

Officials did not release the names of the victims pending notification of next of kin. Sieber said one of the dead was on leave from the Navy.

The surviving victim, a 19-year-old West Covina man, was listed in critical condition at Queen of the Valley Hospital in West Covina.

Authorities said the assailants in the fatal ambush, which occurred about 6:30 a.m., were two to four young men with handguns in a black car. The victims were among a group of eight to 10 people who had been playing pool and bowling, Sieber said.

The conflict apparently began inside the bowling alley when the assailants confronted the victims, detectives said. The victims then left through an exit to a parking lot on San Bernardino Road. Outside they were confronted again by the assailants, now in a car. One of the victims--described by authorities as a gang wanna-be--replied that they knew members of a gang other than that of the assailants. Each group questioned the other’s gang affiliation, Sieber said. Then the assailants sprayed gunfire on the unarmed victims, pursuing them into a courtyard at the front of the bowling alley, he said.

“They hunted them down,” Sieber said.

The attack left the courtyard with bloodstained concrete and windows riddled with bullet holes.

Covina Police Chief John Lentz said the killings were the city’s first homicides this year.

“This is a sign of the times. So many people are now willing to go to deadly force to settle an argument,” Lentz said.

Staff members at the bowling alley, populated mainly by senior citizens during the day, said they were shocked.

“Things like this just don’t happen around here,” Stephanie Bennett said.