Council to Probe Death of Youth : Slaying: The LAPD will brief members on police shooting that sparked Lincoln Heights unrest. The D.A.’s office has launched its own inquiry.

With a number of investigations already under way into the fatal police shooting of a 14-year-old boy, the Los Angeles City Council will begin its own inquiry today into the death, which triggered two days of unrest in Lincoln Heights.

Police officials will brief the Council members behind closed doors on the Saturday night incident. “The council wants to know exactly what went on,” said Councilman Mike Hernandez, who represents the Eastside neighborhood where the slaying occurred.

An anti-gang officer shot Antonio Gutierrez after the youth allegedly pointed a semiautomatic handgun at him. The officer, believing that Gutierrez was about to fire his weapon, shot the youth four times, police said.

That account was disputed by some witnesses, who told The Times that the teen-ager was holding a black flashlight and was shot after he raised his hands. Other witnesses acknowledged that the youth was carrying a gun, but said that he had tossed it over a fence as police approached.

The LAPD’s robbery-homicide unit, which investigates all officer-involved shootings, is expected to complete its report within 60 days. “We’re pushing to get it done as soon as possible,” said Cmdr. Tim McBride.

Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti’s office also has launched its own inquiry, said spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons. The district attorney also routinely investigates all officer-involved shootings and has up to a year to determine whether criminal charges are warranted.

Also conducting a probe of the shooting is civil rights activist Antonio Rodriguez. The Eastside attorney said he plans to file a wrongful death claim later this week, alleging that police attacked an unarmed youth.

“It was clearly an unjustified shooting,” said Rodriguez, who has been retained by the Gutierrez family. “Every witness I found says he had a flashlight but no gun.”

Rodriguez said he was especially troubled by the location of the recovered Tec-9 semiautomatic handgun that police say the youth was pointing.

Police said the gun was recovered on the other side of a small fence several feet away from where Gutierrez was shot.

“How can he be pointing a gun at officers and the gun ends up on the other side of the fence?” Rodriguez asked. “Did he get shot and throw it?”

McBride said one of the issues the LAPD investigation will examine is how the gun ended up on the other side of the fence. “That’s one of the things you look at when you are doing an investigation,” he said.

However, McBride said he had no doubt that Gutierrez was holding the fully loaded Tec-9, a handgun that is banned in the United States.

McBride declined to release the name of the officer who shot Gutierrez, saying that the officer might become a target of retaliation.

Police Chief Willie L. Williams, who has been out of town on vacation, has been kept informed on developments, McBride said. The chief is expected back today.

Gutierrez, whose nickname was “Travieso,” meaning mischievous, was believed to be a member of the neighborhood gang. His body was covered with tattoos, a coroner’s office spokesman said.

The coroner’s office has not issued its finding on the homicide, pending further tests.

In related action Tuesday, Police Commission President Deirdre Hill announced that the commission will review the Gutierrez shooting, as it does all officer-involved shootings, and seek to begin a dialogue with Eastside residents troubled by the incident.

“You have a community that has seen too much violence and seen too many minority youths lose their lives to violence,” Hill said. “We have to have the community relationships there and continue to work on them, when we’re not in a crisis situation, so that people will not feel so frustrated [when a crisis arises] that they won’t have to act out in violent ways.”

While rage in the community has cooled since the confrontations with police in riot gear over the weekend, some in the neighborhood said a sense of bitterness remains.

A few police cars sat Tuesday near the site where youths and other residents had hurled rocks and bottles at officers along North Broadway. A group of Lincoln Heights residents stood at the intersection of Broadway and Eastlake Avenue holding signs reading “Honk for Justice!” and shouting to passing motorists.

*

Up the street, near the intersection where Gutierrez died, friends gathered across from the concrete fence where he collapsed. A poster-board sign taped to the fence read, in part: “A boy was killed, this boy was gunned down by an agency that is sworn to protect and serve. . . . This 14-year-old was not armed upon the arrival of the LAPD.”

Just after noon Tuesday, a man who claimed he wanted to move his car out of the path of a street sweeper was pulled over by police patrolling Eastlake Avenue. The officers discovered the man, Manuel Concha, 25, had no driver’s license and impounded his car.

As the officers waited for a tow truck to arrive, a teen-ager ran across the street with a video camera, perched on a garage overlooking the scene, and filmed them.

In case the LAPD does something “stupid,” said Hugo Sanchez, 18, “I’m here, ready for anything.”

Times staff writer John Schwada contributed to this story.