Arrests Expected in Girl’s Death

Los Angeles police said Tuesday they have identified a handful of suspects in the brutal shooting death of a 3-year-old girl on Isabel Street in Cypress Park and anticipate arresting them by week’s end.

Investigators are awaiting forensic test results that they hope could link the suspects to the scene before arresting them.

Police said they are pouring all their resources into the search for the gang members, who allegedly surrounded and fired at a car after the driver became lost on the way home from a barbecue early Sunday. Stephanie Kuhen, 3, was killed. Her 2-year-old brother and the driver of the car were wounded.

“We’ve pretty much pulled everybody off everything else and assigned them to this case,” said Lt. Harold Clifton, commander of the Northeast Division. He said the office’s anti-gang investigators are gathering intelligence while homicide detectives comb through forensic evidence collected from the graffiti-spattered dead-end street.

During a speech in Jacksonville, Fla., President Clinton used the death to drive home a point about youth violence, the Associated Press reported.

“A family took one wrong turn and because they were in the wrong place, gang members felt they had the right to shoot at them and take their lives and kill an innocent child,” Clinton said.

Community outrage over the weekend incident continued to build Tuesday.

Police Chief Willie L. Williams and the Los Angeles City Council added their voices to the chorus of anger over the attack.

Standing just yards from where gang members opened fire, Williams condemned the killers and called on neighborhood residents to cooperate with police to prevent further tragedy. “We don’t want any of our children or grandchildren to be prepared for a funeral as this child is today,” he said.

But he emphasized that the shooting was just one of scores of unsolved homicides in the city. As Williams shook hands with a few residents, police officials handed out reports on gang-related slayings from West Los Angeles to North Hollywood. One of the reports detailed the shooting two months ago of a 26-year-old man, allegedly murdered by members of the “Avenues” street gang, a few blocks from the Isabel Street site of Sunday’s ambush-style attack.

“There’s no neighborhood in our city that is free of crime and free of violence,” Williams said. “This neighborhood is not the worst neighborhood in Los Angeles.”

At City Hall, the City Council voted unanimously to ask the mayor to establish a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the slaying, and then adjourned in memory of Stephanie Kuhen. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to offer an equivalent award.

“The reality is, it’s happening too often in this city. . . . I’m getting tired,” said Councilman Mike Hernandez, who represents the Cypress Park area.

Several council members said the shooting emphasizes the need for a more aggressive anti-gang approach. They announced a plan to convene a meeting of religious leaders, police officers and counselors with at-risk youths to outline an “action plan” for the city to prevent gang violence.

Some council members said the weekend slaying reminded them of the importance of getting more police officers out on the city’s streets. But Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg said the problems are far deeper.

“You can’t stop this problem with police,” she said. “We’ll need to get serious about the proliferation of weapons, cheap weapons; it’s like the Old West where everybody’s got to be packing to walk down the street.

Although extra officers may patrol the Northeast area for a few weeks, Clifton said, the heightened attention would not last.

“They’re not going to be here 24 hours a day,” he said. “We’re going to be right back where we started from.”

Williams praised the division for its handling of the neighborhood, although residents have lambasted the police in the wake of Sunday’s shooting for failing to respond quickly to distress calls.

“When I have 14 officers working 35 square miles, I’m sorry, the response is not going to be fast,” Clifton said.

After Williams left the site, Art Parra, wearing a paint-splattered T-shirt and carrying a long roller, continued his work. The founder of Norwalk Against Graffiti, Parra, 37, said he left his usual turf to paint over the graffiti marring the walls of Isabel Street because he was upset by the brutality of Sunday’s crime.

Parra said he had brought 80 gallons of light blue paint to cover the walls. He stood alone Tuesday afternoon, but said he had recruited several residents in his effort, including a small boy. “If I can make a difference for him,” he said, pointing to the paint-doused child, “it was well worth coming out here.”

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Times staff writer Jodi Wilgoren contributed to this story.