Pacoima : Officer in Right Place Thwarts Gang Battle

Four new names might have been added to the growing list of gang-related shooting victims in Los Angeles had it not been for the timely presence of an LAPD robbery detective Wednesday.

Detective Rick Tamez of the Police Department’s Foothill Division was driving on Osborne Street in Pacoima just before noon when he passed the Osborne off-ramp from the Golden State Freeway and noticed in his rearview mirror a Chevrolet Blazer full of frantic passengers being chased down the off-ramp by another carload of youths.

The driver of the Blazer veered through traffic, saw Tamez, then pulled up behind the detective and called for help, signaling that his pursuers had just fired shots at him and his friends.

Tamez called for a backup and chased the alleged attackers into a nearby shopping strip parking lot, where two of the three youths were arrested. The third teen-ager escaped with a semiautomatic pistol in his hand.

“We don’t know where the third guy went,” said Tamez, “but we have the shooter. The other guy must have grabbed the gun when he took off.”

According to Tamez, the incident occurred after a traffic stop in North Hollywood, where the suspected attackers noticed that the Blazer was occupied by rival gang members.

“They must have looked at them the wrong way,” Tamez said, adding that the young people in the Blazer disappeared shortly after they were rescued.

“It’s a typical case,” said another detective wryly. “The victims take off because they decide they don’t want to have anything to do with the police.”

The two arrested juveniles were booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, Tamez said.