Bomb Scare Evacuates Neighborhood

Several blocks in a residential neighborhood were evacuated Tuesday in the wake of a shooting and related bomb scare.

The incidents began at about 11 a.m., according to police, when five men dressed in business suits knocked on the door of a home in the 17300 block of Victory Boulevard. The men said they had a package to deliver.

Miguel Torres, 36, answered the door and soon afterward an argument and scuffle began. Three shots rang out, according to Capt. Mike Downing of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Van Nuys station. Torres was hit in the leg and foot.

The men fled, leaving the box they had carried up to the house, Downing said.

Investigators have not yet determined what the argument was about or why Torres had been shot. But Downing said they believe the men at the door were not strangers to Torres.

“They appear to know each other,” Downing said.

Torres, who was questioned by police, was treated for his injuries at Northridge Hospital Medical Center and is expected to fully recover, police said.

“He only got leg wounds, which tells you something about what they were there to do,” Downing said. “If they wanted to have this guy dead--he would have been.”

A nearby resident who saw part of the incident said the men at the door appeared to be in their 20s.

“I heard shots and a woman screaming,” the resident said. “Then I saw them run.”

Downing said the men probably did not want to kill Torres, but instead just wanted to send him a message.

No property was taken from the house, according to LAPD Officer Eduardo Funes. As of Tuesday evening, no arrests had been made and the weapon--a small-caliber handgun--had not been recovered.

Funes said there were indications the men who came to the house were of Peruvian descent.

Police say the box--wrapped in brown packaging paper--was addressed to someone who lives in the house, but would not identify the person.

The bomb squad was called to the scene to determine if the package held anything dangerous and police evacuated the area from Louise to White Oak avenues and from Victory Boulevard one block north to Gilmore Street.

The box was found to be empty. By 1 p.m., residents were permitted to return home.