Teenager Killed in Shooting Near Venice

A 16-year-old boy was killed and another teenager was seriously injured Thursday in an apparent gang-related shooting--the latest attack in an escalating war that has ended three years of relative calm in a troubled section of Los Angeles.

Four people have been killed and nine wounded in a rash of gunfire incidents that erupted in the last month between a black gang from Venice and a Latino gang from an adjoining slice of Culver City, police said.

The recent spate of shootings has triggered painful memories for residents of Venice’s Oakwood district, who fear a resurgence of the bloody warfare between rival gangs that engulfed the neighborhood for nine months.

That 1994 war--between the primarily black Shoreline Crips and the largely Latino V-13 gang--was one of the deadliest ever in Los Angeles, leaving 17 dead and 55 injured, police said. The constant threat of bullets kept Oakwood children inside. Schools in and around the area instituted duck-and-cover drills and streets were often deserted.

A truce was finally brokered in June 1994, to the relief of the community and police officials. That truce has held, but another battle has sprung up between the Shoreline Crips and another predominantly Latino gang, the Culver City Boys.

The recent violence was triggered in mid-February when Culver City gang members shot at a young African American who was visiting his mother in a Culver City housing project.

“Now we have a situation of retaliation, of tit for tat,” said Lt. Otis Dobine of the LAPD’s Pacific Division.

On Monday, Machaud Lewis, 18, was killed as he walked to a pay phone from his Oakwood home. The day before, a 15-year-old Oakwood girl was critically injured in a drive-by shooting.

Thursday’s shooting occurred in Mar Vista, a mixed-income community that lies between the two gang camps. About 1:15 p.m., four young people were fired upon from a passing car as they walked down Braddock Avenue a few blocks from Marina del Rey Middle School, police said.

One boy died at the scene, and a 13-year-old who suffered several gunshot wounds was rushed to a nearby hospital where police said he was in serious but stable condition. Late Thursday, police interviewed the shooting victims’ companions, who apparently fled after the shooting.

Police also detained three suspects for questioning at the Pacific Division station.

Even before the shooting, police officials said they had increased uniformed patrols in the neighborhoods and were working with Project Heavy West, a community organization that provides gang prevention programs.

“I just hope it doesn’t get as bad as we had two or three years ago,” Dobine said. “It could happen if we don’t put a stop to it.”

On Thursday afternoon near the shooting site, 12-year-olds huddled together sobbing quietly as neighbors gathered behind yellow police tape at the scene. School administrators at Braddock Elementary, across the street from the shooting, locked down their campus after the incident.

An hour later, as police canvassed the area, elementary school children were let out and poured onto the sidewalk.

“Oh, not again,” said Venice resident Norma Altman, arriving to pick up her 6-year-old daughter at Braddock Elementary. “It keeps going back and forth. It really scares me. They’ll just shoot at anyone they see.”

Luis Hernandez, 11, and Jimmy Phu, 12, watched the police activity somberly from their perches on a stone wall across the street. The two sixth-graders said they knew the victims. “I feel scared,” Luis said. “I feel really sad. There wasn’t this much violence before.”

Lucien Lewis, the father of the slain youth, said he is haunted by the sound of the helicopters circling overhead daily.

“It’s like being in Vietnam,” Lewis said. “People are tired of losing their babies. I know this guy down the street, every time something happens he has to get under his table because of gunfire. I talk to older people who can’t get down the street without worrying whether someone is going to do something evil to them. It’s got to stop, there’s no other answer. It’s got to stop.”

Community activists gathered in a hastily called meeting Tuesday night after Machaud Lewis was gunned down and planned a peace rally at Oakwood Community Center for April 12. Gang intervention workers who helped broker the peace three years ago are working on bringing together the two warring gangs.

“We’re very upset that this seems to be erupting again because this was so awful the last time,” said Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, who has set up a meeting for early next week with community leaders, law enforcement officials and gang intervention workers.

“We’re going to see if we can stop this one before it gets further out of hand, but it depends a lot if the people with the guns are willing to cooperate,” she said.

Many in Oakwood say the recent shootings have triggered flashbacks.

“We’ve been through this whole process, from families in agony to kids being scared to go out on the street,” said Melvyn Hayward, a gang outreach worker with Project Heavy West. “It was devastating.”

Some residents are worried that a battle between the two gangs could escalate.

“Too many innocent people died last time,” said Robert Shipp, a Oakwood minister and activist. “If we don’t watch it, it can definitely expand.”