Family Caught in Gang Cross-Fire; Girl, 2, Is Slain

In a nightmarish reminder of the shocking “wrong-way alley” shooting two years ago that killed a 3-year-old girl, a 2-year-old girl was killed as her family apparently became trapped in the cross-fire of a gang shootout late Saturday, police said.

Los Angeles police detectives said the child, identified as Priscilla Gutierrez, was killed when gunfire erupted around her family’s parked car in the 700 block of Gardena Boulevard at about 11 p.m. Saturday. The area is the so-called Los Angeles “city strip” between Carson and Gardena.

Priscilla’s father, who asked not to be identified, said in an interview at his home that when he heard the shots, he reached over to push his wife’s head down and felt a bullet sting his right hand. When he looked behind him, he saw his daughter bleeding in her car seat.

“Some gang members drove by, shot at whoever, and hit my baby,” he said. “I saw headlights. I heard gunshots. I got my family to the hospital in one minute. And even that was too long. . . . We were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Why her?”

Adam Kritz, 30, Gutierrez’s step-grandfather, said the family had pulled over to drop off a friend after watching the Oscar De La Hoya boxing match on television. When the shooting started, “their car was just in the way,” Kritz said.

At the scene of the attack, one neighbor recalled that the family’s car had stopped at a curb as two white cars rolled past single file. Gunmen inside one car fired at the house where the Gutierrez car had stopped. Men sitting on the house’s porch returned fire, with the family caught in between.

“They were in the middle of a gun battle,” LAPD Det. Brent Josephson said.

In the fusillade, Gutierrez was struck in the upper torso.

The child was taken to Gardena Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Police had not arrested any suspects Sunday or recovered any weapons from the deadly shootout.

Family members said Gutierrez, who would have turned 3 next month, was a happy child who loved to play at the beach. Her parents had planned to enroll her in day-care classes at a Christian school, Kritz said.

The shooting bore haunting similarities to the 1995 ambush of a family that took a wrong turn and wound up in a dead-end Cypress Park alley. A handful of gang members blocked the exit and opened fire on the passengers. Stephanie Kuhen, 3, was shot and killed.

Esther Kritz, the girl’s grandmother, cried on her husband’s shoulder as she offered a message to the assailants Sunday night.

“You know who you are,” she sobbed. “I hope you rot in hell.”