Police Get Little Help in Probe of Girl’s Slaying

Police investigating the weekend death of a 2-year-old girl killed during a South Los Angeles gang shootout say they are “progressing slowly” because witnesses are not cooperating, and the intended target remains unclear.

“Because everyone involved--with the exception of the 2-year-old--appears to have some gang affiliation, people are reluctant to come forward,” said Los Angeles Police Lt. John Dunkin. “We need for someone to be outraged enough to come forward.”

The girl’s parents deny any gang involvement.

Priscilla Gutierrez, just a month shy of her third birthday, was in a car with her parents Saturday night when she was shot in the upper body and killed.

The family had driven a cousin to a friend’s house on Gardena Boulevard when at least two cars pulled up across the street and began exchanging gunfire with a group of people near the family’s car, police said.

The child’s father, who asked not to be identified, was hit in the hand as he held down the girl’s mother, Priscilla Zavala, 18, who was uninjured.

The girl’s father said he felt his hand stinging and turned to see the toddler bleeding. He rushed the child to Gardena Memorial Hospital, he said, where she was pronounced dead.

“It is unclear at this point who was the target--whether the occupants of the car were the intended target or someone else on the sidewalk,” Dunkin said.

Priscilla’s mother said the shots were not meant for her or her fiance.

“They weren’t even aiming at us,” Zavala said. “We were just in the way.”

Regardless of the target, authorities say, others on the scene clearly saw what happened while the family cowered in their car.

Authorities recovered different caliber shell casings from both sides of the street, meaning that shots were fired in both directions, Dunkin said. At least one person on the sidewalk had an assault rifle and at least one person in one of the cars had a semiautomatic handgun, he said.

An unknown number of people accompanying each of the shooters must have seen the gun battle, he said.

The five or six people in the house that Priscilla’s cousin was visiting said they hit the ground when they heard the shots and saw nothing, Dunkin said. The mother’s cousin, who was just a few steps from the car when the shooting began, said he also ducked and was unable to see the shooters, Dunkin said.

Zavala and her fiance have been unable to give police any information about the shooters, their cars or the people on the sidewalk, Dunkin said.

“We’re not getting an accurate picture of what took place,” Dunkin said. “We know there are people out there who know more then they’re telling us. We need to have those people come forward.”

Funeral arrangements for Priscilla were pending, Zavala said.