4 Suspects Sought in Fatal Shooting of Student, 17

A 17-year-old Marshall High School student was fatally shot Tuesday, an apparent victim of gang violence, and police were searching for at least four suspects who witnesses said appeared to be between 12 and 15 years old.

The shooting occurred about 2 p.m. near Thomas Starr King Middle School in Hollywood, about a mile from Marshall High, shortly before students were dismissed for the day, police said.

The victim, whose name was not released pending notification of relatives, was shot several times in the upper torso on Effie Street and stumbled to the nearby corner of Fountain and Myra avenues, where he collapsed across the street from the middle school about 2:09 p.m., police said.

He was pronounced dead at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center about 5 p.m.

Administrators at the school said class was in session during the shooting. But officials did not know if any students witnessed the crime or were in harm’s way.

As students were released and a police helicopter droned overhead, Los Angeles Police Department officers detained at least two men, one in his early 20s and the other in his mid-20s, during a search that lasted hours after the violence.

One of the men fled down a street on the school’s south side, prompting several panicked students, who were meeting school buses, to flee back onto the campus.

But police said later the man had run because of an unrelated outstanding arrest warrant. And police interviews with witnesses indicated that the suspects may be teenagers.

Police cautioned, however, that the investigation was in its early stages and that the descriptions came from witnesses who caught only hurried glimpses of the suspects.

“Just remember we are working from the perceptions of people who were shaken up,” said LAPD spokeswoman Stephany Payne. “When we arrest them they may be between 12 and 15, but they could also be a few years older.”

The man with the warrant was taken into custody and the other man was questioned and released.

At King Middle School, most after-school activities were canceled and parents were asked to pick up their children on the north side of the campus, away from most of the police activity.

“This really caught me off guard,” said Terri Hiradate, who came to pick up her eighth-grade daughter and her friends, all members of the drill team. “This neighborhood has its problems but it’s usually pretty quiet. It’s scary that it happened here outside the school. It’s such a shame.”

Lucrecia Chavoya hugged and kissed her son Carlo, an eighth-grader, and daughter Adela, a seventh-grader, when she met them.

She had walked from her home a block away, saying the helicopter and police presence made her fear for her children’s safety.

“I feared something terrible had happened,” Chavoya said. “I’m glad my children are safe but it hurts me to think those who caused all this may be their age.”

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