5 Invade Home, Rob Family in South Bay

Residents of El Camino Village, a quiet, unincorporated area in the heart of the South Bay, were awakened and evacuated from their homes in the predawn hours Tuesday as the Los Angeles County sheriff’s SWAT team searched for five masked men wielding assault rifles who had broken into a home in the neighborhood in an apparent robbery attempt.

No one was seriously injured in the home invasion, although two of the five victims were roughed up during the ordeal, authorities said.

The assailants reportedly got away with some jewelry and a wallet or two, but the sense of security they stole from the Lawndale-area working-class community also carried a cost.

“This is still a good neighborhood,” said a shaken Pam Bessenbacher, who lives next door to the residents who were attacked. “We’re still shocked; we’re really surprised.”

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Members of the SWAT team surrounded the gray two-story home on West 154th Street where Lusi and Subianto Gani reside with their two adult children when neighbors reported shortly after 1 a.m. that residents in the house were screaming, “Call 911, we’re being robbed.”

Sheriff’s deputies arrived to find the victims and two relatives who were visiting from Vancouver on an upstairs balcony at the back of the house.

A dark-colored vehicle that the robbers were driving left before deputies arrived, but authorities believed that at least two of the gunmen were still in the house. The gunmen apparently entered the house through a window in the laundry room.

SWAT team members entered the home about 6:35 a.m. after observing the dwelling for nearly five hours from neighboring homes. About 45 minutes later, they reported that no one was inside, and the estimated 20 evacuated residents were allowed to return.

“It was really scary,” said Cynthia Darmasaputra, a relative of the victims who lives next door. “I was really afraid for my uncle because I know he has a weak heart, and they thought two of them were still inside the house.”

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Darmasaputra’s uncle, Ibrahim, was injured when one of the gunmen struck him above his right eye with an assault weapon after he purposely broke a window in an upstairs bedroom to draw attention to the home.

Sheriff’s deputies said they don’t know what motivated the gunmen to rob the Ganis, who own an Indonesian restaurant in Huntington Beach.

Lt. Kenneth Brazile said El Camino Village is one of the safest neighborhoods in the sheriff’s jurisdiction that runs from Lennox to Lawndale, and called the crime “highly unusual.”

Yayah Handrawati, another relative who lives next door to the Ganis, said her in-laws told her that they didn’t know the gunmen. She said they were too scared to return home Tuesday.