Gang Violence Blamed for Area Crime Surge

Although crime in Los Angeles County fell 12% last year, gang violence in the northeast San Fernando Valley has contributed to a dramatic surge in the number of killings in the Valley this year, according to a police study.

As of mid-October, 71 people had been killed in the Valley--some in gang-related slayings--a 20% increase from the same point in 1996, according to numbers presented this week to the Los Angeles Police Commission.

“The last few weeks there’s been a flurry of activity,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. John Nantroup, head of the Hardcore Gang Division for the San Fernando Valley. “There have been a few more drive-bys [recently] than most of the year.”

Authorities say a joint LAPD-FBI task force, which has played a key role in convicting top members of the Mexican Mafia, may now concentrate its efforts on stemming gang violence in the San Fernando Valley.

“It’s not like the Mexican Mafia investigation is over and we are sitting around twiddling our thumbs,” FBI spokesman John Hoos said. “The joint task force is still working there and will evaluate various sections of the city for the hot spots. And if the activity in the Valley warrants attention, they will look there.”

The most significant rise in slayings in the Valley has occurred in the Foothill Division. By October 1996, only 11 people had been killed in the division. But this year there have been 22 slayings in that area alone. Det. Frank Bishop, head of homicide for Foothill, said gangs account for much of the increase.

“Gangs are like anything else,” he said. “Sometimes there is going to be more activity than other times. The recent rise is also partially due to retaliations from previous gang shootings. One crime begets two and sometimes three others.”

Since the early 1990s when gang violence boomed, Bishop said Foothill has targeted repeat offenders and sought to clamp down on gang members with increased patrols.

Oddly enough, the recent conviction of Mexican Mafia members may have contributed to the increase in street violence. In recent years the legendary prison gang had clamped down on drive-by shootings, dictating that killings had to be cleared with the mafia hierarchy. With some key Mexican Mafia members now in jail, some gang members may feel freer to kill.

“I can’t say for sure, but there was an imposed truce where gang members needed permission to do drive-bys,” Nantroup said. “It was more extortion than a truce. With a prosecution of some of them, that might have had an impact.”

The only other L.A. division with a larger increase in killings than Foothill was Harbor City, where a gang war has pushed slayings up 128%, according to LAPD numbers.

Over the past two weeks, Bishop said, no shootings have occurred in Foothill, owing to the assistance of a team of specially assigned Metro Division officers. But once the added help leaves, Bishop says only 12 patrol cars and about 24 police officers per shift are left to deal with at least 50 gangs in a 60-square mile territory.

Elsewhere in the Valley, slayings were up 33% in the North Hollywood Division--to 16 as of Oct. 11. There have been six killings in the Devonshire Division, an 83% drop.

On Wednesday, Frances and Eugene Hernandez, the mother and stepfather of 35-year-old Robert Torres, who was gunned down outside a northeast Valley liquor store earlier this month, told the Los Angeles City Council that police are not doing enough to combat gang violence in the area, particularly among rival Latino gangs.

“We don’t want revenge. I want justice for the killing of my son,” Hernandez said. “How many more have to die before we start taking action?”

Councilman Richard Alarcon has proposed obtaining an injunction to restrict the movement and activities of gang members in some parts of the San Fernando Valley. The injunction would be modeled after a court order limiting the activities of the notorious 18th Street Gang.

Along with Mayor Richard Riordan and City Atty. James Hahn, Alarcon will attend a community meeting tonight in North Hills to discuss whether a gang injunction is feasible. The meeting will start at 6:30 p.m. at Our Lady of Peace Church, 15444 Nordhoff St.

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Special correspondent Darrell Satzman contributed to this story.