A Day of Mourning, a Search for Killer

Carlin Street, the block of Southwest Los Angeles where Officer Filbert H. Cuesta was gunned down as he sat in his patrol car, is a place where every home is surrounded by tall wrought-iron or chain-link fences, and each window is fortified with thick metal bars.

It is also a place, like so many gang-plagued blocks throughout Southern California, where people desperate for peace make once-unthinkable accommodations with crime.

On Monday, residents in this mostly working-class Latino neighborhood east of Culver City discussed drive-by shootings, drug sales and police raids like neighbors on more placid blocks talk about traffic jams and potholes.

“When we hear gunfire, we stay inside and don’t look outside,” a longtime resident who identified herself only as Delia said in Spanish. “It’s ugly here.”

“I see some things and I don’t see other things,” said an elderly woman who has lived on the block for more than 30 years but declined to give her name. “I mind my own business.”

The people of Carlin Street lock themselves inside after dark and try not to draw trouble to themselves.

Neighbors said they were stunned by Cuesta’s slaying but not surprised.

“It’s already got a bad name, this street,” said Joseph Brown, a retired mechanic who lives a few doors down from where Cuesta died, speaking matter-of-factly from behind the iron fence that encircles his home.

Cuesta and his partner were in the neighborhood late Saturday and early Sunday morning investigating a party in the 5300 block of Carlin Street because they thought gang members were at the party, according to police.

As they waited for backup in their patrol car, shots rang out behind them, police said. Cuesta was hit in the head and died later at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Maria Guzman, who said the party was in honor of her wedding, said several members of the 18th Street gang had come into her home uninvited but had left before police arrived.

She said she did not demand that the gang members leave because “you know how gangsters are . . . as long as you don’t mess with them, they won’t mess with you.”

After the shooting, she said she and her husband were taken to a police station for questioning, along with many of her guests.

Police declined to respond to her statements.

Although she is still angry that she spent most of her wedding night at a police station, Guzman said she feels guilty.

“If I hadn’t had my wedding, it wouldn’t have happened,” she said.

This block of Carlin Street is a mixture of mostly older single-family stucco homes and nondescript two-story apartment buildings. Some homeowners take great care in keeping their property meticulously neat and adorned with colored flowerpots. Many others leave trash strewn on the streets and discarded sofas on the sidewalk.

The neighborhood is considered 18th Street gang territory, according to police. But several rival gangs control adjacent neighborhoods, prompting regular clashes over territory and drug sales, authorities say.

“That particular area of the universe is full of gang conflicts,” said Jule Bishop, a deputy city attorney who specializes in prosecuting gangs.

Gang problems in the neighborhood have been so profound that over the years police have deployed officers on horseback and have barricaded streets used by gangs for drug sales.

Last year, the city attorney’s office included Carlin Street in a civil court injunction that barred suspected 18th Street gang members from gathering together publicly in a five-block area.

Bishop and neighbors say the injunction had reduced gang violence for several months. But in recent weeks, the problems have returned.

Four days before Cuesta was shot, neighbors say an apartment on Carlin Street where 18th Street gang members were known to frequent was riddled with bullets during a drive-by attack. Bullet holes are still evident on the stucco walls.

Police could not provide crime reports for that block of Carlin Street, but LAPD statistics show that the Southwest police division, which includes the site of the shooting, is one of the city’s most dangerous divisions, with nearly 2,500 violent crimes, including 40 homicides, reported in the past 12 months.

“People there have been locking themselves in their homes because of the problems,” said LAPD Capt. Jim McDonnell, who is responsible for patrol officers in the Southwest Division.

Neighborhood teenagers are so used to the violence that their attitude is almost nonchalant.

Claudia Cornejo, 14, a lifelong resident of Carlin Street, said she hears gunfire on a regular basis but doesn’t worry for her safety.

“It’s not a lot,” she said as she headed out Monday morning to mail a letter. “It’s just once in a while.”

John Smith, 18, who attends school nearby, said he feels safe so long as he is indoors before dark.

“Go in before 8:30 and you should be OK,” he said.

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Officer Killed

Officer Filbert H. Cuesta was shot on Carlin Street, 100 feet west of Cochran Avenue.