Founding Member of Valley Gang Dies in Drive-By

A founding member of one of the Valley’s most profitable drug-dealing street gangs was shot to death late Sunday, probably by rival gang members, according to authorities.

Salvador Saldana, a principal in a 1997 Los Angeles Times series about life in a neighborhood ruled by a gang, titled “Orion Avenue, A Life Apart,” was shot numerous times as he tried to run into an apartment complex, according to police. The complex was in the 8700 block of Orion Avenue, the same neighborhood in which Saldana grew up, learned to deal drugs, and futilely tried to escape.

Saldana, 23, was a founding member of the Langdon gang, which has operated an open-air drug market that police said has plagued the neighborhood for years. After numerous arrests, Saldana moved away from Orion, took classes to become a sanitation worker and told The Times that he was leaving the gang life behind.

But he was back in the neighborhood Sunday night, police said. Lt. Joe Eddy of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Devonshire Division said the shooting occurred about midnight when a car pulled up and the occupants opened fire on Saldana and a juvenile standing with him.

Police answering an assault with a deadly weapon call found Saldana lying on the ground, Eddy said. He was pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting. The juvenile was taken to Northridge Hospital Medical Center, where he was treated and released with minor gunshot wounds.

Neighbors at the apartment complex said they heard Saldana and the boy running up the street, then trying to open the security gate to the complex. A man who asked not to be identified said he heard three shots that seemed to be from a small-caliber weapon. Then he said about eight deeper-sounding shots rang out.

“They unloaded: Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom,” the man said.

Another neighbor ran outside when she heard the shots and saw Saldana on the ground. She said the younger boy yelled, “Why? Why?” at the assailants’ car as it sped away.

Police declined to discuss the investigation. They said only that the killers drove off in a light-colored car and that the shooting appeared to be gang-related.

Saldana said in interviews with The Times that he and a small group of friends who grew up together formed the Langdon gang. He said he learned to cut rock cocaine from some older dealers in the neighborhood, a collection of apartment buildings just off Sepulveda Boulevard. When the Langdon boys got old enough, they pushed out the old dealers and took over.

Located near the Nordhoff Street offramp of the San Diego Freeway, the gang’s turf was very profitable, gang members said. But the gang frequently had to fight off intrusions from rival gangs. In the interviews at the time of The Times series, police said the gang was responsible for at least five slayings.

When asked how many enemies Langdon gang members had killed, Saldana said: “More than we got dead.”

Saldana was the father of a small boy, known in the gang as Little Sal, who was adopted as a mascot by the other members of the gang. Neighbors in the apartment complex said they had not seen the boy or his mother.