4 Wounded in 2 Drive-By Shootings

In separate weekend incidents in the same neighborhood, drive-by shooters wounded four people--one of them critically--leaving family members and area residents angry and terrified on Sunday about the latest outbreak of violence in their community.

The shootings “could be related, but there’s no indication at this point,” said Sgt. Wes Buhrmester of the LAPD’s Foothill Division.

In the past year, at least 14 other people have been shot--three of them fatally--in drive-by shootings in Pacoima.

About 8:30 p.m. Saturday on Pala Avenue near the corner of Van Nuys Boulevard, Juan Gallegos, 35, was sipping coffee that he had just bought from a street vendor when a car pulled up near him and shots were fired, members of his family said. Gallegos, who lives in a nearby apartment complex, staggered across the street toward a supermarket and collapsed.

He was shot four times in the upper body and was listed in critical condition at an area hospital, Buhrmester said. Family members who visited him Sunday morning said they were told he would survive.

They didn’t know why Gallegos, who works as a packer at a candy company, was targeted.

“He got along with everybody,” said his 22-year-old niece, Veronica Gutierrez, who lives in the same apartment complex. “He was just there at the wrong time. It’s scary.”

Shortly before midnight, three teenage boys were shot in the 13200 block of Mercer Street, about two blocks from the earlier shooting.

According to a youth who was with them, he and two other boys were chatting in front of a house, while another youth stood in the doorway. They were listening to music blaring from a party across the street when a dark car with an open roof pulled to a stop, said the youth, who asked not to be identified. He said one of the passengers stood up through the open roof.

“They said, ‘Where you from?’ ” the witness said, referring to how gang members question strangers to find out their gang affiliation, if any. “They didn’t give us a chance to say nothing. They started shooting.”

Several rounds were fired from a semiautomatic handgun, Buhrmester said. Witnesses told police that there were four males in the car, a black late-model Toyota Camry. Police believe they may be gang members.

Two bullets hit a 16-year-old boy, who was standing in the doorway, in the leg, and more bullets struck his cousin, also 16, who was in front of the house, in the stomach and leg. The other teenage boy in front of the house was also hit in the leg. One boy was released from an area hospital early Sunday; the other two remained hospitalized. Bullets barely missed the fourth youth, he said.

“It’s been a nightmare,” said Maria Ortiz, grandmother of two of the injured boys, holding her face in her hands, her brow furrowed in pain. She said she was angry that bullets flew through her house during the incident, adding that there were three other children, one as young as 6, inside at the time.

Ortiz, who aided her bleeding grandsons inside the house, spent a good part of Sunday mopping and wiping blood from her furniture and floor.

“My house and my kids were shot at for no reason at all. They’re not in gangs or anything,” she said angrily. “You can’t even be [safe] in your own home anymore.”

No one has been arrested in either of the shootings, and there was no other information available late Sunday, police said.

Police ask that anyone with additional information about the shootings call Foothill detectives at (818) 834-3115 on weekdays or (818) 756-8863 after hours.