An Ominous Upturn in L.A. Gang Violence Raises the Question Anew: Why?

It was already one of the bloodiest nights of an increasingly deadly summer in South Los Angeles when Barbara Bullock slid into the back seat of a Chevrolet Caprice to accompany three friends for a late-night snack at a popular drive-through restaurant.

She probably never noticed the blue and gray Georgetown Hoyas cap worn by one of her friends, but two men in a dark Buick apparently mistook the hat as a symbol for a rival gang.

After the group left the restaurant, the two men pulled up, flashed gang signs and shot into the car, hitting a passenger and the driver, who lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a storefront church.

Bullock, a 23-year-old beauty shop manager who dreamed of becoming a veterinarian, wasn’t shot, but she suffered massive internal injuries in the crash. She died five days later.

That early morning attack on July 18 was the last of five unrelated shootings over a 3 1/2-hour period in a three-mile swath of South Los Angeles.

The night of bloodshed started with two unrelated drive-by shootings. A short time later, police found the bullet-riddled body of an ex-felon in an alley near a crack house. Less than two miles away, a man was shot five times in a liquor store parking lot.

At 1:05 a.m., the spate of violence in the LAPD’s 77th Division ended when Bullock and her friends careened into the church wall.

The toll for the 3 1/2 hours: two dead and seven wounded. The shootings--four of which were classified by police as gang-related--served as a gruesome illustration that violence in the city had taken a turn for the worse.

After years of decline, gang-related homicides have jumped 131% so far this year over last, resurrecting Los Angeles’ reputation as a city where innocent bystanders die for wearing the wrong colors and inner-city children sometimes sleep in bathtubs to avoid errant gunfire.

“It seems like the violence is all over,” said 82-year-old South Los Angeles resident Dave La Mountain, who sleeps with a machete next to his bed.

The bloodshed has not been confined to poverty-stricken neighborhoods, or to poor people.

A shootout between rival gangs from South-Central and Inglewood erupted in July at a mall in middle-class Culver City, killing two young men and wounding three others. Even the granddaughter of Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks was not safe. She was killed outside a fast-food restaurant a week before her 21st birthday--the unintended victim of a gang hit.

Why the increase? Why now?

There are no clear-cut answers, but many gang experts suggest a combination of factors, headed by an escalating war among gangs over turf, reputation and drug sales, as well as the easy access to high-powered weapons.

“We definitely have a gang war going on,” Lt. O’Neil Carter said, referring to his Southeast Division, where police reported five unrelated shootings on Saturday night and early Sunday morning.

What provokes the deadly feuds across the city and the ensuing cycle of retaliatory attacks is often a mystery--even to gang members.

“You can ask a gang member why they are feuding, and they’ll say, ‘Oh, my homeboy got hit,’ but they are only talking about the recent history. They don’t know what started it,” said LAPD Capt. Terry Hara, a commander with the department’s anti-gang unit.

Former gang members say the feuding has even embroiled gangs that historically have been allied, such as a handful of Crip sets that are fighting in the Hyde Park area of Los Angeles.

Some gang members say there is something special about the year 2000 and that they want to make their mark. “That’s all you really hear people talking about, ‘2000 this and that,’ ‘You gotta do this for the hood,’ ” said Manual Hyde, 17, a member of the Rollin’ 60s (Crips) gang.

Among the theories for the rise in slayings is the notion that gang members today are younger, better armed and more likely to retaliate with deadly violence than in the past.

“This generation of gang members are afraid of no . . . body--momma, daddy, school, truant officer,” said T. Rodgers, a founding member of a Bloods faction who now works to end street violence.

Statistics seem to support that premise: Nearly 70% of the city’s known homicide suspects were between the ages of 13 and 24 this year, compared with 46% last year.

Some academics and police suggest that the recent increase in shootings reflects the cyclical pattern of gang violence. Gang activity had decreased for so long that it was just a matter of time before it shot up again, they argue.

“These things are going to bottom out at some time,” said USC sociology professor Malcolm Klein. “We don’t have explanations.”

Exacerbating the problem is the Rampart police corruption scandal in which several officers are accused of planting evidence and shooting unarmed gang members.

In the wake of the scandal, Parks disbanded the controversial CRASH gang unit but, so far, the replacement team is about 20% below full strength.

Some officers in the field say the department’s internal problems have emboldened gang members.

LAPD commanders concede that the Rampart scandal has hurt morale but reject suggestions that the dismantling of CRASH is responsible for the increase in gang murders.

Still, some LAPD officers and prosecutors suggest that the scandal has made officers more reluctant to pursue an in-your-face crackdown on suspected gang members for fear of being pulled into the police investigation. Indeed, arrests citywide are down 25% this year, but LAPD commanders attribute the decrease to an attrition rate that has cut the number of officers patrolling the street by 5%.

Police, however, point out that gang-related murders remain substantially lower than they were in the early 1990s, when gang warfare fueled by turf killings over drugs escalated to unprecedented levels.

While the decade-long comparison offers perspective, the recent surge in homicides raises fears that the city is heading back toward the murderous days of the past.

Overall, homicides in the city are up 30% this year. A total of 305 people were killed as of July 31 compared with 235 in the same period last year. About half of the city’s murders have taken place in four of the LAPD’s 16 divisions: Newton, 77th, Southeast and Harbor, all located in the southern part of Los Angeles.

Gang intervention specialists, many of whom are former gang members themselves, say a shortage of funding for intervention programs has made the situation worse.

But money may not always be the answer.

The city of Los Angeles has more than doubled its funding for gang programs since 1996, from $5 million per year to $11.3 million a year.

In April, City Auditor Rick Tuttle released a report that described the city’s anti-gang program, known as L.A. Bridges, as so ineffective that it should be dismantled or completely overhauled. Still, the Los Angeles City Council voted to fund the program for another year, promising to make the reforms needed for it to succeed.

5 Incidents in One Deadly Night

The night of July 17 illustrates the daunting challenge ahead for police and policymakers in curbing gang violence.

The first shooting that night occurred about 9:45 p.m. A 20-year-old man and a friend were walking through a tree-lined neighborhood near Crenshaw High School and spotted a Chevy Monte Carlo approaching from behind, according to police.

The men, who police declined to identify, got suspicious and started to cross the street when a man in the car opened fire, striking the 20-year-old victim in the heel of his foot, police said.

The shooting shows the difficulty in identifying suspects or motives. It took place on gang turf but police said any number of warring gangs could have been responsible.

Less than two hours after the first shooting, gunfire erupted less than a mile away.

Two men, ages 21 and 29, described by police as likely gang members, were standing on the sidewalk near 73rd Street and 10th Avenue in Hyde Park when a gunman in a passing dark Toyota opened fire.

The 29-year-old man was hit in the leg and the other man was shot in the wrist. Bullets pierced an apartment where three children were sleeping. They were not hurt.

The wounded men refused to provide information to police. “That happens a lot with gang members,” said Det. Matt Mahoney of the 77th Division. “They’d rather retaliate.”

Shortly after midnight, police were called to the corner of Gage and Western avenues. They found Grover Tinner, 48, an ex-felon with an extensive criminal history, shot to death in an alley adjacent to the stucco duplex that neighbors say had been used for drug sales.

Two days later, Damian Monroe Williams, 27, who served four years in prison for attacking truck driver Reginald Denny during the 1992 riots, surrendered to police. A warrant had been issued for his arrest. Williams was not charged in Tinner’s slaying but is still being held on a parole violation.

At about 12:55 a.m. July 18, Ernest Young, 28, was wounded in a barrage of gunfire. The attack was another brutal example of how “gang payback” shootings go down. Its victim had once been an active member of the Eight-Tray Hoover Crips.

Young arrived at J.T. Corner Liquor, near the corner of Figueroa and 45th streets, with two friends. Perhaps suspecting him a Blood, several members of the Five-Deuce Broadway Crips gang approached Young and asked where he was from.

According to a witness who asked not to be identified, Young replied: “Hoover.”

“What set?” they asked.

“Eight-Tray,” he said.

Young did not know that his old set had been feuding with the Five-Deuce Broadways, a rival Crips set.

Later, one of the Five-Deuce Broadway gangsters walked up to Young in the parking lot.

“What set you say you was from again, cuz?” the man said, holding a .38 pistol at his side.

Before Young could answer, the gunman fired, hitting Young in the left leg, in the left arm and three times in the left hip. Young fell to the ground and scrambled into the store, where he collapsed.

Young was transported to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center and released five days later.

That same night, only three blocks away, Barbara Bullock stepped out of her front door just after midnight and jumped into a 1985 Caprice with her friends, who were on their way to the Quick N’ Split near the corner of 79th Street and Western Avenue.

Bullock sat in the back with Sylvester Watson, 19. Bullock’s best friend, Teresa Daniels, 23, was in the front passenger seat. Haason Baker, 20, was the driver.

As the Caprice left the Quick N’ Split drive-through, Daniels noticed a two-door Buick following with its lights off. The Buick pulled alongside and two men inside flashed gang hand signs, Daniels recalled.

“I saw gunfire coming from the car,” she said. “I could hear the bullets hitting the car.”

Police say the gunmen fired a 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistol about six times, striking Baker in the back and left arm, and Watson in the right leg.

Near 69th Street and Western Avenue, Baker lost control of the car and ran into a storefront church.

Daniels suffered a gash to her head and a cracked spine. Bullock, who was not wearing a seat belt, was rushed to the hospital with a broken collarbone, pelvis, left arm and several cracked ribs.

Five days later, Bullock’s kidneys failed, and later her heart stopped.

Bullock’s aunt Janice Hall said that she believes the Georgetown hat with the large “G” on the front worn by Watson provoked the attack.

“They got them mistaken thinking it was somebody from Eight-Tray [Crips],” Hall said, noting that several area gangs wear the hat because the “G” stands for gangster.

Daniels doesn’t believe Watson’s hat provoked the shooting. “They probably thought we lived around there, that we were one of the rivals. Or they could have been trying to jack us,” she said.

During Bullock’s funeral at a small Pasadena church, Bullock’s aunt Pamela Bullock took the podium and called for an end to all gang affiliations.

“I don’t care nothing about a blue rag or a red rag. It’s all the Lord’s rag and it’s time to make a change,” she told the crowd of about 200 people.

Moments later, a tall, burly man with braided hair said he felt somewhat unwelcome at the event, but added: “We didn’t come to represent no gang; we’re here to represent Barbara. We loved her, too.”

Answers Sought to Halt Violence

The recent surge in gang killings has become an unmistakable reminder that the gang problem--although less pronounced for several years--remains unsolved.

Elected officials have convened community meetings and “emergency summits.” No consensus has been reached on why the increase is occurring or what is the best strategy to halt it.

Nonetheless, the Los Angeles City Council voted last month to spend $2 million in additional funds to put 2,000 teenagers to work in the city’s summer jobs program in hopes of stemming the shootings.

Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who represents some of the South Los Angeles communities hardest hit by the violence, is pressing the City Council to allocate an additional $3 million for gang violence prevention and intervention programs.

“We can’t ignore a crisis when it is staring us in the face,” he said.

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Times staff writers Elise Gee and Julie Small contributed to this article.

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One Night, 5 Shootings

1. 9:45 p.m. July 17. Man wounded in drive-by shooting.

2. 11:30 p.m. Two men wounded in drive-by.

3. 12:10 a.m. July 18. Bullet-riddled body of man found in alley.

4. 12:55 a.m. Man shot five times at close range in front of liquor store.

5. 1:05 a.m. Auto crashes into church after driver is wounded in car-to-car shooting; Barbara Bullock, 23, is hurt and dies later of injuries.

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Homicides in L.A.

Los Angeles recorded 252 homicides in the first six months of this year, 30% more than last year but significantly fewer than the average--366--for the comparable period in the last 10 years. Over the last decade, annual homicide statistics hit a high in 1992, the year of the Los Angeles riots, and have dropped since then. Gang-related homicides are up 131% over last year.

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* Gang-related homicides are included in six-month and full-year totals

Source: LAPD