Police Link Suspects in Pier Shootout to 3 Killings

As authorities prepared their case against the alleged gunmen who terrorized visitors to the Santa Monica Pier early on Independence Day, they depicted the two suspects as hardened gang members who were wrapping up a recent killing rampage with a day at the seashore.

Alleged hostage-taker Oswaldo Amezcua and fellow gang member Joseph Flores were being held Wednesday at Santa Monica City Jail, awaiting arraignment today on a number of charges stemming from the straight-out-of-the-movies shootout at a popular amusement arcade on the busy pier.

Meanwhile, life in Santa Monica was returning to normal as merchants and employees thanked police for tactics that kept a bad situation from turning worse. Three Santa Monica police officers and three bystanders were wounded during the five-hour standoff.

Flores and Amezcua, known by police as members of a Baldwin Park gang, are suspects in the June slayings of three men and the attempted murder of a San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputy, police said, adding that the crimes were unusually brazen and coldblooded.

Investigators said the men are implicated in the June 7 killing in Victorville of Paul Ponce, a 26-year-old with a reputation among neighbors as a drug dealer, and in the June 19 drive-by slaying of an unidentified Baldwin Park man. Ponce was playing pool in his garage, came outside and was gunned down on his doorstep, neighbors said.

Flores and Amezcua also have been named as suspects in the June 20 shooting death of Luis Reyes, 23, of Baldwin Park, who was found on the side of a road off the San Bernardino Freeway near Ontario Airport. He had been killed with a bullet in the back of the head.

Four days after that killing, a San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputy was fired upon--but not wounded--by a gunman in a nearby vehicle on the San Bernardino Freeway in Fontana. Amezcua and Flores are suspects in that shooting.

San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Sgt. Bobby Dean said Wednesday that both men are also suspects in other murder cases, but he declined to provide details. Other law enforcement agencies were also tight-lipped about the suspects.

Santa Monica Pier merchants--shut down Tuesday on what would have been their busiest day of the year--expressed relief that no one was killed in the incident.

“I’ll tell you, we wait all year for the Fourth of July business, but this year it didn’t happen. We have next year to wait for,” said Marlene Gordon, an owner of the 50-year-old arcade where 15 people were held hostage. “We’re just happy that nobody got killed,” said Gordon, whose arcade was still marked by bullet holes and broken glass Wednesday.

A few doors away, restaurant owner Russ Barnard agreed.

“We’re all certainly disappointed at missing the busiest day of the year. But we just have to be thankful it was handled as efficiently as it was,” said Barnard, whose Rusty’s Sea Ranch restaurant fed and sheltered more than 125 witnesses and freed hostages during the standoff.

Authorities said Amezcua, of Baldwin Park, is being held on $1-million bail on charges of attempted murder, kidnapping and being an ex-felon in possession of a concealed weapon.

Flores, also of Baldwin Park, is being held without bail on charges of attempted murder and parole violation.

Near the Baldwin Park address listed on Amezcua’s records, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s detective sat in an unmarked car Wednesday, but he refused to discuss the case.

No one answered the door Wednesday at the well-maintained bungalow.

Witnesses on the pier said Amezcua had just been ejected from the arcade Tuesday morning for smoking.

Then he saw Flores being arrested at the behest of San Bernardino County authorities who had determined Flores’ location when he answered their phony page by using a pay phone at the pier.

Amezcua ran inside the amusement center just as police asked arcade workers to close the security doors.

The armed Amezcua was trapped inside, along with as many as 300 video game players.

Police say Amezcua exchanged gunfire with officers as he tried to escape.

Although police confiscated two guns from Flores, officials say they did not realize there was another armed suspect in the crowd until Amezcua began shooting.

Officer Chris Coria fell to the ground with an arm wound. Two officers who ran to her aid, Sgt. Jim Hirt and Officer Steven Wong, were both shot in the legs. A fourth officer, Robert Martinez Jr., was attacked by a police dog during Flores’ arrest and treated for four bites.

Police say Amezcua fired 15 bullets during the shootout.

Santa Monica police fired about 10 shots into the arcade at Amezcua, said Lt. Gary Gallinot.

A 17-year-old boy and two women were injured in the shooting.

The unidentified boy underwent surgery for a leg wound and was described by police as in stable condition. The women suffered minor leg wounds and were treated at a local hospital and released, police said.

Gallinot said it is unclear whether police or the suspect wounded the bystanders.

He said investigators have attempted to account for every shot fired during the melee. “That’s one of the reasons it took so long to clear that scene” on Tuesday, Gallinot said.

Amezcua surrendered after negotiating with police by telephone for about four hours.

Hostages said Amezcua also telephoned his girlfriend and asked her what he should do. He surrendered about 6:40 a.m. Tuesday.

Authorities say the two suspects are affiliated with a decades-old gang in Baldwin Park known as the East Side Bolens, one of two large gangs that dominate the area.

On Wednesday, the three wounded officers were recovering at UCLA Medical Center. Wong was expected to be released and Hirt and Coria were reported in stable condition.

Coria, who suffered the worst injury, had two operations on her arm, Santa Monica Police Lt. Ray Cooper said.

Jan Palchikoff, head of the Santa Monica Pier Restoration Corp., which helps the city operate the municipal pier, said 3 million people visit the pier yearly. She said the area is considered safe.

“While it was tragic and people were affected, in the grand scheme of things it was minor,” Palchikoff said of the standoff.

Bait shop owner Mannie Mendelson said he lost $1,500 because of the holiday shutdown. “But I’m not going to criticize anyone,” he said. “We haven’t been told what really went on yesterday.”

Back at the Playland Arcade, pier visitor Alan Dana, 14, of Brentwood said he fretted briefly about the hostage drama before traveling to Santa Monica on Wednesday with a visiting Israeli friend, Nadav Zohar, also 14. “I thought about it. But I’m not worried about getting shot. There are a lot of police around and that makes me feel safer,” he said.

Tourist Tom Adams of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., was awakened at his nearby hotel by police helicopters during the standoff. But he took his wife, daughter and 4-year-old grandson to the arcade without any hesitation Wednesday.

“You’re always going to have a certain bad element out there,” Adams said.

“You can’t let them destroy life for you.”

Arcade owner Gordon said she was just happy to have her business still standing.

She said she was worried for a time at the height of the standoff that police might bulldoze their way into the arcade.

“My jaw dropped when the Beverly Hills police ramming vehicle rolled by me at the front of the pier,” Gordon said. “I turned to my sister Joan and said, ‘Well, we just lost our place.’

“But they ran out of gas right in front of the arcade. They never got to use it. The Beverly Hills police had to come and tow it home.”

Times staff writer John Johnson and correspondent Richard Winton also contributed to this story.