1 Killed, at Least 4 Wounded in 2 Panorama City Shootings

One person was killed and at least four others were wounded in two shootings that erupted less than 10 minutes apart Friday night in a gang-ridden section of the northeast Valley, police said.

The first attack injured an apartment manager in the 9000 block of Columbus Avenue in North Hills, said Sgt. Robert Davis of the Los Angeles Police Department. The manager had asked his assailants to leave the property, but they refused and shot him in the leg, authorities said.

Six minutes later, at 9:27 p.m., paramedics were called to the scene of another shooting at Sepulveda Recreation Center, six blocks away from the first incident, police said. One person died and three were wounded at the Panorama City facility, located in the 8800 block of Kester Avenue.

The incidents appear to be unrelated, said Davis of the LAPD’s Devonshire division. Police were still investigating the shootings last night and could not say whether they were gang-related.

The violence occurred in a neighborhood that has witnessed several gang-related slayings since June. Last month, two men were shot to death a few blocks away from where Friday’s incidents occurred, at a Cedros Avenue apartment building, and another man was gunned down at a nearby bar on Roscoe Boulevard.

Police said those killings appeared to be linked to a feud between the Bloods and the Crips, two predominantly black gangs that had until recently kept a low profile in the Valley.