Bloodshed Ends Rival Gangs’ Low Profile in Valley

For years, the Bloods and the Crips have kept a relatively low profile in the San Fernando Valley. The rival gangs--notorious for bloody clashes in Watts, South-Central and other parts of Los Angeles--did their share of Valley drug-dealing and robberies, police say, but killing each other was rare.

But this month, warfare has erupted in Panorama City between the two predominantly black gangs. Three young men have died in shootings that police believe were linked to rivalry between the Bloods and the Crips.

“We hadn’t experienced much in our division along the lines of black gang warfare,” said Mike Oppelt, a homicide detective in the Los Angeles Police Department’s Devonshire Division. “It’s certainly a flare-up.”

The killings began June 14 with the shooting death of 27-year-old Felix Perez, who police believe had ties to the Crips. Perez was using a pay phone outside a bar on Roscoe Boulevard when he was gunned down.

Twenty minutes later, a group of men opened fire on people standing outside a Cedros Avenue apartment building, killing Daniel Szienza, a 16-year-old bystander who police said had no gang affiliation. Undercover officers had bought or sold drugs at the building more than 20 times in the past seven months, police said.

Early Wednesday, Christopher Newsome was shot to death in a hallway in the same apartment complex where Szienza was killed. Police said Newsome, 22, was a member of the Bloods.

Investigators are trying to pinpoint what sparked the killings. Oppelt said police are probing several shootings that preceded Perez’s death, including one in Pacoima, to determine whether they are linked. No arrests have been made.

The slayings appear to have shattered a long season of peace between the gangs.

“We’ve always commented that in the Valley, the African American gangs seem to peacefully coexist with each other,” said Lt. Adam Bercovici of the LAPD’s North Hollywood Division.

In the mid-90s, Bercovici said he would often see members of rival black gangs hanging out together in Panorama City, drinking beer and talking. He recognized some of them from his previous patrols in the LAPD’s Wilshire and Southwest divisions.

“You’d get seven or eight different gangs, all sharing 40-ouncers. You’d see Bloods and Crips together and you’d say, ‘What’s going on here?’ ” he recalled. “And they’d say, ‘We’re just kicking it, man. That’s all behind us now.’ ”

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William “Blinky” Rodriguez, a Christian lay minister and former kick-boxing champion who helped broker a truce among the Valley’s Latino gangs in 1993, said violence between local black gangs is rare.

“We’ve never seen that much between them,” he said.

Gang-related killings have surged citywide this year, according to police. From January through May, there were 83 such deaths, up from 45, an 84% increase over the same period last year.

In the Valley alone, there were 11 gang-related homicides in the first half of 1999 and 2000, contrasted with 20 during the same period in 1998.

From last year to this year, gang-related violence--including attempted murders and assaults--has held steady. During the first five months of 1999 there were 1,092 such incidents citywide, contrasted with 1,078 through May of this year, Lt. Robert Swanson of the LAPD’s Detective Support Division said.

City officials have tried to combat gang violence with a multi-agency approach, combining the efforts of police and district and city attorneys. Last year the City Council expanded a specialized anti-gang initiative into the Devonshire Division, where the recent killings occurred.

In 1998 the LAPD changed the boundaries of patrol areas in Panorama City, shifting policing duties from Van Nuys to Devonshire Division. The area, called the “Witch’s Hat” because of its shape, has a long history of gang- and drug-related crime.

After the killings at the Cedros Avenue apartment complex, city prosecutors filed a lawsuit against the building’s owner for failure to meet their demands to repair the apartments and protect tenants. The Police Department has also beefed up patrols in the area.

“Given the peaceful coexistence before, this does cause us some concern,” said Capt. John Egan of the LAPD’s Foothill Division, which has joined Devonshire in investigating the gang shootings.

“The shootings have been in very close proximity to each other. We are devoting all our available resources to address this,” Egan said.