Shooting at Park Leaves Area Wary

It was one of the longest days of the year and as the last traces of light drained out of the sky, Athens Park in Willowbrook was packed with kids on bikes, shirtless men dribbling basketballs, mothers pushing strollers and couples walking under the trees.

In a moment, the tranquil vibe was shattered as the pop-pop-pop of gunfire split the air Thursday night. Nine young men collapsed with bullets in their bodies. Parkgoers throughout the leafy enclave dove for cover--on the soccer fields, on the basketball court, on the grass.

On Friday, while detectives pieced together clues, neighbors were grappling with the aftermath of the drive-by, assault-rifle attack that injured nine, including two 15-year-old twin boys, one of whom is in critical condition. And now everyone wonders whether life in the park will ever be the same.

“It was crazy, man,” said Gary Santos, who lives across the street and was lathering up his vintage Trans Am when the shots rang out.

“We use that park all the time. There are tons of kids over there. It’s like a family hangout that all of a sudden turned into a war zone.”

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies recovered an abandoned, stolen sport utility vehicle they suspect was used in the shooting and talked to several witnesses, but have made no arrests.

Seven of the males shot, including one of the wounded twins, were released from the hospital Friday. Authorities would not provide their names, but said their ages ranged from the mid-teens to 33.

Many people in the Willowbrook neighborhood, which is southeast of downtown Los Angeles, were surprised by the brazenness of the shooting. They said they thought the days of indiscriminate drive-bys were over.

“It seems so old school,” said Manuel Ocampo, who was helping teach an adult education class at the park Friday.

While conceding that the neighborhood has its share of trouble, authorities said that Athens Park was an unlikely location for what they’re calling a gang attack.

“That’s one of the safest parks in southern Los Angeles County,” said Lt. Michael O’Shea of the county’s Office of Public Safety, which patrols the parks.

People living near the county-run park, located at El Segundo Boulevard and Broadway, can rightly call it a neighborhood treasure.

Ringed by modest single-family homes, it has a large, clean swimming pool that opens for the summer today, lighted sports fields, new swing sets and a few sculpted mini-hills. There are no graffiti or piled-up beer cans.

Athens Park is home to several night youth sports leagues, and until Thursday night had a reputation as an unofficial no-violence zone.

“The neighbors respect this place as a safe haven and the gangs don’t usually congregate here,” said a police gang intelligence officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

But something was different Thursday night. About 8:10 p.m., as the sun was setting and Santos was washing his car, he looked up to see an unusually large group of young men hanging out in the parking lot.

A white SUV, described by some as a Cadillac Escalade, by others as a Nissan Pathfinder, then pulled into the lot. Some of the young men standing around walked up to the truck and talked with its passengers, as if they knew them, Santos said.

And then the shots started, one after another like a string of firecrackers. Glass shattered. People yelled “Get down! Get down!” Santos saw the white truck driving away, with two assault rifles poking out its windows, aimed back at people in the crowd. Several children jumped off their bikes and scampered into nearby houses.

“There was no spraying or wild shooting,” said Santos, a 37-year-old quality control consultant. “It looked like those guys knew who they wanted.”

That was seconded by the gang intelligence officer, who said seven of the nine victims were known members of the Athens Park Bloods, a group at war with at least six other gangs in the neighborhood. The two 15-year-old twins are not in a gang, the officer said.

An hour after the shooting, the twins’ mother, Adrianne Newton, paced the loading dock of Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, waiting to see her sons.

“My babies, my babies,” she said to no one in particular.

Devon Newton had one bullet in his arm, another in his leg. His brother, Deon, could barely breathe. He had a bullet in his lung.

Adrianne Newton had been watching television when her mother called and told her to go to the hospital. Her boys, 10th-graders at a Mid-City continuation school, are into football and baseball, not into gangs, she said.

Finally, she got to peek at them and returned to the waiting room, nibbling on her lip.

“Just imagine what it’s like to go back there and see those boys lined up, one stretcher after another,” she said. “It’s horrible.”

On Friday, as Deon remained in the hospital, play resumed at Athens Park. But it was different.

“We’re a little more cautious today, no doubt about that,” said Carrie Johnson as she led a class of disabled adults in a game of hot potato, in which they tossed a rubber ball around a circle and sang songs.

“After that shooting, I don’t think it’s smart for anybody to hang out alone here. If we do anything at the park from now on, we do it as a group.”