Investigators Raid Residences in Search of Gang Suspects

Authorities searched a dozen homes Thursday seeking evidence against a gang that officials said is responsible for a drive-by shooting earlier this year in San Juan Capistrano as well as gunfire at a state senator’s home and the slaying of an Oscar-winning actor.

More than 132 investigators from Orange and Los Angeles County law enforcement participated in early morning raids at the homes of suspected gang members in Los Angeles, Monterey Park, Long Beach and Rosemead.

Police made no arrests but recovered three guns, ammunition and other evidence, said Tori Richards, spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney’s office.

A Los Angeles Police Department source who requested anonymity said the subject of Thursday’s sweep is a gang called the Oriental Lazy Boys. Gang members were convicted in the 1996 murder of actor Haing Ngor, and according to the source, were allegedly responsible for a shooting in January at the home of State Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles).

The incident at Polanco’s Mount Washington residence was a case of mistaken identity, according to the police source. Polanco has a son, who is not a gang member, but who happens to have the same first name as a rival of the gang, according to the source.

The rival is the boyfriend of a girl who lives on the same street as the Polancos.

When the suspects asked people on the street where someone by that name lived, they were mistakenly directed to the Polanco residence and ended up shooting up the wrong house, the source said. No one was injured.

The Thursday raid occurred after two investigators from the Orange County district attorney’s office connected a January shooting on Interstate 5 to the Polanco and Haing Ngor incidents, according to Richards.

On Jan. 16, five men were driving from a beach party in San Diego County to Los Angeles on Interstate 5 about 1 a.m. when they apparently mistook another driver--a member of the U.S. Navy--for a rival gang member. They allegedly began shooting at him and flashing gang signs, Richards said.

The victim was not injured and called 911 on his cellular phone. The California Highway Patrol arrested the five men.

The two investigators, who as LAPD detectives in 1996 had probed the murder of Ngor, made the connection after noticing several pictures of gang members they had previously investigated in the car of the drive-by shooting suspects.

“They looked at the pictures and went, ‘Wait of minute, we know who these guys are,’ ” Richards said. “They’d been carrying these pictures around, and the [detectives] recognized [them.]”

In 1998, three admitted gang members were convicted in the Feb. 25 slaying of Ngor, who was shot in the torso and found beside his car in the carport of his downtown Los Angeles home. Authorities believed the shooting occurred during a robbery.

Ngor, 55, won an Oscar for his role as a Cambodian photographer in the movie, “The Killing Fields.”

The five men arrested in the San Juan Capistrano freeway shooting were later charged with attempted murder, among other charges.

Two of the suspects are teens and are being held without bail at Juvenile Hall in Orange County. The three adults--Ruby So, Cam Peak and Johnnerson Lim--are being held at the Orange County Jail.

If convicted, they face a maximum sentence of life in prison. Prosecutors want to try the juveniles in adult court as well, Richards said.