Shots Kill 1 Rap Fan, Leave 3 Hurt

A man was killed and three people were seriously wounded in an early morning attack Monday as their chartered bus drove away from a hard-core rap performance at a Century City nightclub, Los Angeles police said.

The rented bus carrying as many as 20 passengers was only a block from the Century Club about 2:40 a.m. when shots from an automobile at Little Santa Monica Boulevard and Century Park East raked its left side.

Without calling 911, the bus driver headed for the UCLA Medical Center but could not find the emergency entrance, Los Angeles Police Capt. Richard Webb said. The unidentified driver stopped at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute, trying to find his way, further delaying treatment for the victims, said Dr. Marshall Morgan, emergency department director.

The dead man was identified as Tony Lorenzo Galloway, 26. Galloway, whose address was not disclosed, was pronounced dead while still in the bus by paramedics who crossed the street from the emergency room.

A 20-year-old woman, hit in the abdomen and suffering from bleeding in the liver, was later listed in critical condition by a hospital spokeswoman.

A 30-year-old man, hit in a lung, was said to be in fair condition. A second man, 36, hit in the chest, was treated and released. Police did not disclose the names of the three wounded people.

The car from which the shots were fired drove off. No arrests were made.

At the Century Club, President Daniel Fitzgerald said several members of the popular hard-core rap group Wu-Tang Clan had been performing before more than 1,000 people Sunday night and early Monday.

Fitzgerald said: “We will not be holding any more rap events here. These groups are very hard-core. They draw a clientele we don’t want.”

Normally the club, which levies a $20 cover charge after 10 p.m. but allows people in free before 9 p.m., features reggae on Sunday nights, he said. Booking Wu-Tang Clan was “a mistake,” he added.

In New York, a spokeswoman for the group’s record company, Loud Records, had no comment on Fitzgerald’s remarks.

There was no answer at the talent agency that represents the group, Famous Artists Agency in New York.

The New York-based Wu-Tang Clan is an amorphous performing collective. Fitzgerald said nine performers were on stage in Century City, headed by rapper Killah Priest.

The performer is an affiliate of the Wu-Tang Clan and frequently works with them.

Fitzgerald said he suspected that a gang may have been involved in the attack, but he did not know those who were shot.

The LAPD’s Webb, however, said he was not sure it was a gang attack. “We don’t really know what happened yet,” he said. “We don’t know who the shooters are, and we’re not sure of the affiliations of the victims.”

He said it appeared that “some sort of dispute” preceded the shooting, but its nature was not clear.

Webb said others in the bus and relatives who showed up at the hospital were not willing to cooperate with police. Some bus passengers left immediately when it reached UCLA, he said.

For the most part, they were not willing to speak with reporters either. But one woman, Tracy Webb, no relation to the police captain, said her friends rented the bus and “everybody went to hear the music and we were just there to have a good time.”

Capt. Webb said it was evident that many shots had been fired in the incident.

UCLA’s Morgan said it would have been better had the driver called 911 immediately. It was “an understandable impulse” to drive to the hospital, he said, “but it’s almost always a mistake and in this case it was.”

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Times staff writer Robert Hilburn contributed to this story.