Weekend of Gunfire Leaves 1 Dead, 12 Wounded

Violence marked the city’s first summer weekend, authorities said, with a 17-year-old boy killed and 12 people wounded by gunfire.

Police reported a stabbing and six shooting incidents Sunday night in south and southeast Los Angeles. Five of the victims were teenagers. Two of the attacks were connected, Los Angeles police said, and at least three were drive-by shootings. One man is in custody.

“During the summer months, we tend to see a lot more incidents,” said Los Angeles Police Lt. Horace Frank. “But normally you don’t see that many shootings in one day. Even if there is no evidence that they are connected, it’s still a big concern for us.”

A 17-year-old boy was found dead about 6 a.m. Monday in a Watts alleyway near 111th Street and Maie Avenue, capping a bloody night in the community. He was slumped in the back seat of a maroon Chevy Impala, police said. Police believe he was stabbed to death, but the coroner’s office said it was not clear whether he was shot or stabbed.

The name of the teenager was being withheld until his family could be notified.

“It’s scary,” said Salvador Franco, who has lived near the alley for 13 years. “You go outside and you don’t know if you’re going to get killed.”

The violence Sunday apparently began in the 400 block of east 42nd Place about 8:30 p.m. A person riding a child’s bicycle approached a basketball court and began shooting a semiautomatic weapon into a crowd there. A 38-year-old man was struck in the leg and two women in their 20s were also hit, police said. All three were treated at County-USC Medical Center.

Less than an hour later, two men drove up the 600 block of east 47th Street and shot at two teenagers, wounding one in the leg and one in the buttocks. And shortly before 10:30 p.m., two more teenagers were hit from behind while standing near San Pedro and 62nd streets. One suffered wounds in the thigh and the midsection, and the other was hit in the right hand. They are all expected to recover.

In the LAPD’s Southeast Division, Sgt. Henry Quan said there were three shootings within an hour, all involving residents of Avalon Gardens, a public housing complex.

“It was just amazing,” Quan said. “It was one of those nights that was really quiet and all of a sudden it just went crazy.”

The first attack, an apparent drive-by shooting, occurred at about 10:15 on E. 90th Street. A 33-year-old man, identified by police as a gang member, was shot in the arm and leg by someone in a gold Nissan Pathfinder, authorities said.

Theado Givan, 65, was inside his house on 90th Street when he heard the shots. He came outside and saw the victim, his son, limping to the house, wounded. “It’s pretty rough,” said Givan. “I hope [my son is] getting a lesson from this.”

Police arrested 25-year-old Gregory Fields about 2 a.m. as he walked through Avalon Gardens with a pistol. Police said he is a gang member on parole.

Fields also is suspected of firing into Osiris Gutierrez’s house. She dropped to the floor and yelled to her young children to stay in their rooms. “We thought they were fireworks at first,” said Gutierrez, 25. “I was really scared. And who knows what could happen. I don’t think it’s over.”

Police said there was another drive-by shooting about 11:15 p.m., when gunfire hit three men standing on the corner of 88th Place and Stanford Avenue. All three were in their 20s, and suffered minor wounds.

LAPD Det. Rick Marks said both were gang-related, apparently in retaliation for the attack allegedly by Fields.

“These are two historical rivals and this was just a sudden burst of activity,” he said.

There was also a shooting on east 98th Street, about 10:20 p.m. A gunman walked up to a 32-year-old man and shot him in the arm and leg, said police. They offered no motive for the attack.