3 Slain, 1 Hurt by Gunfire at Eastside Party

Three men were killed and a woman was wounded in Lincoln Heights when a gunman opened fire Tuesday outside a New Year’s party, heightening fears in a neighborhood that has been hit by increasing gang violence.

“Whoever shot these guys really wanted them dead, judging by the way it happened,” Los Angeles Police Det. Rodrigo Amador said of the slayings. All of the men were shot in the upper body, possibly several times, with a large-caliber weapon.

Killed in the 5:30 a.m. shootings were suspected gang members Juan Manuel Torres, Felipe Meza and Lionel Mendivel, all in their late 20s. Veronica Cortez, 28, was hospitalized in stable condition, police said.

The gunfire aimed at party-goers outside a house on West Avenue 28 near Workman Avenue triggered panic.

“We heard shots, real loud--they sounded like they came from something big,” said Alfredo Polanco, 35, who lives several houses away. “There was screaming and people running.”

One of Mendivel’s aunts said he was the father an 8-month-old girl and a 3-year-old girl. Information on the others victims could not be obtained late Tuesday. A friend of the wounded woman said she was shot in the arm.

The shooting took place in front of a home frequented by gang members, police and neighbors said. Members of two local gangs appear to have been at the party, said Amador, of the Hollenbeck station. Police have served at least one arrest warrant at the house in connection with a shooting, Amador said.

Amador and other detectives said there were probably plenty of witnesses, but they were typically reluctant to talk.

“You know you have lots of witnesses, but you also know why people don’t want to talk. It’s frustrating,” said Det. Cindy Juarez. “The whole area is bordered by gangs and these people live here.”

There were 38 homicides in 2001 in Hollenbeck--an area that encompasses most of Los Angeles’ Eastside. That’s six more than the year before. Overall gang activity seems to be up, Amador said.

“The first day of the year and we already have three,” Amador said.

Residents said they were afraid that gunfire could hit unintended victims.

“We’ve got kids here. We don’t want them hurt or killed because of someone else’s stupidity,” said one neighbor, who requested anonymity because of fear of gang retaliation. “It gets old to live like a hermit.”

In late November, a 76-year-old woman and a 16-year-old girl were wounded in Lincoln Heights by suspected gang gunfire. Both survived.

In mid-December, about 100 residents gathered to protest the neighborhood’s escalating number of gang-related shootings. According to LAPD statistics, the area around one school not far from Tuesday’s fatal shooting had more than 70 shootings last year, compared with 50 for 2000.

Seven hours after the shooting, neighbors on West Avenue 28 swept garbage from the bloodstained sidewalk before firefighters used hoses to wash off the blood. A car parked near where the victims collapsed bore two bloody handprints. Neighbors pointed to a nearby chink on a concrete light pole caused during a drive-by shooting about a month ago.

Anyone with information on the shootings is asked to call Hollenbeck homicide detectives at (323) 526-3000.

Countywide, there were several shootings on New Year’s Eve and early New Year’s Day. In Watts, a woman who was setting up a sprinkler in her frontyard was struck in the back by a bullet fired in the air shortly after midnight. Patricia Bucio, 24, had just put her children to sleep and stepped outside her home on Anzac Avenue near 97th Street, said Sgt. Samuel Mark of the LAPD’s Southeast station. She was hospitalized in stable condition, he said.

Also in Watts, a woman stabbed her boyfriend to death after an argument in a home in the 100 block of East 107th Street, police said.

In the Westlake area, suspected gang members in a sport utility vehicle shot three people in different, nearby locations just before 2 a.m. The first person was shot in the neck at West 11th and Alvarado streets, and hospitalized in stable condition, said LAPD Sgt. Paul Torrance of the Rampart station. Another man was shot near Alvarado Street and Olympic, and another man was shot at a nearby location after that. Both men were in stable condition, Torrance said.