Unrelated Shootings Leave at Least 9 Dead

At least nine people, including several innocent bystanders, were killed in a series of unrelated shootings in the Los Angeles area that began Monday evening, authorities said.

Police on Tuesday said the roughly 14 hours of violence was far from routine.

“It is unusual to see this many homicides in one day, period,” said LAPD Officer Jason Lee, a department spokesman. “It’s a cause for concern. We’re going to use our gang and narcotics units and all our resources to find out why these killings are occurring, and what we have to do.”

In one case, a San Bernardino woman and a Los Angeles man were fatally shot by unknown assailants about 7 p.m. Monday as they stood talking on a street corner.

Ruby Ceasar, 54, died at the scene of the shooting at South Figueroa and West 84th streets, and Derrick Brooks, 41, died at a hospital from a gunshot wound to the head, police said.

“They just happened to be in the area ... and got caught in the cross-fire,” said LAPD homicide Det. Rudy Lemos. .

Three other men were wounded by the gunmen, who were riding in a white vehicle, police said. One unidentified victim who survived was shot a few blocks away as he rode a bicycle, Lemos said.

Less than an hour later, a 20-year-old reputed gang member, Ruben Atilano, was fatally shot while warming up his car in front of his home in the 500 block of Brittania Street in Boyle Heights, said LAPD Det. Scott Smith.

Police said the gunman apparently shot him and then ran away.

In Carson, sheriff’s deputies responding to a report of gunshots about 8:20 p.m. found the body of a 47-year-old man behind Notrica’s Supermarket in the 20200 block of South Avalon Boulevard. The Compton man, whose name was withheld pending notification of relatives, had been shot several times, police said.

About two hours later, separate drive-by shootings claimed the lives of two young men, authorities said.

Leo B. Payne III, 25, was shot while in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven in Inglewood, at Centinela and Eucalyptus avenues, said Inglewood Police Sgt. John Knapp.

Payne, whose relatives said was on his way home from work, was “quiet, meek, just as polite and humble as anyone you want to meet,” said his aunt, Sabreen Abdulrahman.

Payne had recently moved to Inglewood from Alaska, where he worked on a fishing boat, because he wanted to be near his family after Abdulrahman’s son was killed in September, she said.

Abdulrahman recalled a phone conversation she had with Payne after her son’s death. “He just talked about him and my son, and how close they were when they were young,” she said.

Police said another man, whose name was not released, was wounded by the gunfire at the 7-Eleven parking lot.

In another shooting, in South Los Angeles, Javier Ibarra, 18, was killed while crossing the street in the 1700 block of West 96th Street. Police said they had no motive for the shooting.

Another shooting early Tuesday morning just west of downtown left a man dead, and another man wounded.

In what police described as a “running gun battle that went on for several blocks,” two armed men followed two men on foot beginning at Olympic Boulevard and Hoover Street about 3 a.m., and then continued their chase in a car, said LAPD Det. John Motto.

Police said one of the men being chased was wounded and the other one escaped. A neighborhood dog was fatally shot, police said. But the gunmen were believed to have fatally shot another man at Pico Boulevard and Hoover Street, Motto said. “It was quite a complicated mess this morning,” Motto said.

Half an hour later in Compton, sheriff’s deputies found the body of a middle-aged man on the sidewalk after responding to calls that shots were fired in 500 block of Matthisen Street.

The unidentified victim was shot twice in the upper body, said Deputy William Spear.

Then in Southeast Los Angeles, a 25-year-old man was fatally shot in the head about 9 a.m. while sitting in his blue, Chevy Caprice classic in the 140 block of West 111th Place, police said.

His name was withheld pending notification of his family.

*

Times staff writer Hector Becerra contributed to this report.