3 Men Guilty of Trying to Kill 2 LAPD Officers

Three street gang members were convicted Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court of trying to kill two LAPD officers in an ambush following a high-speed chase in 2000.

Joseph “Little Respect” Aghazadeh, 20, Mario “Little Boy” Aleman, 25, and Ramon “Chubbs” Maldonado, 22, were found guilty of attempting to murder Officers Tom Baker and Carlos Langarica. They also were convicted of robbing a passerby of his wallet.

All three face maximum life sentences for each of the attempted murders. Sentencing is scheduled April 3 before Judge Larry Fidler.

Prosecutors said the gang members lured the officers into their neighborhood, blocked their passage at an intersection and opened fire on them from at least two directions. Neither officer was hurt, and the three suspects were apprehended, including one who was shot several times by police and severely wounded.

“It was a very scary, well-done ambush” in which one officer probably would have been killed if the assailant’s weapon had not jammed, Deputy Dist. Atty. Steven J. Ipsen said in an interview Monday after the two-month trial.

The incident occurred about 3:30 a.m. on July 4, 2000, when Aghazadeh, Aleman and Maldonado--members of the Toonerville gang in Atwater Village--set out to retaliate against a member of the rival Rascals gang who lived about three miles away. They believed the Rascals were responsible for drive-by shootings in their neighborhood, Ipsen said.

But they aborted the plan when they discovered that a passerby had noticed them walking toward the rival’s residence. After robbing the passerby, the three cruised the neighborhood in a Honda until they noticed Baker and Langarica in a patrol car, Ipsen said.

With Baker, a 22-year-veteran, driving, the pursuit reached speeds up to 70 mph on surface streets. The defendants led the patrol car toward their own neighborhood. “We knew we were entering hostile territory,” Langarica, a six-year veteran, said in an interview.

At Bemis Street and Brunswick Avenue, the gang members slowed their car as they turned the corner, Langarica said. As the officers followed, they noticed someone had pushed a washing machine or dryer into the middle of the street while another person shoved a bicycle in front of them in apparent attempts to slow the patrol car, Langarica said. “I felt like we had fallen for a trap,” he said. “It was a very overwhelming feeling.”

Someone then opened fire from behind them while one of the gang members in the Honda shot at them from the other direction. Four bullets hit the patrol car.

Baker reacted by driving the patrol car into the Honda to push it out of the way. He then opened fire, hitting Maldonado five times, Ipsen said. Maldonado was carrying an assault pistol, but never fired, said his lawyer, Steve Seiden of Huntington Park.

Meanwhile, Langarica said he saw Aleman “bail out of” the Honda and run toward the patrol car, pointing his assault pistol directly at him. Langarica shot twice, but missed. “I thought I was going to be dead,” Langarica said.

The officer said Aleman came close enough so that he could see the teardrop tattoo below his left eye. “I can’t forget the face, it’s like looking at death,” Langarica said.

But Aleman’s gun apparently jammed, and he dropped it and fled a short distance before backup officers, who had just arrived, stopped him without further resistance. The driver of the car, Aghazadeh, also was caught at the scene. Ipsen said he was carrying a toy pistol.