Pacoima Teen Killed in Suspected Gang Shooting

A 17-year-old Pacoima youth was killed in an apparent gang-related, car-to-car shooting Monday evening, just blocks from the site of another homicide three days earlier, police said.

James Caldera was sitting in a vehicle that was stopped at a red light at San Fernando Road and Pierce Street in Pacoima about 6:30 p.m. when another car pulled alongside and an occupant opened fire.

Caldera, who was struck once, was driven by his friends to Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, where he was pronounced dead, police said. The three people in the car with Caldera, who police said was a gang associate, were not cooperating in the investigation, said Det. Frank Bishop of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Foothill Division.

Early Friday morning, a 27-year-old Pacoima man alleged to be a gang member was shot to death in the nearby San Fernando Gardens housing project, police said.

Francisco Gonzalez of Panorama City was killed about 2:30 a.m., and his body was found two hours later, Bishop said. It was unclear whether the two homicides were related. Monday’s killing was the third this year in the Foothill Division, all gang-related, Bishop said.