Bullets end attempt to escape mean streets

[L Grindin]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... california
Bullets end attempt to escape mean streets
Gang members open fire in a gym, killing a Carson man who had hoped for a better life.
By Amanda Covarrubias and Carla Rivera
Times Staff Writers

February 4, 2007

Growing up in a rough neighborhood near Watts, Demetrius Perry's goal was to get out for good.

But his effort was cut short Jan. 26 when three Latinos — members of a gang known to target African Americans — stormed into a middle school gym, shouted expletives and began firing randomly. About 20 children and adults involved in an after-school program were inside the gym on Compton Avenue, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

The spray of bullets missed everyone but Perry, 23, who was visiting a friend who coached in the Drew Middle School program. They had just finished a game of pickup basketball when Perry was killed.

On Saturday, Perry's friends from his car club, the All-Star Hot Boys and Hot Girls, held a car wash and peace rally at Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church on East 52nd Street to raise money for Perry's family and to increase awareness about the need for unity in a neighborhood plagued by racial strife.

"We need to stop the violence," said Perry's friend, Chris, who didn't want his last name used for fear of repercussion. "This neighborhood needs unity, not people shooting one another."

Gang violence was also the subject of another South Los Angeles event Saturday: a news conference by Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton to discuss the second time in two days that police officers were fired upon by suspected gang members.

The chief said there is no evidence of a deliberate campaign to target officers. But gang members are becoming increasingly brazen, said Bratton, who joined Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at the LAPD's 77th Street Station. Serving as a prop was the bullet-marked police car that had been hit about 10 p.m. Friday near Figueroa and 46th Street.

Two bullets pierced the back window of the undercover Buick Century, which had been carrying Officers Mike Pace, a six-year veteran, and Danny Mendez, a nine-year veteran, who were working undercover for the 77th's criminal surveillance team. Neither officer was injured.

The alleged gunman, Anthony Dale Lavell, 21, of Southgate was struck six times by return fire and was in serious but stable condition at California Hospital Medical Center.

So far this year, LAPD officers have been fired at on four occasions, resulting in injuries to two of them. In 2006, 23 officers were shot at and three were injured.

Also Saturday, police announced the arrest of Felipe Sanchez, 19, on suspicion of shooting at two officers during a traffic stop last week.

The alleged gang member, who was wounded in the Thursday incident, will be charged with attempted murder of a police officer. Neither officer was injured.

Bratton and Villaraigosa said they would announce next week an initiative to address the nearly 14% spike in gang violence in 2006. They laid the blame on readily available firearms, school dropouts with too much time on their hands, and repeat criminals.

"When police officers are fired upon in the city of Los Angeles after identifying themselves as police officers, that's a situation we will not and cannot tolerate," said Villaraigosa.

In the gym shooting, the Sheriff's Department could not confirm Saturday what gang was responsible, but officials said the men shouted a gang name and expletives before firing. Chris and Perry's 20-year-old brother, Arbra James, said it was F13, or Florencia Trece, which is affiliated with the Mexican Mafia.

Perry, a 2001 graduate of Fremont High School, was not a gang member, said James, who was in the gym when the shooting started and hid in a bathroom.

"He was a nice guy," said Chris, who co-founded the car club with Perry six years ago and organized Saturday's fundraiser. "He didn't gang bang, had no tattoos and wasn't affiliated with anyone. He always had a job and always worked."

Perry would often drive his 14-year old sister, Deshara, and his 9-year-old brother, Mustafa, around in his black Nissan Maxima, said Chris, who attends the Baptist church.

"It was just a car with rims and TVs in it," he said.

Unfortunately, the car could not carry Perry far enough.

"His goal was to get out of South-Central L.A. and move somewhere better, safer," Chris said.

James said Perry was "like a teacher" to him and the two "hung out like best friends."

"He was dedicated to shooting higher than staying in this area," James said. "He was not trying to get caught up in the criticism and the stereotypes around us."

The brothers worked for a warehouse in Carson, where they lived with their younger siblings and their mother and stepfather. Perry wanted to become a sheriff's deputy, and he and James planned to go into business together one day.

"Clubs, restaurants, bowling alleys, things like that," James said. "We had lots of ideas."

James said the pair had just finished playing basketball when the three Latinos — who police said were 17 to 20 years old with shaved heads — walked into the gym and started firing. Children scattered, running for the doors. James said he ran diagonally, but Perry ran straight and into the line of fire.

James hid in the bathroom and emerged about 10 minutes later when the ruckus stopped. Until then, he didn't know his brother had been hit.

"He was on the ground," James said. "It seemed like he wasn't breathing. I think he died before he got to the hospital."

James called the racial climate in the neighborhood "very bad."

"There's a lot of racial threats," he said. "I hear it and see it all the time. It's just the black and the brown shooting at each other. It goes both ways."

[creativemind]

This shit is fuckin' far outta control!!! A gym full of kids??? That's some faggot shit right there. Where I grew up, the Black and Hispanic population always got along good. This is just hard to get used to. Especially coward acts like that.

[L Grindin]

A gym full of kids??? That's some faggot shit right there.

That's exactly what I was thinking!

[creativemind]

I don't recall hearing this shit on the news!!! Let that be a hate crime against ANYBODY other than Blacks and mutha-fuckin' Ted Koppel would be doin' Nightline up in that bitch!!!

[Christina Marie]

Yeah...I dont recall hearing a thing about this. How sad.

[creativemind]

How do you condition your mind to shoot up a gym full of laughing, playing children???

[Christina Marie]

How do you condition your mind to shoot up a gym full of laughing, playing children???

I would think one would have to have no conscience, no soul. I wonder were they born this way or made this way in their childhood?

[L Grindin]

How do you condition your mind to shoot up a gym full of laughing, playing children???

I've known bangers who felt guilty about shooting grown men, so the only rational explanation I can think of is drugs - or misguided years of filling the mind with thoughts of hatred of Black faces.

[creativemind]

How do you condition your mind to shoot up a gym full of laughing, playing children???

I would think one would have to have no conscience, no soul. I wonder were they born this way or made this way in their childhood?

I don't know. I think that there is more to this than just random, YOUNG bangers deciding to do crazy shit like this. Its one thing to react to some gang-related incident. But this was premeditated. This had to be an order that came down from somebody high, and its totally fucked up.

[creativemind]

How do you condition your mind to shoot up a gym full of laughing, playing children???

I've known bangers who felt guilty about shooting grown men, so the only rational explanation I can think of is drugs - or misguided years of filling the mind with thoughts of hatred of Black faces.

You have people who can differentiate between perceived enemies (black gangs/gang members) and innocent children. This was not an accident where you were recklessly shooting at enemies, and there were children caught up in the crossfire. This was an intentional attempt to assassinate multple black children.

[curiousdude06]

Wow, things are totally out of control down there, absolutely wretched. The wickedness exhibited by both sides, all races, are despicable (don't forget the black gang member who shot a baby point blank in the chest). Get the troops out of iraq and try to stabilize the civil war going down on los angeles streets.

[Mcminister]

i shud stop readin this part of the news its givin me wrong impression on latino's...those foo's that did that deserve to get their legs cutt off knee down and dragged across the whole of LA county till they bleed to death

[creativemind]

i shud stop readin this part of the news its givin me wrong impression on latino's...those foo's that did that deserve to get their legs cutt off knee down and dragged across the whole of LA county till they bleed to death

I don't come in contact with a whole lot of Latinos, but the ones I do seem to be cool. Kinda stand-offish, but whatever. I just refuse to believe that the average Latino just hates Black people that much.

It seems to be the gang members who are influenced by the Mexican Mafia, who seem like they're not much more than pawns for the Aryan Brotherhood.

You don't just wake up one day and start spouting the same racist BS that the Nazis been spilling for years, if you're not influenced by them.

[Mcminister]

i c a ganga hespanics catchin the bus at 5 or 6 ain none of them even look at a nigga wrong, (jst one time at burgerking but dude was mad coz we was stylin on'em ) anywayz yea i fukks with latino's but the mo i read this shit i feel like i wana do somethin u feel me

i dono why cant yall out in southern cali get along if we out east can

[maryland000]

"Get the troops out of iraq and try to stabilize the civil war going down on los angeles streets."-curiousdudeo6

I feel u homie but it ain't just in LA peoples is dyin allover ,we wastin are countrys resources ova iraq when we need that money for our own country.we've wasted 500 billion $ on iraq do u know how many people that could of helped here

[curiousdude06]

"Get the troops out of iraq and try to stabilize the civil war going down on los angeles streets."-curiousdudeo6

I feel u homie but it ain't just in LA peoples is dyin allover ,we wastin are countrys resources ova iraq when we need that money for our own country.we've wasted 500 billion $ on iraq do u know how many people that could of helped here

That is true, even a tiny percentage of the amount bush is asking for the past few weeks, I mean, less than one percent, can help revitalize neighborhoods.

[creativemind]

Still never even saw a reference to this shit on the news.

[Mcminister]

the army wud have saved a whole lot of lives in southLA if they moved in there the time they went to iraq

[MiChuhSuh]

This shit is fuckin' far outta control!!! A gym full of kids??? That's some faggot shit right there.

WTF shooting up a middle school gym?!

Where are all the big shot "community activists" trying to national attention on issues? Where is the national highlight? Where is the discussion/forum on racial issues?
They had all this stuff on adult girls getting beat up, but nothing on a middle school gets getting shot up in their gym???

This is some real punk sh*t

[sunnysouthside]

i shud stop readin this part of the news its givin me wrong impression on latino's...those foo's that did that deserve to get their legs cutt off knee down and dragged across the whole of LA county till they bleed to death

I don't come in contact with a whole lot of Latinos, but the ones I do seem to be cool. Kinda stand-offish, but whatever. I just refuse to believe that the average Latino just hates Black people that much.

It seems to be the gang members who are influenced by the Mexican Mafia, who seem like they're not much more than pawns for the Aryan Brotherhood.

You don't just wake up one day and start spouting the same racist BS that the Nazis been spilling for years, if you're not influenced by them.

[Mcminister]

there wasnt no highlights coz proly everybody in there was black....i hate that shit

[themanfromtheyay]

More Surenos doing the AB's dirty work. I always thought that the MM was the biggest organized gang in the U.S. But obviously they're nothing more than the Aryans bitches, and or slaves. Fuckin pathetic.

[Hell]

This shit is fuckin' far outta control!!! A gym full of kids??? That's some faggot shit right there. Where I grew up, the Black and Hispanic population always got along good. This is just hard to get used to. Especially coward acts like that.

Damn the shit is crazy over their homies when is the latinos are going to stop targeting african americans.

[junta]

Don't you get it man? Hispanic gang bangers are jealous hearted and hate-filled. They don't like nobody. Blacks are in close proximity to them, that's one of the biggest reason's why this shit is happening.

Plus Niggas don't do shit unless somebody rides on their set. Eses gangs just like to start shit. They are psycho. I am not saying Black gangs don't start shit because they do. But ese gangs in LA are sick and sadistic and they desperately wanna follow the guidelines of the Aryan Brotherhood.

First ese gangs steal the styles and shit of niggas gangs, then they wanna steal styles and such from the KKK, Aryan's, and other White Power Groups. Ese gangs out here are just lost and shooting in the dark so to speak. They have to be stopped.

[Hell]

^ Damn that's crazy the ese's over here don't even pull them kind of stunts down here where i am at.

[junta]

^ Damn that's crazy the ese's over here don't even pull them kind of stunts down here where i am at.

I'm willing to bet because those ese's where you're at are scared like girls. Where you at, in Oakland?

In LA they (Hispanics) dominate the population in terms of numbers so that's why they they think they're hard. I wish they would ride on the wrong Black gang set and see what happens.

These ese gangs in LA are weak. They ride on people who aint strapped or are nerds. That's some pussy shit of real!

[themanfromtheyay]

^ Damn that's crazy the ese's over here don't even pull them kind of stunts down here where i am at.

I'm willing to bet because those ese's where you're at are scared like girls. Where you at, in Oakland?

Ene gangs out here aint pussy. They aint scared either. I know because I used to live in Oakland. And they smoked whoever crossed them black, or brown. The reason they dont funk it with the blacks much is because the prison politics. Not because they're scared. What? You want a race war up North too? Just because motherfuckers out here dont ride around smoking black people makes them scared little girls? Its just that nobody pulls the Northsiders strings like the AB or anything. So they do what they want. Does that mean blacks are scared little girls because they dont funk it with Mexicans up here? Mexicans aint scared of blacks we can handle ourselves.

Your logic is fucked up and retarded. The ese's down south ride on you, and their racist bitches. The Mexicans up North run with blacks in the pen and that makes them pussy?

[themanfromtheyay]

First ese gangs steal the styles and shit of niggas gangs, then they wanna steal styles and such from the KKK, Aryan's, and other White Power Groups. Ese gangs out here are just lost and shooting in the dark so to speak. They have to be stopped.

Nobody stole shit from you. Besides rap music. Mexicans were riding lowriders, banging red and blue in the pen, wearing dickies, white t's, and flannels long before blacks did. Did blacks sport baggy dickies and flannels in the 50's? The Mexicans did. Dont get it twisted. Theres a big difference between starting a trend, and making it mainstream. You guys just made the banging look mainstream. But you weren't the first to go there. So stop trying act like everyone wants to be you.

[junta]

First ese gangs steal the styles and shit of niggas gangs, then they wanna steal styles and such from the KKK, Aryan's, and other White Power Groups. Ese gangs out here are just lost and shooting in the dark so to speak. They have to be stopped.

Nobody stole shit from you. Besides rap music. Mexicans were riding lowriders, banging red and blue in the pen, wearing dickies, white t's, and flannels long before blacks did. Did blacks sport baggy dickies and flannels in the 50's? The Mexicans did. Dont get it twisted. Theres a big difference between starting a trend, and making it mainstream. You guys just made the banging look mainstream. But you weren't the first to go there. So stop trying act like everyone wants to be you.

Look idiot. The only reason why ese's think they winning this shit is beause you suckas have more babies than anyone on earth. People say its because of that Catholic shit (don't believe in aborting babies), and I say BS. Yall women don't believe in closing their legs. Get it?

Niggas still bang (and I have heard about niggas in LA waiting for ese's to hit they set, the real hard black gangs out here are waiting) but memebership is down because Blacks wanna be something these days. That's why they have left gangs to you ese's. Got It man.


Do your research before you talk. Everybody out here in LA knows that (regardless of the influence of the Mexican Mafia) that ese gangs out here picking on folks that aint strapped or aren't looking for trouble. If that aint pussy shit, I don't what is.

Black gangs more than likely will blow away a rival gang member, than be cowards like the 204th Street Gang, Krazy Ass Mexicans, etc. who would blow away an innoccent bystander.

Hispanic gangs can blow dick!

[junta]

Don't put black women in the same boat as me a black man. Black women are a totally different being from the black men. Black women like thugs and rich dudes and are hugely responsible for the shitty way in which balck men turn out.

I as a black man know this first hand. Black women crave being around thugs (even the dorky and nerdy ones or "church" girls). Why the hell do you think that 2-3 out of 10 black men in this world turn to gangs and crime because of their deadbeat dads (that is so common in the black culture) and their thug and gangbangin' loving moms.


Black people every fucking day set back Civil Rights by killing and pollting their people. So I say this to you Hispanics:


WE DON'T NEED YOUR DAMN HELP IN FURTHER DESECRATING THE BLACK MAN, wE DO IT TO OURSELVES EVERYDAY, EVERY SCECOND, EVERY HOUR!

[Hell]

Dem mexicans and hispanics in L.A sound something serious but i do believe our race will wipe dem f*ckaz off the map quick like the only dem mexs and hispanics can do is jump & use the gun play but i know one thing "i bet they won't fight a black person one on one fade quick".

[themanfromtheyay]

First ese gangs steal the styles and shit of niggas gangs, then they wanna steal styles and such from the KKK, Aryan's, and other White Power Groups. Ese gangs out here are just lost and shooting in the dark so to speak. They have to be stopped.

Nobody stole shit from you. Besides rap music. Mexicans were riding lowriders, banging red and blue in the pen, wearing dickies, white t's, and flannels long before blacks did. Did blacks sport baggy dickies and flannels in the 50's? The Mexicans did. Dont get it twisted. Theres a big difference between starting a trend, and making it mainstream. You guys just made the banging look mainstream. But you weren't the first to go there. So stop trying act like everyone wants to be you.

Look idiot. The only reason why ese's think they winning this shit is beause you suckas have more babies than anyone on earth. People say its because of that Catholic shit (don't believe in aborting babies), and I say BS. Yall women don't believe in closing their legs. Get it?

Niggas still bang (and I have heard about niggas in LA waiting for ese's to hit they set, the real hard black gangs out here are waiting) but memebership is down because Blacks wanna be something these days. That's why they have left gangs to you ese's. Got It man.


Do your research before you talk. Everybody out here in LA knows that (regardless of the influence of the Mexican Mafia) that ese gangs out here picking on folks that aint strapped or aren't looking for trouble. If that aint pussy shit, I don't what is.

Black gangs more than likely will blow away a rival gang member, than be cowards like the 204th Street Gang, Krazy Ass Mexicans, etc. who would blow away an innoccent bystander.

Hispanic gangs can blow dick!

What the fuck does this shit got to do with what I said?? I just corrected you about your statement that Mexicans copied you guys. Because that shit was false. Have I ever condoned the killing of blacks? I actually think its sick. Those pussies that killed that 14 year old girl deserve death. And you wanna get racist? It's easy to talk that shit behind your computer. If you were in front of me I'd scrape your ass you punk ass internet enforcer. Most the Mexicans in L.A arent even bangers. Are you gonna tell me all those motherfuckers walking around in cowboy boots and hats are riding around in scrapers banging on motherfuckers? You're obviously the idiot. Hispanics no doubt outnumber you guys. But the black gang member per population ratio is higher than the Latino one. Though there are close to three times as many latinos than there are blacks the gang membership numbers arent that one sided. So quit with that bitch ass cop out. Oh we're outnumbered. Boo fuckin hoo. I hope all you ignorant bitch ass motherfuckers kill eachother off. You fuckin bangers give minorities a bad name, and we'd be much better off without you ignorant bastards bringing us down.