LAPD steps up against gang rage or, with a super squeeze

LAPD steps up against gang rage or, with a super squeeze
By Jason Kandel
Staff Writer

Monday, July 29, 2002 – Escalating gang violence claimed two more lives in the San Fernando Valley over the weekend and prompted police on Monday to canvass neighborhoods, question witnesses and work overtime to hunt down the gunmen.

The weekend violence in Pacoima and Van Nuys added to a string of gang skirmishes that hit the Valley hard last week. The activity has prompted police to step up patrols in tough gang neighborhoods, all in an effort to cut gang violence. Thirty-five of the 70 Valley killings recorded since Jan. 1 are gang-related.

“We want to see gang violence stop,’ said LAPD Cmdr. Michel Moore, the Valley’s second in command. “Sunday was an example of the senselessness of gangs. We are going to take a hard line to identify those involved.’

Sending that message Sunday evening was a contingent of more than 50 officers who converged on a 10-block area in Pacoima to find the assailants in an afternoon killing.

Even as teams of K-9 units, a sweeping police helicopter and uniformed cops were out searching, officers heard a semiautomatic pistol being fired just a few blocks away.

Officers hurried to the scene, where they found Alfonso Herrera, a 25-year-old gang member, grazed by a bullet. He was listed Monday in stable condition, as police searched for the shooter in what they believe was a retaliation attack.

“They weren’t taunting the police,’ Moore said. “They were oblivious to us being there.’

Despite the Sunday night turmoil, the police dragnet corralled and arrested five men on suspicion of murder in the shooting death of Efrain Rivera, a 22-year-old member of the Pacoima Project Boys gang.

The suspects were identified as Alberto Ramos, 25; Jose Calzada Angulo, 21; George Andrade, 23; Ivan Franco, 20; and Aurelio Constanti Aguirre, 18.

They were being held without bail at the Los Angeles Police Department’s Foothill Division jail, police said.

Both suspects and the victim were from the Pacoima Project Boys and the shooting may have been the result of an internal power struggle, according to police sources.

The Project Boys are under a city gang injunction that bars members from associating. But while they might be hanging out together, they’re certainly not talking to police.

“Nobody knows anything,’ said LAPD Lt. George Rock, who supervises Foothill Division detectives.

While Foothill detectives finished loose ends on their case, Van Nuys Division detectives were sifting through mounds of witnesses who attended a party Saturday night when a shooting broke out and killed Anthony Rodarte, 27, of Los Angeles.

Rodarte was killed when at least one bullet was fired from a car at 12:34 a.m. Sunday in the 6900 block of Valjean Avenue. More than 200 people attended the party held in the parking lot of an industrial warehouse.

With so many witnesses, detectives are hopeful they’ll find the killer.

“We’ll get to the bottom of this,’ said LAPD Detective Al Aldaz, the Van Nuys Division homicide coordinator.

Teams of former gang members working with Communities in Schools tried desperately Monday to find a way to quell the outbreak of gang violence.

William “Blinky’ Rodriguez, executive director of Communities in Schools, who touted a peaceful weekend softball game between old rivals, expressed disappointment at the latest incidents.

Rodriguez is attempting to get gang members to lay down their guns at a Wednesday meeting inside a church between two rival gangs.

“We’re working our rumps off’ to keep the peace, said Rodriguez. “We do got (people) coming to the table. I’m upset.