4 die in shootings blamed on gangs

In Watts attacks, two men are killed and one victim’s relatives are wounded. Two women are slain in Long Beach.

By Stuart Silverstein
Times Staff Writer

January 5, 2007

Homicide detectives are investigating three suspected gang-related shootings that killed four people in the Watts area and Long Beach, authorities said Thursday.

No arrests have been made in any of the cases.

The first of the two Watts-area shootings, which occurred about 8:20 p.m. Wednesday, claimed the life of a 47-year-old man whose name has not been released. He was shot while standing in a parking lot with a group of friends near East 88th Place and Central Avenue.

Officer Jason Lee, a Los Angeles police spokesman, said a gunman drove up in a light-colored, mid-size car, walked up to the man he apparently targeted, shot him in the chest and drove off. Lee said police have been unable to get a clear description of the gunman.

A little more than an hour later, an apparently unrelated shooting about a mile away resulted in the death of Jeronimo Amaya, 30. He also was shot in the chest, Lee said.

Police said two relatives of the victim, a man and a woman in their 20s who were sitting with Amaya on a porch in the 9700 block of Evers Avenue, were wounded but are expected to survive. The woman was shot in the chest; the man, in a leg.

The gunman, described as a Latino man in his early 20s, drove up in a red pickup and walked up to the porch, fired several rounds and drove off.

Lee said anyone with information about either case should call the Police Department’s Southeast Division homicide detectives at (213) 972-7816.

In Long Beach, two women were killed in a shooting reported shortly after 11 p.m. Wednesday in the 1800 block of Pine Avenue near Pacific Coast Highway.

Police did not release the names of the victims, describing them only as adult women.

Officer Jackie Bezart, a spokeswoman for the Long Beach police, said the shooting occurred outside but it was not determined whether the incident was a drive-by attack.

Two assailants are being sought. Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call Long Beach police at (562) 435-6711 or (562) 570-7244.