L.A. shootings leave 3 dead, 4 wounded

By: Jack Leonard (LA Times)

January 25, 2010

Three people were killed and four wounded in half a dozen shootings late Saturday and early Sunday in Los Angeles County, authorities said.

The violence began in Van Nuys about 9:25 p.m. Saturday when an unidentified man was wounded in a drive-by shooting in the 15800 block of Vanowen Street, a Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman said. The victim was taken to a hospital, where he was listed in stable condition, Officer April Harding said.

About an hour later, Harding said, a gunman fatally shot an unidentified man in the 11200 block of Califa Street in North Hollywood. There was no information on a possible motive.

Shortly after midnight Sunday, Dontae Cotton, 28, was fatally shot outside his home in the Harvard Park neighborhood of South L.A. Police said a car stopped in the street and a gunman got out and confronted Cotton as he was walking from his parked car to his home in the 1600 block of West 60th Place. Detectives believe the shooting was gang-related, Harding said.

In Boyle Heights, another man was wounded as he left a party about 12:20 a.m. Sunday. Harding said an SUV pulled up in front of the man in the 3100 block of Winter Street and several shots were fired before the vehicle sped off. The victim was reported in stable condition at a hospital, she said, and detectives believe the suspects are gang members.

Minutes later, two men were shot in Pomona as they stood in the 1000 block of East Phillips Boulevard after being involved in a non-injury traffic collision. The victims, both Pomona residents in their early 20s, were exchanging information with another driver in the accident when four men in a white Honda Accord driving west on Phillips opened fire, said Pomona Police Sgt. Jaime Gutierrez. One victim was shot in the right arm, the other in the left leg.

Gutierrez asked anyone with information about the shooting to call (909) 620-2085.

Another fatal shooting occurred in the unincorporated South L.A. neighborhood of Athens when a man was killed in the 1100 block of West 126th Street about 1:36 a.m. Sunday, a sheriff’s spokeswoman said. A county coroner’s official identified the victim as Marquise Ortiz, 19, of Los Angeles.

jack.leonard@latimes.com