Weekend Gang Toll: Two Killed, Almost Two Dozen Injured, Including TV Crew

Daniel Mendez was walking down a street in South-Central Los Angeles at 2 a.m. Sunday when a car pulled alongside and one of the occupants asked if he belonged to a gang.

He said he didn’t, and they shot him, according to police.

Wounded in both legs and the groin, Mendez, 19, was taken to County-USC Medical Center, where he was in stable condition.

Mendez was one of nearly two dozen people--including two members of a television camera crew--injured in gang-related incidents over the weekend that left two people dead.

In the latest incident, a 3-year-old boy was shot in the buttocks Sunday night in an apparently gang-related, drive-by attack in the 3900 block of Brighton Avenue in South-Central Los Angeles at about 8:30 p.m., police said.

His parents rushed the child, whose name was not released, to a hospital.

Police were seeking at least one gunman in a blue and gray-colored El Camino.

Earlier, a 21-year-old man was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting in the 1200 block of East 46th Street at 4:15 p.m. The victim, Frank Gonzalez, died at California Medical Center.

Police said Gonzalez had been talking to friends outside his home when shots were fired from a passing, light-colored Cadillac carrying three men.

Officers said the shooting appeared to be gang-related, although Gonzalez had no apparent gang affiliation.

No gang violence was reported in the San Fernando Valley, however, where nearly 150 Los Angeles police officers in the “Operation Hammer” task force arrested 267 people Friday and Saturday nights, including 94 gang members.

Police said the crew from Newsreel Video Service, Rich Farmer, 25, and Dave Fajardo, 21, were attacked around 1:30 a.m. Sunday after they finished filming the aftermath of a drive-by shooting in the 11700 block of Allin Street, near Culver City, that left five people with minor injuries.

“They had just filmed the incident and were leaving when they were ambushed by gang members,” said Gary Arnote, owner of the Reseda-based company.

Three men threw full beer bottles at the windows of Newsreel’s van, causing an estimated $14,000 in damage to the vehicle and equipment.

Shattered glass cut Farmer near his eye and on his elbow, while Fajardo was cut on the face. Both men required stitches.

About 15 minutes after that incident, police said, a 21-year-old woman was shot in the arm while standing with a group of gang members at Penmar Park, at the Santa Monica-Venice border, and was taken to Daniel Freeman Marina Mercy Hospital. When two of her friends left the hospital, they were wounded in a drive-by shooting, police said.

Wilmington, meanwhile, was barraged with bullets early Sunday because of gang-related shootings, Sgt. Gerry Rilling said. “It was an ongoing battle all night long,” he said.

There was one casualty. Trini Lopez, 16, was shot in the back around 2:20 a.m. and was in serious condition at Harbor General Hospital.

A 19-year-old gang member was shot and killed in South-Central Los Angeles Saturday morning, police said.