CHP Officers Hear Shots, Wound 2 in Athens Gunfight

Two suspects were wounded in a shoot-out with California Highway Patrol officers that erupted after the officers heard shots from the suspects that struck another man outside a bar in the Athens area east of Hawthorne, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies reported Thursday.

Investigators said the suspects and an accomplice fled the shooting scene in a car, but were taken into custody about a block away when they flagged down sheriff’s deputies to seek treatment for their wounds.

Deputies said the incident began about 11:35 p.m. Wednesday, as CHP officers Steven Reyes and Ralph Gomez were investigating a minor collision across from the Name of the Game bar at 120th Street and Western Avenue.

As the officers busied themselves with the accident, an argument broke out in the bar’s parking lot, investigators said.

Christopher Mack, 23, who lives nearby, said he was walking into the bar after moving his car when shots were fired.

“The next thing I knew, I was hit,” Mack recalled.

Mack, who said he had no idea whether he was an intended target of the attack or was accidentally shot, was struck in the leg and arm.

Deputies said that when the two CHP officers looked in the direction of the shots, they saw a small, black car traveling north out of the parking lot, toward them.

“As they were taking cover, (Reyes and Gomez) heard several more shots being fired in their direction,” the deputies said in their report of the incident. “They both returned fire. Each officer fired four rounds from (his) duty revolver, striking the suspects an unknown amount of times.”

After driving about a block east on 120th Street, the suspects stopped, and two of them got out of their automobile to flag down a passing patrol car from the Lennox sheriff’s station, investigators said. Moments later, when the deputies heard a radio broadcast describing the gun battle with the CHP officers, the three suspects were taken into custody.

The suspects were identified as Ricky Lewis, 24, of Los Angeles, Jeffrey Howard, 26, of Compton, and Devlyn Cole, 21, of Camarillo.

Lewis was being held without bail after being booked at the Lennox station on suspicion of attempted murder of a peace officer. Howard, who was shot twice in the neck and once in the face, and Cole, who was shot in the abdomen, were reported in guarded condition at County-USC Medical Center prison ward, where both were booked on suspicion of attempted murder.