3 Unrelated Weekend Slayings Are Blamed on Gang Members

Three men were killed in what police suspect were unconnected gang-related shootings last weekend in northeast Los Angeles, police said.

On Friday, a man whom police identified as a gang member was fatally shot in a drive-by shooting outside a party, police said. On Sunday, a former gang member was shot to death on the street a few blocks from his home, said Los Angeles Police Detective Ron Whitt.

And late Saturday, a Cypress Park man who police said was not a gang member, was killed after trying to stop an automobile break-in outside his home. Witnesses told police they saw gang members running from the area where he was shot, Whitt said.

Arturo Luevano, 19, was shot shortly before 11 p.m. Saturday after he and two cousins drove up to his house along the 700 block of Isabel Street and saw a man trying to break into his cousin’s car, said Detective Loren Zimmerman. Luevano jumped out and confronted the man and the two started fighting, he said.

Luevano’s cousin Saul Jimenez jumped out of the car to help, but the auto break-in suspect bit Jimenez’s hand, Zimmerman said. Luevano and the suspect ran down a narrow, curved hillside street.

Luevano’s cousins told police that several men, who witnesses believe were gang members, were seen running up from the hillside street area. The men beat up Luevano’s other cousin, Victor Jimenez, then fled, police said.

Neighbors, who had heard a shot fired, called police. Luevano was found lying in front of a house on Isabel Street, shot once in the back, Zimmerman said. He was taken to County-USC Medical Center, where he died at 11:37 p.m. Saturday, said hospital spokeswoman Adelaida DeLaCerda.

Police have no suspects in the shooting, Zimmerman said.

In the Friday shooting, an 18-year-old Central Los Angeles man was killed when shots were fired from a car carrying three men believed by police to be gang members. As the vehicle drove past a Highland Park apartment complex shortly after 11 p.m. shots were fired into a crowd of 50 party-goers gathered on the front lawn, Whitt said.

Enrique Pantoja, 18, who police said was a gang member, was shot as he was leaving the party on the 900 block of Milwaukee Avenue. Pantoja was taken to Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, where he was pronounced dead at 12:06 a.m. Saturday, police said.

Police suspect that members of a rival gang shot into the crowd, but there are no suspects, Whitt said.

On Sunday, a former gang member was gunned down shortly before 1 a.m. while walking down a street several blocks from his Atwater Village home, police said.

Robert Anthony Velazquez, 20, was shot six times with a .22-caliber gun along the 3200 block of Drew Street, police said. Velazquez had been walking with two women when a man jumped out of a passing car, argued with him and fired shots, Whitt said.

The women fled as the man approached. Witnesses told police there were three other men in the car. Investigators have identified suspects but have not made any arrests, said Detective Jose Carrillo.

In an Aug. 10 gang-related shooting, police have issued a warrant for the arrest of a Glassell Park man who they say fired the shots that killed a rival gang member at the Triangle Motel on Eagle Rock Boulevard, Zimmerman said.

Hector Pelayo, 18, has been charged with murder in the shooting of 20-year-old Rafael Sanchez of the Rampart area, but he is still at large, Zimmerman said.