Less Gunfire, but Officers Kill 2 Revelers

Law enforcement officials quickly claimed victory Tuesday in their high-profile campaign to stop Los Angeles residents from firing weapons into the air to welcome the New Year, but it was a somewhat tarnished success.

Two revelers using guns to celebrate the New Year were shot and killed by police and sheriff’s deputies in separate incidents after the men allegedly aimed their weapons at officers.

And a third man wounded himself after he allegedly hid his gun in his waistband to avoid police detection.

In all, 44 people in Los Angeles County were arrested on suspicion of reckless or negligent New Year’s gunplay, down from 70 last year, and 56 weapons were confiscated, including an Uzi that had fired 30 rounds, police and sheriff’s spokesmen said.

No injuries or deaths from falling bullets were reported, marking the second consecutive year that fatal injuries from celebratory gunplay were avoided.

The number of arrests and reported shootings was far below that of previous years, when random holiday gunfire injured and occasionally killed innocent passers-by. Authorities credited the reduction to their stepped-up efforts to publicize the dangers of shooting into the sky.

In addition, police took other extraordinary measures this year: All sales of ammunition were banned in the city of Los Angeles during the last week of 1990, and teams of police were deployed in some parts of the city in numbers unprecedented for New Year’s Eve.

The night was, Los Angeles Police Sgt. David Young said, “very, very quiet. It is our belief that our strong presence resulted in a very good evening.”

Some places, such as the Jordan Downs housing projects, reported no gunfire--in marked contrast to the war-like revelry of just one year ago.

“It was a dramatic improvement,” Officer Eric Coulter of the Southeast Division told reporters. “We sat on the roof and were amazed.”

Still, in several isolated pockets, gunfire reverberated with the countdown to 1991. Police said Tuesday they received 586 reports of gunfire, compared to 704 last year and 1,247 the year before.

Thelma Curry, a grandmother who lives in an unincorporated portion of the county near Compton, awoke from the clatter of New Year’s morning to discover a bullet hole in her living room ceiling and the bullet on the floor.

“I’m just thankful no one was hurt,” said Curry, who had spent New Year’s Eve watching television in the family room of her ranch-style home with her granddaughter. “I think we need to get a message across to people who are doing this, because innocent people are getting hurt with these New Year’s shootings.”

A reveler who was shot and killed by police allegedly had pumped scores of rounds into the sky before he was stopped, officials said. Two police officers investigating a robbery heard gunfire and then saw Nicolas Contreras, 26, walk onto the front porch of his home in south Los Angeles near Vernon, a police spokesman said. They ordered him to drop the weapon, he turned, pointed the gun at the officers, and they fired four rounds into his face and body, the spokesman said.

Contreras was pronounced dead at the scene. The officers said he had fired 74 rounds and had several live rounds in his pocket.

A man killed by a sheriff’s deputy allegedly had fired nearly two dozen rounds into the air before pointing his weapon at the deputy who ordered him to stop, authorities said.

Pedro Gonzales, 28, of El Monte was shooting a handgun on the carport of an apartment building along with two friends shortly after midnight, a sheriff’s spokesman said. A deputy responding to the gunfire ordered Gonzales to drop the gun; Gonzales turned and pointed the gun at the deputy, who fired five rounds into the man, the spokesman said.

A third man, identified by police as Steve Miller, 51, was wounded when he allegedly tried to hide a loaded handgun in his waistband to avoid detection by police. The weapon accidentally discharged, grazing his side.

Miller, of South Los Angeles, was booked in the jail ward of County-USC Medical Center on suspicion of attempting to fire a weapon recklessly in the air, a felony.

Firearms were involved Tuesday in several Southland deaths and injuries not directly related to the practice of ushering in the New Year with gunfire.

A fight between two groups of men ended with someone opening fire onto a crowd of New Year’s party-goers standing in the front yard of a home in Willowbrook, a sheriff’s spokesman said. Three people were wounded, including 12-year-old Maria Montes, who suffered critical head injuries.

John G. Hernandez, 25, of Hawaiian Gardens, a passenger on a motorcycle, was killed by gunfire from a passing car on the Foothill Freeway. Hernandez died about 3:30 a.m., a short time after he had been seen waiting in Pasadena for the start of the Rose Parade. The driver of the motorcycle was not injured.

A 16-year-old is suspected of shooting his uncle to death during an argument over the changing of a television channel. Sheriff’s spokesmen said the boy, whose name was not released, picked up a .38-caliber pistol and chased his uncle out of the house and into the back yard, where he fired two shots, striking the man both times.

And in Orange County, a man was killed in a drive-by shooting in Placentia, police said.

Meanwhile, in Sacramento, state officials reported they were swamped with a last-minute rush by owners of assault weapons hoping to beat Tuesday’s deadline for registering the now-banned guns. As many as 15,000 applications poured into Department of Justice offices on Monday, yet the number is thought to be only about 5% of the assault rifles known to exist in the state.

Owners of assault weapons were required to register them after California banned the sale of 56 models of semiautomatic assault weapons in 1989.

Times staff writer Andrea Ford contributed to this report.