Student Slain, Another Wounded by Gang Members in Long Beach

One student died and another was wounded near a Long Beach high school Thursday afternoon when gang members confronted the victims and fired several shots into a street crowded with teenagers, police said.

Officers immediately cordoned off several blocks of the working-class neighborhood on Long Beach’s west side, creating a traffic jam that lasted for hours. Despite a house-to-house search, no suspects were in custody.

The identities of the injured boys were not released.

Long Beach Police Sgt. David Cannan said about half a dozen students were walking down Santa Fe Avenue after classes at Cabrillo High School about 1:15 p.m. when they encountered the gang members near a motel a few doors east of Santa Fe on Parade Street. The motel is across from the Police Department’s West Division substation on Santa Fe.

Words were exchanged and shots were fired as the students joined dozens more headed down Santa Fe toward a collection of fast-food restaurants a block away at Pacific Coast Highway, police said.

Bullets flew through the crowd, but only two people were hit.

Cannan said the audacity of the attack “speaks to the brazen attitude of the gang members involved.”

Officers ran out of the substation to find young people scattering in every direction, Cannan said. Police found the fatally wounded victim at a Winchell’s doughnut shop and the other victim at a McDonald’s restaurant.

The surviving student, an 11th-grader, was wounded in the lower body, Cannan said. He was taken to Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and was expected to survive.

Dozens of potential witnesses were taken to the Cabrillo auditorium, where police interviewed them. After counseling by members of the school’s staff, the students were released to their parents.

Officials said the students will undergo further counseling by crisis response teams today.

“They’ve lost a classmate, and many will need to go through the grieving process,” said Chris Eftychiou, a spokesman for the Long Beach Unified School District.

“We know there are safety issues in the neighborhood, [but] the school remains one of the safest places to be,” Eftychiou said.

He said there was a disturbance last month, but no one was injured and classes were not disrupted.

Times staff writer Eric Malnic contributed to this report.