A spasm of cross-racial gang shootings in and around the San Gabriel Valley city of Monrovia has left a 64-year-old African American man and a 16-year-old Latina dead and prompted a law enforcement crackdown to stem the bloodshed.
In all, seven people have been killed or wounded in recent weeks, as suspected black and Latino gang members have traded gunfire. At least two of those killed have been bystanders, authorities said.
In a series of high-profile operations in recent days, a police task force has served search warrants and arrested three suspects -- one Latino and two blacks. After three shootings in the last week, Monrovia police and the L.A. County Sheriff's Department have saturated schools and neighborhoods north and south of the Foothill Freeway with additional patrols. Parents have been warned to keep close tabs on their children.
"A lot of these kids are terrified right now because somebody out there is playing for real," said Monrovia High School Principal Frank Zepeda, who has been fielding e-mails and phone calls from concerned parents.
Speculation was spreading Wednesday among students that the violence was racially motivated. Xavier Gaytan, 17, a junior, said he has noticed tensions between blacks and Latinos on campus, apart from the recent violence.
"Sometimes you see all the blacks get together on one side and all the Mexicans together on the other side," he said. "Fights sometimes break out over somebody giving somebody else the wrong look."
Some authorities say the recent violence is chiefly about dominance on the streets. The flare-up involves historic rivals: a long-established black street gang, the Du Roc Crips, and two Latino gangs, Monrovia Nuevo Vario and Duarte Eastside.
"I don't see it being race-related because the issues between these . . . gangs have been going on forever," said sheriff's Capt. Richard Shaw, who is heading a new task force dispatched to the area. The shootings are a reflection of gang culture, not racial conflict, he said.
Helping fan fears in largely tranquil Monrovia, which has been used as a setting for the TV series "Picket Fences" and film depictions of middle America, was the killing Saturday of 16-year-old Samantha Salas. She was walking home from a market near Peck Road. Her father, whom she was visiting, had given her permission to buy some gum.
"She had to have her Orbitz gum," Samuel Salas said in an interview Wednesday at his home. "You saw the flowers outside on the sidewalk. That's how far she made it."
