Drive By Shootings

Two people were killed over the weekend in what police are calling "connected and gang-related" drive-by shootings near Boyle Heights. A 20-year-old man was outside his car, about to open his garage in the 500 block of South Saint Louis Street just before midnight Saturday, when a black Cadillac drove by and someone inside the car fired shots at the man, said Los Angeles Police Officer Karen Smith.

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday rejected a proposed $4.5-million payout to a man shot by police as he fled a drive-by shooting. The payment would have settled a lawsuit Robert Contreras brought against the city over the 2005 shooting, which left him paralyzed. After a jury found that the officers had used excessive force in shooting Contreras and fearing that the city could be ordered to pay more than $10 million, lawyers for the city urged the council to accept the settlement deal.

The Assembly Committee on Ways & Means is studying a bill that would impose the death penalty or a sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole on those found guilty of drive-by shootings. Gov. Pete Wilson supports the bill. What do you think? * Judy Dickson, preschool director , Crenshaw It might do some good, but then again, it might give people the wrong idea.

Following a jury's verdict that Los Angeles police officers were wrong to shoot a man they believed was armed, the City Council now must decide whether to approve a controversial $4.5-million settlement payout to the paralyzed man. The case stems from a night in September 2005, when several officers on patrol in South L.A. responded to a report of a nearby shooting. Witnesses pointed to a white van leaving the scene, saying people inside had unloaded a volley of gunfire while driving by. After a brief pursuit, the three men inside the van jumped out and scattered.

An 18-year-old man was on life support Friday after being wounded in a drive-by shooting on Roscoe Boulevard, authorities said. Jose Alejandro Padilla of Arleta was shot once in the head at 10:15 p.m. Thursday when the car he was riding in was riddled with bullets near Webb Avenue. Witnesses told police that three or four men in a turquoise-blue compact car fled east on Roscoe. The killers apparently had seen the victim leave a gas station.

Police arrested a Compton gang member in connection with an August drive-by shooting in a quiet Costa Mesa neighborhood that killed a 23-year-old man and injured four companions. The shooting, the city's third in a two-month period, prompted Costa Mesa officials to add two gang police officers and issue a $10,000 reward for information leading to the suspect's arrest.

A 36-year-old woman was killed Saturday night in a drive-by shooting in the 1100 block of East 119th Street in South Los Angeles. Marlene Donaldson had been at a party and was pronounced dead at the scene about 10 p.m., said Los Angeles Police Department Officer Ana Aguirre. Aguirre said a Chevrolet Pontiac was seen speeding from the area. Authorities were not sure whether Donaldson was the intended target, Aguirre said. -- Ruben Vives

Three youths were killed and six others were injured Tuesday in unrelated drive-by shootings, one in Hollywood, the other near USC, authorities said. Los Angeles Police Officer Dan Cox said the first attack, near Tamarind and Lexington avenues, occurred about 6:35 p.m. when two men in a red Ford truck fired on a group of people sitting in the yard of a house, killing a 15-year-old boy. Four other bystanders were wounded, Cox said, and were taken to hospitals.

Three men were wounded in two separate drive-by shootings in Buena Park and Westminster, authorities said Saturday. Felipe Angulo, 27, of Fullerton and an unidentified 16-year-old from Buena Park were shot at 11:30 p.m. Friday while attending a party in the 6500 block of Kingman Avenue, a residential area in Buena Park. "It was a large party," a Buena Park officer said. "It was attended by a significant number of young people who were affiliated with several different gangs from the Orange County area."

Police on Sunday said they are alarmed by three apparently unrelated drive-by shootings over the weekend in the city, which could indicate an increase in gang activity. No one was injured in the three incidents, which occurred Friday night, Saturday night and early Sunday morning, but two vehicles were damaged by gunfire, police said. Two men were arrested. Police Sgt. Tom Broderson said the three incidents occurred near what are thought to be gang territories.

Superior Court Judge Paul A. Bacigalupo posed a question to the slim man wearing blue jailhouse scrubs. Which is worse, the judge asked, an innocent man wrongfully convicted or the real perpetrator remaining free? "The wrong guy going to prison," Francisco "Franky" Carrillo replied without hesitation. "For the past 20 years, I've lived that experience. And I think it's the worst predicament any human being can be under. " Days after the courtroom exchange, Carrillo, 37, was expected to be freed late Tuesday or Wednesday from Los Angeles County Jail, having spent two decades behind bars for a fatal drive-by shooting he insists he did not commit.

A star running back from Lakewood High was charged Tuesday with two counts of attempted murder in connection with what police described as a gang-related drive-by shooting Friday afternoon in which no one was injured. Law enforcement officials privately confirmed that Jerry Stone, a senior considered among the best tailbacks in the state, was allegedly driving the vehicle involved in the shooting, which occurred in the 1100 block of Acacia Avenue in Compton. Because Stone is a juvenile, authorities are not allowed to identify him publicly.

The same driveway that played host to so many family parties -- including 4-year-old Roberto Lopez Jr.'s birthday celebration last month -- turned into a scene of sorrow Wednesday, a day after the boy was killed by shots fired at a red car driving through the neighborhood south of Echo Park. Under a blue tarp suspended over the driveway, dozens of relatives, friends and neighbors formed a circle on the pavement, weeping and praying on the same spot where just a month ago Roberto Jr.

A 4-year-old boy walking with his sister was shot and killed Tuesday afternoon in a neighborhood south of Angelino Heights, Los Angeles police officials said. LAPD Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz said that at least one person opened fire on a red car driving down the street, and one of the shots apparently struck the boy in the chest. The shooting occurred in the 1200 block of Court Street about 4:25 p.m.

A teenage boy was shot and killed Sunday afternoon while driving in a car just outside Riverside. The boy, whose name and age were not released, was a passenger in a Toyota Camry on Van Buren Boulevard and Jurupa Avenue, said Juan Zamora, spokesman for the Riverside County Sheriff's Department. A car pulled up next to the Camry and someone in the car opened fire, hitting the youth. The Camry driver went to a parking lot of a shopping center and called paramedics, who pronounced the boy dead.

Two people were killed over the weekend in what police are calling "connected and gang-related" drive-by shootings near Boyle Heights. A 20-year-old man was outside his car, about to open his garage in the 500 block of South Saint Louis Street just before midnight Saturday, when a black Cadillac drove by and someone inside the car fired shots at the man, said Los Angeles Police Officer Karen Smith.

Three street gang members were sentenced Friday in federal court to prison sentences of 16, 15 and five years for a 2005 drive-by shooting in San Marcos in which a 12-year-old boy was wounded in the chest. The three were members of the Varrio San Marcos gang and attempting to kill members of the rival South Los gang in a territorial dispute over drug trafficking and extortion, according to court records. Cedar Moedano, 31, also known as Snoop, was sentenced to 16 years; Leon Rossetto, 25, also known as Casper, to 15; and Geovani Bernal, 22, also known as Blackie, to five.

Two Hollywood men who spent nearly four months in a Los Angeles County jail walked out free Friday night after a murder case against them was dropped. Jordy Ochoa and Aaron Smith, both 20, had been charged with murder and attempted murder in a drive-by gang shooting in April that left one man dead and another injured. "This matter is dismissed in the interest of justice," Superior Court Commissioner Henry J.