Drive By Shootings Los Angeles

Three teenage boys were wounded, one critically, when they were hit by a hail of bullets Tuesday, apparently in a gang-related drive-by shooting, police said. Investigators were seeking four suspects, described as male Latinos, ages 16 to 20, all with shaved heads, said Jason Lee, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman. Witnesses reported that seven to eight shots were fired at the victims from a white, four-door Lincoln Continental with a blue top. The attack occurred about 4:15 p.m.

Suspected gang members armed with a semiautomatic rifle opened fire from a passing car on a group of people gathered in a parking lot outside a Los Angeles nightclub early Sunday, leaving one dead and six injured, police said. Los Angeles police said numerous patrons of the nightclub had congregated outside on the 4400 block of Broadway Avenue when the shooting erupted at 1:40 a.m.

Shaken students at Marina del Rey Junior High in Mar Vista on Friday mourned an eighth-grade classmate a day after a drive-by shooting claimed his life and seriously injured another student. Rafael Adan, 14, was walking home from school with three friends Thursday afternoon when shots were fired from a passing car. He died at the scene. A 13-year-old boy was rushed to a local hospital, where he remained in stable condition.

Two 17-year-old victims of a drive-by shooting were in critical condition Saturday, police said. The incident occurred about 10:20 p.m. Friday in the 10800 block of Strathern Street, said a police spokesman at the North Hollywood Division. One victim was wounded in the upper torso, the other suffered a head wound, according to police. They were transported to Northridge Hospital Medical Center and Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, the officer said.

Los Angeles police are appealing to the public for help in determining the identities of two male Latinos, ages 13 to 17, who were shot and killed in a drive-by shooting as they stood at a bus stop last month near Vernon and Compton avenues. Detectives said the two teen-agers were standing at the bus stop about 8:45 p.m. on July 19 when a large navy blue car with a white top drove up, a few words were exchanged and someone in the car began shooting.

A 50-year-old woman standing outside to cool off on a hot evening was shot and killed by suspected gang members in Lincoln Heights, east of downtown Los Angeles, police said Saturday. Delia Govea and her daughter-in-law, Marcela, had stepped outdoors with other relatives just before midnight Friday to escape the heat of their home on Pomona Street, Los Angeles Police Sgt. Gary Macnamara said.

Two weekend freeway shootings--one apparently aimed at a California Highway Patrol officer--left one man in the hospital and two others in jail, authorities said. A Tarzana man was in fair condition Sunday after he was shot in the chest by a gunman in a passing van while driving his Jaguar on the Ventura Freeway in Agoura Hills on Saturday.

The search intensified on Monday for a drive-by shooting suspect who slipped out of his handcuffs and escaped while being guarded by four sheriff's deputies, authorities said. Albert Bagdasian, 21--also known as Arthur Mastikian--is considered violent, armed and dangerous, said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Jesus Arellano. "He's still out there and he's got a lot of friends," Arellano said Monday. "That makes our job a little harder."