Gangs Los Angeles

For many families, Park Parthenia in the San Fernando Valley is the first stop in the promised land. But the experience can be rough. Housing in the aging low-rise complex rents for as little as $200 a month, and three families sometimes pile into a two-bedroom apartment. Because of nearby industrial parks and restaurants, it provides convenient housing for working-class Latinos.

Prosecutors won a court order Wednesday against a Pacoima street gang in a bid to curb recent violence that has included the wounding of a 9-year-old girl and the slaying of a 15-year-old boy. The injunction against the Pacoima Project Boys, which was issued by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Howard J. Schwab, applies to 12 gang members and a half-mile area they are known to frequent in the community south of the 118 Freeway.

A former gang leader has been arrested by the FBI in Las Vegas for allegedly shooting one man to death and trying to kill another on March 31. Robert Valenzuela Leon, 31, had been a fugitive since the shootings outside Little Pedro's restaurant in Los Angeles, said Laura Bosley of the FBI. Leon had worked for years as a Hollywood production assistant after getting out of prison in 1996 and joining a program to dissuade others from gangs.

The FBI and Los Angeles Police Department said Friday that they were searching for a former gang leader from East Los Angeles who had tried to turn his life around but is now wanted for allegedly shooting one man to death and trying to kill another. Robert Valenzuela Leon, also known as "Crazy Ace," is sought on murder charges for allegedly killing Steven Sanchez, 31, during a fight among a large group of men outside a downtown Los Angeles restaurant March 31.

After hearing wrenching testimony from the victim's family, a judge sentenced a Los Angeles gang member to 160 years in prison for his role in the killing of an off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy at a Buena Park salon. Orange County Superior Court Judge Frank F. Fasel said he was disturbed by the lack of remorse from the defendant, Andre Willis, who spent the hearing looking around the courtroom, seemingly uninterested in the proceedings.

Catarino Gonzalez Jr., 23, bragged at a wedding party shortly before the 1998 shooting of LAPD Officer Filbert Cuesta that he planned to kill Cuesta and his partner, prosecutors charged Monday in opening statements at the gang member's death penalty trial. "I'm going to take out Cuesta and [Gary] Copeland," a party-goer heard Gonzalez say, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Darren Levine.

A Los Angeles woman wanted on drug charges since 1996 was arrested in Tampa, Fla., as she tried to reenter the country on a flight from Jamaica, an FBI official said Thursday. Bridgette Day, 36, was arrested Tuesday after a routine check at the airport, said FBI Agent James V. DeSarno.

An 18-year-old man was shot twice in the back in Pacoima and two 17-year-old boys were stabbed in Van Nuys on Monday afternoon in unrelated incidents that may both involve gangs, Los Angeles police said. The shooting victim was taken to an area hospital, where he was in serious condition but expected to survive, a nursing supervisor said. The man was shot near a Taco Bell restaurant in the 12700 block of Van Nuys Boulevard about 5 p.m.

A 22-year-old man shot to death in a suspected gang-related attack was identified Sunday by the Los Angeles County coroner's office as Vincente Mena of San Fernando. Mena, who police suspect was a gang member, was shot about 6:30 p.m. Saturday while walking in the 10400 block of Cayuga Avenue, police said. No arrests have been made.

A 22-year-old man was shot to death Saturday in a suspected gang-related attack, police said. The victim, whom police believe was a gang member, was gunned down about 6:30 p.m. on a sidewalk in the 10400 block of Cayuga Avenue, said Sgt. Wes Buhrmester of the Los Angeles Police Department's Foothill Division. No arrests had been made. Detectives were interviewing two witnesses to the shooting, Buhrmester said. The victim had not been identified.