Gangs

The flowers and candles began piling up Friday at the corner of 104th Street and Budlong Avenue, after a suspected gang member was fatally shot there. To residents in this rough section of unincorporated South L.A., that killing was bad enough. Then Monday night, a group of mourners were gathered there when a gunman walked by and opened fire, killing two men -- both suspected gang members -- and gravely wounding a third.

Los Angeles Police Department officials said Tuesday they had arrested two juvenile gang members in connection with two robberies in the Silver Lake area. The arrests were made Saturday by undercover officers tracking local gang members believed to be responsible for the robberies, said LAPD Capt. Bill Murphy. Two youths, ages 15 and 16, were taken into custody on suspicion of armed robbery in two robberies near Hyperion and Rowena avenues. -- ruben.vives@latimes.com

Police were searching Saturday for a group of youths who attacked a longtime Fullerton minister and his sons, chasing them into their church and pelting them with rocks. The Rev. Willie Holmes, president and founder of Majesty Christian Fellowship, said he was driving his two sons and another passenger back to the church from a Fullerton Union High School concert about 10:20 p.m. Friday when they were attacked near Valencia Drive and Highland Avenue.

A longtime Fullerton minister who was targeted in a gang attack led a march Sunday to raise awareness about community violence as police announced they had arrested three juveniles on suspicion of hurling rocks and bricks at the minister and his sons. The Rev. Willie Holmes, president and founder of Majesty Christian Fellowship, said about 50 to 60 supporters joined the procession after church services.

The small houses of the Independencia neighborhood climb a hill that rises from the bone-dry Santa Catarina riverbed. Gang graffiti proliferate the higher you go, until they completely cover the cinder-block walls with slogans, threats and declarations. Young men in baggy pants, sweat shirt hoodies pulled tightly around their faces, populate the desolate street corners, in between vacant lots and shattered wooden stoops.

Villagers in central Kenya clashed with a criminal gang using machetes, axes and clubs, killing at least 29 people and leaving the streets stained with blood, police said Tuesday. Residents near the town of Karatina fought Mungiki members overnight because the gang had been extorting money from them, deputy police spokesman Charles Owino said. "The majority of the dead are Mungiki members," Owino said. At least three others were seriously wounded.

When El Monte Police Officer George Fierro was seen on video kicking a prone, heavily tattooed gang member in the head at the end of a televised high-speed chase, he received some criticism but also a good amount of praise. Then the 15-year police veteran's side business made the news, and no one advocated giving him a medal for that. When he's not fighting crime and chasing gang members, Fierro sells a line of clothing. His company's website is known "for its authentic jailhouse wear."

On a street where gangsters have notoriously ruled for generations, Rosa Recinos lounged in a plastic chair on the sidewalk Saturday morning and soaked in the scene. "The children are laughing and playing outside," she said. "This is something you would have never seen here before." After nearly 30 years of living on Drew Street in Northeast Los Angeles, the 50-year-old Salvadoran immigrant, like many of her neighbors, has lived through it all on these two blocks.

There was a logjam at the door of a makeshift schoolhouse one recent morning, because everyone was being scanned with a metal detector. There was a reason for that. Of the 50 students filing in for class, 45 were once gang members -- in at least 30 rival gangs. It was a swaggering crowd, with shaved heads and baggy pants, gold chains draped around thick necks. Many still used their street names: Brick. Q Ball. The students sat on metal folding chairs.

Federal authorities on Wednesday announced the arrests of 11 additional members of the Varrio Hawaiian Gardens street gang, which is at the center of a massive racketeering case dubbed Operation Knock Out. At least 16 members and associates from other gangs wanted on state and federal charges were also taken into custody in what federal officials said was the second phase of the operation.