Harbor Gateway

A 6-year-old black boy was critically wounded Tuesday when he was shot in the head by suspected Latino gang members as the victim's family drove through the Harbor Gateway neighborhood on their way to an auto auction, Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton said. Two Latino males flashed gang signs before opening fire on the red GMC Yukon with six people inside, including a woman who is eight months pregnant, Bratton said.

As a sophomore in high school, Omar Estrada saw two choices for his life: run with the notorious 204th Street gang in his Harbor Gateway neighborhood or make something of himself. This summer, Estrada, now 21, heads to paramedic school and hopes to work for the Los Angeles Fire Department after he graduates. Estrada started on the path when, as a student at Narbonne High, he heard Fire Department Capt.

The rally Saturday in a Harbor Gateway neighborhood riven by tensions between a Latino street gang and black residents was like many before it. The event, on a cold and sun-splashed afternoon, drew the public officials -- politicians, police, firefighters, the L.A County Human Relations Commission -- who usually attend these kinds of rallies. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa invoked the name of Martin Luther King Jr. as he urged neighbors to "come together ...

Members of Harbor Gateway's 204th Street gang -- which has a reputation for attacking blacks in their area -- said Tuesday they have agreed to a truce and will open their neighborhood to all residents, including African Americans. In exchange, they want similar access to the predominantly African American part of the neighborhood. "We want total access ... for everyone who lives in the neighborhood," said Jonathan O'Gorman, 32, a member of the gang since his early teens.

Three days after police and federal agents promised a crackdown on racial attacks by gangs in the Harbor Gateway area, African American activists returned to the neighborhood Sunday to talk to residents about how to end the violence and to decry what they say is a "race war." To residents' dismay, another attack occurred Saturday morning.

Two Latino gang members were ordered to stand trial Tuesday on murder and hate-crime charges in the shooting death of a 14-year-old African American girl last fall that highlighted racial tensions in a Harbor Gateway community. At a preliminary hearing held in Long Beach, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Arthur Jean ruled that there was enough evidence to try Jonathan Fajardo, 19, and Ernesto Alcarez, 20, in the killing of Cheryl Green. They are scheduled for arraignment July 31.

A year-old boy died Tuesday after being struck by a car driven by his father at their Harbor Gateway area home, authorities said. The father was backing into the driveway of the home in the 1600 block of West 226th Street when the boy, who was being watched by his grandmother, suddenly ran behind the car, said Mike Lopez, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department. The boy was pronounced dead at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. The names of the boy and his father were not released.

Two blocks from where 14-year-old Cheryl Green was shot to death a year ago stands a symbol of the Harbor Gateway neighborhood where she died. The fourplex on 204th Street is one of many apartment buildings erected in this small and crowded neighborhood during the last 20 years. The building has a new coat of yellow paint, yet faintly visible beneath its surface is the graffiti that a year ago covered the building.

When Charlene Lovett moved her family to Harbor Gateway six years ago, she thought it would be a respite from the gang violence she had known in South Los Angeles. Her new neighborhood bordered Torrance, a city she associated with a more tranquil life. So she was startled when neighbors came by her apartment and cautioned her about the 204th Street gang, a Latino gang known for preying on residents of the mostly black neighborhood.

Jeanette Strickland felt compelled to stop at Del Amo Market in the Harbor Gateway neighborhood of Los Angeles on Saturday -- not for milk or eggs, but to send a message. "I have no problem with anyone," Strickland, an African American mother of three, wanted her Latino neighbors to know. "Our kids go to school together. They can talk and learn together, but they can't come home and be together."