Police Raids Los Angeles

The film "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" was being copied at the very moment police raided the house in Sun Valley, seizing more than 4,000 videotaped movies, 2,000 blank tapes, 21 videocassette recorders, 1,500 blank video sleeves and other alleged evidence of a major "pirate lab." What's eating the Motion Picture Assn.

It turned out to be a real drag for the 400 who recently showed up to participate in or watch drag-racing along a quarter-mile stretch near Dodger Stadium. Acting on neighbors' complaints about engine exhaust, noise and a street littered with empty beer bottles, 25 police officers issued 305 citations to the speedsters and spectators on Stadium Way. No arrests were made, but six vehicles belonging to drivers without valid licenses were impounded.

An anti-gang raid in South-Central Los Angeles on Thursday may have inadvertently netted the culprits in a brazen $47,000 casino robbery that this week sent crowds of high rollers diving for cover in Las Vegas, authorities said.

One man was killed and another was wounded in a shootout Friday night with Los Angeles police who were searching in Hawthorne for a suspect wanted in one of last month's ambush attacks on LAPD officers. The shooting occurred shortly after 6 p.m. near Broadway and Prairie Avenue, west of Hawthorne Municipal Airport, police said. Details remained sketchy, and the identity of the dead man was not immediately disclosed.

A suspect wanted in one of last month's ambush attacks on Los Angeles Police Department anti-gang officers was killed by officers Friday night in a dramatic shootout in Hawthorne. The dead man was identified by police as 20-year-old Terrance Thomas, who had been the focus of an intense manhunt stretching from Los Angeles to Denver.

The latest in a series of health department raids on illegal street vendors turned violent Wednesday when a Los Angeles police officer was forced to use pepper spray to subdue a man who was later cited for illegally preparing corn for sale on the street. The raid marked the first incident in a series of inspections at a run-down apartment complex on Blythe Street, which has been a home to dozens of street vendors and has been raided twice since July.

Police-led crews cleaned out the remains of a homeless camp Wednesday in a parking lot between Etiwanda and Lindley avenues south of Sherman Way. The cleanup effort followed a two-week sweep in which police arrested 13 people in and around the parking lot, most on suspicion of drug- or alcohol-related crimes, said Los Angeles Police Officer Mark Pryor. Pryor said police receive frequent calls from neighbors complaining about noise, odors and property crimes around the site.

The fight over the state's extermination of ducks in Venice surfaced again Wednesday as wildlife officials raided the home of an opponent of the killing, seizing campaign literature and neighbors' telephone numbers--but no ducks. Linda Shusett said four or five game wardens with guns drawn kicked open the gate outside her Sherman Canal bungalow Wednesday and searched the house for two hours.

Rejecting claims of police brutality and cover-up in the Los Angeles Police Department, a federal court jury ruled Tuesday that officers were justified in shooting Tujunga gunsmith John Gersboll at least seven times in a 1990 raid. The Los Angeles federal court jury delivered the Police Department a clean sweep in the highly publicized case, ruling that officers did not unlawfully assault Gersboll or his wife, did not inflict emotional distress and did not violate the couple's civil rights.

A raid two weeks ago on a Highland Park "chop shop," a garage where stolen cars are dismantled, has led to a continuing investigation into what police say may be a sophisticated car theft ring. One person has been charged with receiving stolen property, said Harold Bowman, a detective in the Los Angeles Police Department's Northeast station. Detectives are examining evidence seized to determine if patrol officers stumbled upon a major car theft ring.