Shootings Los Angeles

A man who pulled a knife on a security guard at an apartment complex was shot and wounded during a brief scuffle Wednesday night, police said. The shooting took place in the 19000 block of Parthenia Street shortly after 8 p.m., according to Sgt. Jeri Weinstein of the Los Angeles Police Department. The scuffle involved an unidentified man and a security guard at the Park Parthenia Apartment Complex. The man fled before rescue personnel arrived to treat him, Weinstein said.

Eleven-year-old Cristal Anguio had been warned repeatedly to be careful when outside her family's modest home in South-Central Los Angeles. Her neighborhood's streets could be dangerous for a youngster. But on Sunday afternoon, the allure of a passing ice cream truck was too much for Cristal. Clutching her brother, 2-year-old Rafael, in her arms, she ran outside to buy ice cream.

The 25-year-old companion of the actor who played house painter and nanny Eldin Bernecky on TV's "Murphy Brown" accidentally shot herself to death, police said Wednesday. "This is a tragedy for all involved," Lt. Anthony Alba said of Charemon Jonovich's death on Monday. She died about 9:50 p.m. in the master bedroom of a residence in the 2700 block of Hollyridge Drive. The couple's 15-month-old daughter was in another room at the time, Alba said.

Los Angeles rap singer Dasean Cooper, a member of Da Lench Mob, was sentenced to 29 years to life Friday for the 1993 murder of his girlfriend's male roommate. The sentencing of Cooper--a rapper and lyricist whose group rose to fame as proteges of superstar rapper Ice Cube--was the harshest punishment yet in the seemingly endless string of entanglements between rap artists and the law. A jury last year convicted Cooper, known to the rap world as J-Dee, in the murder of Scott (Pearl) Charles, 23.

A 38-year-old deliveryman was arrested Thursday in the shooting death of a medical supply company supervisor and the wounding of a dispatcher in a warehouse near Griffith Park. Larry Davis, 40, of Glendora was shot in the upper body and pronounced dead shortly after 9 a.m., said police Lt. Raul Vega. Steve Lonsinger, 29, a dispatcher at Homedco, at 4520 Electronics Place, was shot in the chest and leg and was taken to County-USC Medical Center in Los Angeles, Vega said.

In a case that underscored long-standing racial and ethnic tensions, a Korean-born grocer was convicted of voluntary manslaughter Friday in the shooting death of a 15-year-old black girl the merchant had accused of stealing a $1.79 bottle of orange juice. Soon Ja Du sat quietly, head bowed, in a packed and tense courtroom as the jury delivered its guilty verdict.

Many people heard the barrage of gunfire that killed Andrea Denise Garrett in a housing project on the Eastside recently, but at first, few thought much of the noise. "You're always hearing stuff like that around here," said Michael, a self-described gang "associate," who was talking with friends several blocks away when the shooting occurred early on Feb. 12. "All I knew was, the bullets weren't coming at me."

In an apparent gang-related slaying, two young men pulled up alongside a car stalled near the Santa Monica Freeway and Crenshaw Boulevard and opened fire on the stalled vehicle early Sunday, killing two of three men in it, Los Angeles police said. Detectives identified the victims as the stalled car's driver, Aaron Johnson, 17, and front-seat passenger Larry Logan, 23. A 26-year-old man in the backseat was unharmed in the 3:25 a.m.

Two Los Angeles police officers pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges they shot at a California Highway Patrol officer last month while he wrote a speeding ticket. Officers Michael Herrera and Ted Teyechea, both 30, stood silently with their hands clasped in front of them during the afternoon hearing. Their pleas were entered by their attorneys.

A 15-year-old girl was shot to death Saturday morning by the owner of a liquor store in South Los Angeles who said she struggled with the juvenile after she allegedly tried to steal a bottle of orange juice, authorities reported. Police Detective Jeff Alvarado said authorities were considering seeking charges against the owner in the killing of the unidentified girl, who was shot at about 9:45 a.m. at Empire Liquor-Market at 9127 S. Figueroa St.