Shootings

Police said a shooting that killed a 4-month-old boy and wounded two others in Van Nuys early Sunday was prompted by an argument between rival gang members. The baby, Andrew Garcia, was being fed by a family friend holding him in a car parked on Kittridge Street, near the site of a celebration. Anna Contreras, 28, the friend, and Eric Ramirez, who was standing outside the car, also were shot and wounded. Det. James Nuttall of the Los Angeles Police Department said that the baby's father "is linked to a criminal street gang" and that Ramirez is a known gang member.

Marlene Ramirez and Frank Garcia didn't have a lot, but they were devoted to their 4-month-old son Andrew, relatives said Monday. "He was their life," said Veronica Munoz, Ramirez's cousin. On Monday, Garcia, 21, a warehouse worker, and Ramirez, 18, were making funeral arrangements for their baby, a day after he was killed and two others wounded in what police say was a gang-related shooting in Van Nuys. The killing happened about 1 a.m. Sunday in the 14300 block of Kittridge Street as the young couple were preparing to drive home from a friend's baptismal celebration, Los Angeles police said.

From their perch on a forklift, two men wave their arms and call out to Charlie Bohnhoff as he walks into the lumberyard his family has owned for nearly a century. Getting his attention, the two workers greet their boss with a military salute. Bohnhoff, returning from a delivery, smiles in fake exasperation and yells: "That's it. You guys are out of here!" On the surface at least, Bohnhoff Lumber Co. in Vernon is returning to normal. The floral memorials are gone. The letters and condolence cards have stopped pouring in. The awkward phone calls from customers asking for people no longer there have ceased.

Officers scoured the Ventura County coast Friday looking for a gunshot victim and arrested a 58-year-old Oxnard man for allegedly shooting the man, dumping his body along Pacific Coast Highway and attempting to elude police in an early-morning chase. The bizarre case began shortly after 2 a.m. Friday, when CHP officers attempted to stop a pickup truck after the driver ran a stop sign near Camarillo Springs Road and Adohr Lane. A woman jumped out of the cab of the truck and ran to officers screaming for help, said Eric Buschow, a Ventura County sheriff's detective.

When an Orange County judge in 2003 sentenced gang member Antonio Nunez to life in prison without the possibility of parole for a crime, the defendant became one of the youngest in California history to get the penalty. Nunez was 14 when he sprayed an AK-47 assault rifle at police trying to thwart a 2001 kidnapping plot. In addition to life in prison without the possibility of parole, Nunez also was sentenced to four consecutive life terms on separate counts of attempting to murder four police officers.

A South Los Angeles woman accused of shooting her two sons -- killing her 5-year-old and critically wounding her 16-month-old -- was charged Tuesday with murder and attempted murder. Latonya Ann Dixon, 26, shouted "I've wasted my life" from her balcony after calling 911 Saturday morning to report that she had killed her children, police said. Dixon was charged with one count of murder, one count of assault on a child causing death and one count of attempted premeditated murder, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said.

When the sound of gunfire shattered the peace of morning prayer Thursday at a North Hollywood synagogue, the shock waves traveled fast and far. Was it a hate crime? An act of terrorism? An isolated incident or part of a wider plot? These were all real fears in a city where, 10 years ago, a white supremacist gunman terrorized a Jewish preschool and murdered a postal carrier, and where police have been on alert for acts of terror since Sept. 11, 2001. By day's end, authorities had come to believe that the shooting, in which two men were wounded, was probably a far more mundane crime.

Los Angeles police detectives said Friday that they have "strong leads" in the shooting that left two people wounded Thursday morning at a North Hollywood synagogue. Detective Rich Wheeler says federal authorities are using high-tech equipment to enhance and clarify grainy video footage from the parking garage at the Adat Yeshurun Valley Sephardic Synagogue where the two men were shot as they arrived for a morning service. The footage shows the gunman, officials said. After determining that the attack wasn't a hate crime and ruling out terrorism, detectives are focusing on other motives, Wheeler said.

School officials in Santa Monica and Venice counseled students Wednesday and were cautioned to be on alert for suspicious activity after two former students were slain in separate shootings Tuesday. The killings occurred several hours apart in Venice's Oakwood neighborhood and in the Pico neighborhood in Santa Monica. Santa Monica police arrested and booked four people in connection with the shooting in that city. Sgt. Dave Hunscke, citing the ongoing investigation, declined to say what the suspects were booked on or whether the two killings were connected.

The news made Nihad Awad sick to his stomach. Like the rest of the nation, Awad, who heads the Council on American-Islamic Relations, learned this week that it allegedly was a Muslim who opened fire at a U.S. Army base in Texas, killing 13 people and injuring many more. According to witnesses, Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan issued the great, exalting cry of his faith before opening fire: " Allahu akbar !" God is great. Hearing the story, Awad too would invoke his maker -- but with a weary lament that is echoing coast to coast among American Muslims.