Police Blame Gangs for Recent Spate of Shootings

LOS ANGELES —  Police attribute a spate of shootings in the Crenshaw and Leimerk Park communities over the past week to ongoing gang rivalries.

Officials said there have been 10 shootings in the area in the last week, but in most cases the gunmen have missed their targets.

The most serious of the shootings took place Friday when two recent graduates of Dorsey High School were wounded in front of the school by two alleged gang members who mistook the victims for rival gang members.

Investigators said the victims, whose names were not released, had been driving slowly past the front of the school on Farmdale Avenue about 4 p.m. when two men pulled up in a sports car and began shooting.

Police said the two victims, who were treated at a local hospital and released, were not gang members. Two 18-year-old alleged gang members, also not identified, have been arrested in the shooting, police said.

Notwithstanding the theory of police, Khalid Shah, executive director of the youth-oriented, Stop the Violence--Increase the Peace Foundation, said he is not sure about the cause of the recent shootings.

“We are a little puzzled,” he said. “We are trying to find out what it’s stemming from.”