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Boy, 6, shot in head by suspected gang members in Harbor Gateway

Daily News wire services
Article Last Updated: 03/04/2008 05:34:01 PM PST


A 6-year-old boy riding in a sedan was shot in the head and hospitalized in critical but stable condition Tuesday after two men flashed gang signs at the car and opened fire, shattering the car's rear window in the Harbor Gateway area.

The gunfire broke out at about 12:30 p.m. near 227 Halldale Ave., Los Angeles police Chief William Bratton said.

Three adults and three children - all black - were in an older-model sedan being driven along Halldale when two Latino men standing along the road flashed gang signs at the vehicle, and then fired several shots, Bratton said. The bullet then struck the 6-year-old boy in the head.

The driver of the vehicle kept going, and when the people in the car realized the boy had been shot, the car was pulled over and paramedics were called. Brian Humphrey of the Los Angeles Fire Department said paramedics were sent to the 22300 block of South Western Avenue.

Police began searching a roughly two-block area bounded by 226th and 228th streets between Halldale and Denker avenues.

The suspects were described as Hispanic men in their 20s, one with short black hair and the other with a shaved head.

"This is an area that is under the influence of a Latino gang ... and you may recall that about a year or so ago the mayor and I were engaged in a major initiative up the street at 204th Street, where there had been the shooting death of a young black woman," Bratton said, referencing the killing of 14-year-old Cheryl Green.
Bratton said the people in the car were not residents of the area. He said the people in the car included the 6-year-old boy, one 3-year-old child and another 18-month-old child, one man and two women - including one who was six months pregnant.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa condemned the shooting, and decried the recent rash of shootings that occurred in South Los Angeles and Arlington Heights.

"Our hearts and prayers are with the family (of the 6-year-old boy) at this time, with the community that has suffered a lot over the last few years - a community of good people, hard-working people, people who want safety for the children in the neighborhood. All I can say is I trust that the men and women of the LAPD are going to work as hard as they can work around the clock to bring these individuals to justice."

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_8452826