http://www.signonsandiego.com

Police believe shooting of L.A. student gang-related


ASSOCIATED PRESS

9:40 p.m. June 6, 2006

LOS ANGELES – The family of a student fatally shot in a Venice High School parking lot said Tuesday the teenager was killed over a fight for a diamond necklace. Meanwhile, police searched for the gunman, who they believed to be part of a gang.
Agustin Contreras, a 17-year-old junior at Venice High, died after being shot during a fight shortly after school let out Monday afternoon. Police said Contreras had gone to the aid of two brothers, who were fighting with at least five young men.

Agustin's 16-year-old brother, Alejo Contreras, said two students approached and told him to hand over the diamond-studded cross around his neck.

“They came out of nowhere and said something like 'I like your chain, homie,' “ Alejo told The Los Angeles Times.

Alejo said the assailant grabbed for the chain and yelled out the name of a local black gang.

In the scuffle, one of the men shot the boy in the upper torso and the group fled on foot, police said. No arrests have been made.

Worried about retaliatory attacks, police and community leaders Tuesday called for calm and organized community meetings.

Some activists said the killing could cause an escalation in tensions as Hispanic gangs seek payback. Police said the assailants were black, while the victim was Hispanic.

“There are all-black gangs, there are Latino gangs that have black gang members,” said Oscar de la Torre, founder of the Pico Youth and Family Center, a facility for at-risk youths. “Still, that doesn't keep them from retaliating. It's gang-related, it's race-related. There's a lot of layers to it.”

Venice High has long experienced problems linked to gang-plagued neighborhoods surrounding the campus.

In the early 1990s, several killings in the Oakwood neighborhood were connected to violence between black and Hispanic gangs.

“The kids that feed into this school come from a community that has active gangs, and the schools are a reflection of this,” said school Officer Jose Santome.

The neighborhood, about a mile inland from Venice Beach, has been experienced gentrification in recent years as the area becomes a prime spot for middle-income families wanting to live near the sea.

The Contreras family, Agustin's parents and four brothers, live in a modest apartment just east of Venice. Agustin's older brother, Jesus, 18, graduated from the high school last year.

The two brothers who survived the fight said they believed their brother was a victim of a routine school fight. But Jesus, the eldest brother, believes it was a reflection of the school's problem with gang violence.

“There's all sorts of gangs,” he said. “It's always been like that. There's no control in that school at all.”