Shots Fired

There's a gang in our neighborhood: the Westside Locos 13.

For the most part, they just tag up the neighborhood, including an old man's garage -- i love that old man. He has repainted that garage wall probably 100 times. Now they don't touch his wall anymore.

God bless perseverance.

Now it seems the gang is sadly, "maturing".

It was about 9:45 last night. Bren and I were canoodling, when we heard about 10 gunshots. They were loud and they sounded vicious... fired very quickly. Then it was eeriely quiet. 10 minutes later the cops arrived... then the firetruck/paramedics, and finally the chopper with the big searchlight.

It circled over our house, whoosh whoosh whoosh... loud, ominously shining a light into our bedroom and our kitchen until 1130p or so. I saw a bunch of kids talking to the cops, heard a cop yell, "get back into your house, miss" and another one say, "there's one over here and over there."

It was kinda scary, but mostly kinda exciting! The news choppers arrived a little bit after the police chopper did.

I did the only thing you'd expect from me... I climbed out onto the porch in an effort to catch a glimpse of the action. I know, I am horrible. Then I tried to take some photos of it, but my zoom lens is sorely lacking. I also immediately checked the news wires to see what was happening. Pretty sobering stuff:

From City News Service

LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A teenage boy was fatally wounded when he allegedly fired toward a Los Angeles police officer in the South Robertson area, authorities said today.
The youth was shot after LAPD officers witnessed a shooting involving several people near Venice Boulevard and Cattaraugus Avenue around 9:45 last night, said Officer Jason Lee, a department spokesman.
Authorities withheld his name, pending notification of relatives. But ABC7 identified the fatally wounded teen as 14-year-old Victor Garcia, whose family set up a makeshift shrine at the shooting scene.
``I came over here and they didn't want to tell me nothing. I had to go to the hospital,'' the teen's sister told Channel 7. ``All they told me is`he's gone.' He liked to play football and video games, basketball. He was a good brother, a good uncle.''
According to police, the shooting occurred as officers arrived at the scene. The teen allegedly fired toward an officer, who returned fire, Lee said.
A weapon was recovered at the scene, he said.
A person was taken into custody for questioning, according to police.