The suspect is identified by witnesses to the Windsor Park shooting, which occurred among a crowd of youths gathered for a fight between tagging crews, police say.
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 18, 2008
A 16-year-old alleged tagger has been arrested in connection with the shooting death this week of another 16-year-old boy near Los Angeles High School, police said today.
The suspect, whose name was not released because he is a minor, was arrested Wednesday after witnesses identified him, Los Angeles Police Department officials said in a statement.
The suspect and the victim, Adrian Garcia-Diaz, were former Los Angeles High students who each had been expelled for disciplinary reasons, said Sgt. Mike Ventura. They had not, however, attended the school at the same time.
“It’s not like there was bad blood because of something that occurred during the school year previously,” Ventura said.
The alleged shooter and the dead youth were enrolled at continuation high schools, police said. They belonged to rival tagging, or graffiti, crews associated with local gangs, police said.
On Tuesday afternoon, they had joined a crowd of youths gathered at Windsor Park near Olympic and Plymouth boulevards for a fight between their crews that drew other crews too, Ventura said.
Some members of the crowd brought video cameras to film the fight, and investigators are still attempting to obtain footage, he said.
“Hopefully we can find somebody out there who has some kind of sympathy and is willing to be cooperative and bring us some videotaped evidence,” Ventura said.
During the gathering, which involved students from Los Angeles High, a fight broke out and escalated until the suspect pulled a handgun and fired a shot into the crowd, striking Garcia-Diaz in the chest, police said.
Investigators recovered a handgun at the scene and said that since both youths were Latino, race was not a factor in the shooting.
Garcia-Diaz was taken to a local hospital, where he later died, police said.
The suspect was being held without bail.
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call detectives at (213) 473-0446.
molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/crime/la-me-lahigh18-2008jul18,0,4209322.story
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