Fear of Gang Violence Haunts Buena Park Neighborhood After Youth Is Shot to Death

The graffiti on Thelma Avenue issues its warning. This is gang turf.

The Buena Park neighborhood just south of the Artesia Freeway is not a gang battle zone like South-Central Los Angeles, but for a moment last week, it was equally violent.

A shooting Monday in the driveway at the home of Amado Erick Ortega left one youth dead, another injured and residents in fear. Since then, police have assigned six extra officers to patrol the neighborhood in an effort to prevent another night of violence.

At the Ortega home, which was still under police surveillance Saturday, Catalina Ortega said she lives in fear of retribution by the local gang. The situation “is not going to get better,” she said. “It is going to get worse.

“The police may be able to protect us now, but they cannot protect us 24 hours a day,” she said.

Buena Park Police Lt. Richard Hafdahl said her son, Amado Ortega, 20, was arrested early Tuesday on suspicion of murder.

Hafdahl said one youth was shot once in the back, and the other was shot in the arm after an argument broke out in the driveway of the Ortega home in the 6500 block of Thelma. While police would not release the names of the two victims, the dead youth was identified by family members as 17-year-old Rick Magallanes.

Detective Ken Coovert, a gang specialist in the Buena Park Police Department’s Special Problems Unit, said that Ortega is a former member of the Los Coyotes gang and that Monday night’s confrontation centered on his sister’s involvement with a member of a rival gang. Coovert said the two youths shot Monday were both associated with Los Coyotes.

According to Catalina Ortega, ever since her son dropped out of the Los Coyotes gang three years ago and her 21-year-old daughter Christina began dating a member of another gang, she and her family have lived in fear.

Then, on Monday night, she said, “all hell broke lose.” At around 8:15 p.m., 12 to 15 youths entered her front yard carrying bottles, bricks, crowbars and baseball bats, she said. “There was a lot of commotion so I went to the kitchen to dial 911.”

Amado took a rifle that was in the house and tried to scare the intruders away, she said. “He came to our defense.”

But Catalina Ortega’s story is just one of several accounts of the shooting.

Sgt. Terry Branum of the Buena Park police said he has heard conflicting reports about what started the violence, but he is certain “there was a large group involved in the incident.”

Meanwhile, members of Rick Magallanes’ family continue to insist that the shooting was not gang-related.

“Every time there is an incident that occurs in this neighborhood, police assume it is gang-related,” said Mike Magallanes, Rick’s cousin. Mike Magallanes said he did not know what caused the incident, but he was certain Rick was not a gang member.

“It was just a case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time,” he said. Magallanes said witnesses told him that Rick was walking down the street when “the kid (Ortega) started making some remarks.” Rick Magallanes “kept walking, and the kid went back into the house, got a gun and popped him,” he said.

Paramedics took Rick Magallanes to La Palma Intercommunity Hospital, where he died 30 minutes later. The other youth, identified only as a 16-year-old male, was taken to the same hospital and released after treatment, a police spokesman said.

Claudia Coronado, 16, Rick Magallanes’ girlfriend, said: “He was always happy. No one . . . hated him. . . . If someone was sad, he always cheered them up.”

Family members who gathered at the Magallanes’ home this week said they feel no need for personal revenge. They want only to clear Rick Magallanes’ name of any gang activity, his cousin Bobroy Rivera said.

Branum said Buena Park officers will continue the increased surveillance of the neighborhood “until the situation is cooled down.” But until it does, police are being cautious. For the most part, gang activity in that area has been quiet in the past few years, Branum said. “We’ve had a few isolated incidents every few months,” he said. “But we expect more problems than normal because of the incident,” he said.

Neighbors also are being cautious.

Cynthia Leffel, who recently moved into a home a few houses away from where the shooting occurred, said she is worried. “I think there is a lot of gang activity here,” she said. “I’d like to leave here and go back to a quieter place.”

Meanwhile, at Raymond Temple School, less than 100 yards from the shooting, Principal Jacki Parkhill said she has received several calls from worried parents.

Parkhill said she has received assurances from police that the children are not in danger. But as a precaution, officials at the elementary school have added a new warning to the safety rules they stress to students.

“We tell them, if they see any altercation involving adults, they should run home, lock the door and call the police,” Parkhill said.