Patrols Bolstered : Beef-Up Cuts Gang Crimes, Police Say

Two juveniles were shot when the barrel of a gun slid out the window of a passing car.

Two other teens were arrested on suspicion of transporting rock cocaine in a stolen blue Datsun.

A man brandishing a rifle was stopped by police and questioned, but the occupants of a white car who sprayed gunfire at a group of residents sitting on a porch in Logan Heights haven’t been found.

Considered Serious

Each incident was considered by police to be a serious gang-related crime and marked the highlights of a Memorial Day weekend, but police said Monday that the incidents paled in contrast to last week, when a sudden surge of gang activity burst onto the streets of Southeast San Diego.

On Friday, police announced beefed-up patrols and increased surveillance of known gang neighborhoods for the three-day holiday. They were worried that the spurt of shootings and other gang violence would hit crisis proportions.

The added police presence apparently paid off.

“It was even slow at 30th and Imperial,” said Sgt. Joe Molinoski of the San Diego street gang unit, describing the corner where police routinely find heavy gang activity and brazen drug sales.

“It was amazing to see hardly anybody on the street,” he said. “Maybe the overcast weather had an impact, but it was also the combination of our officers out there. We kept up a high police presence.”

When police announced the stepped-up patrols, they were already investigating 13 shootings in the city over the previous six days. Detectives identified five of those shootings as gang-related.

Dozen Suspects at Large

Most of the shootings occurred in Southeast San Diego, where a dozen suspects have not yet been located, arrested and taken off the streets, police said.

To dramatize their concerns, police said one gang-occupied car seized last week by police had two weapons--a sawed-off shotgun and an AK-47 automatic rifle.

During the long weekend, Molinoski said, police patrols were doubled. Officers worked alongside gang detectives in street clothes, monitoring potentially explosive situations.

He said the department also found new cooperation from the community, as several anonymous tips about last week’s shootings were phoned in over the weekend to the Crime Stoppers program.

“On two of those shootings, we’re developing some very good leads,” Molinoski said. “Information has been brought to us, and we’re discussing it and meeting with potential witnesses.”

Sunday’s most serious incident occurred about 11 p.m., when two Latino teen-agers were struck by gunfire as they were walking near 28th Street and Ocean View Boulevard. The shots came from a car carrying four or five Latino men, police said.

One of the youths, who is 13, was shot in the back. He was listed in fair condition Monday at the UC San Diego Medical Center. His companion, who was shot in the arm, was treated at the medical center and released. Neither youth was identified.

“There were two shots fired from what appeared to be some sort of shotgun,” Molinoski said. “Apparently, the suspects in the vehicle made some sort of a verbal challenge. The victims thought they were friends passing by, but then they witnessed the gun coming out of the car.”

Farther down the street on Ocean View Boulevard, near the 4200 block, several porch-sitters were shot at Friday night when a white car slowed going past their house. No one was injured, and police were still searching Monday for the vehicle.

In Logan Heights, officers stopped a blue Datsun that matched a vehicle used in a drive-by shooting last week. Inside, they found two known gang members and a quantity of rock cocaine. Police also learned that the car had been reported stolen.

The occupants, both high school-age teens, were arrested on suspicion of auto theft, possession of drugs and probation violations.

Man Found Waving Rifle

And, in a second Logan Heights incident, police responding to a call of shots being fired found a man standing on the street waving a .22-caliber rifle.

“His explanation was that he also was out looking to see who the fired the shots,” Molinoski said.

The man was not arrested, but the gun was impounded.

Despite the isolated incidents, police by late Monday afternoon were satisfied that their efforts had reversed the upswing in gang activity. Police officials plan to meet today with Deputy Chief Mike Rice to discuss gang assignments.

“With the turn of events following the previous week, we feel we’ve had a real impact, at least on violent crimes involving gang members,” Molinoski said. “We may want to do this more often.”