Officer Slain Responding to Drive-By Gang Shooting

Officer Daniel Pratt, shot in the face during a gun battle, is the first Los Angeles policeman to die in an incident stemming from a gang-related drive-by shooting, Police Chief Daryl F. Gates said Sunday.

Pratt--a six-year veteran of the force, “a top 1 percenter” according to his supervisors--was 30 and the father of three young children. His wife, Andrea, is five months’ pregnant, Gates said.

Four people were taken into custody Sunday morning by police investigating the shoot-out on Saturday night in Hyde Park near Inglewood. The man suspected of shooting Pratt, Anthony Brown, 20, is a gang member, Gates said.

According to Gates, Pratt was chasing a car suspected of involvement in a drive-by shooting when the vehicle made a U-turn and bore down on his unmarked police car. Brown opened fire with an automatic weapon, hitting Pratt in the face, Gates said. The car, a yellow 1976 Pontiac Ventura driven by a 17-year-old girl, who also is affiliated with a gang, sped away after the shooting, Gates said.

Brown will be booked on suspicion of murder in Pratt’s death and attempted murder in the drive-by shooting, Gates said. He said that Donald Hill, 21, also will be booked on suspicion of murder. The juvenile driver and another 17-year-old girl arrested with Brown and Hill may also be booked, Gates said.

Gates said investigators went to 1330 W. 69th Street, where the arrests were made without incident Sunday morning. He said the Pontiac was found nearby but did not disclose what else led police to the suspects.

Gates raised his voice and pounded the table Sunday at a news conference when he talked about the impact of the death on the police “family.”

“You have an officer,” Gates said, “a young man like this, who is a member of the family, who also has a family, who has a child he will never see . . . four young kids growing up without a father, because you’ve got no-good miserable sons of bitches out there . . . (that) this society continues to allow to roam the streets.”

The incident that took Pratt’s life began Saturday about 8 p.m. Pratt and his partner, Veronica DeLao, were patrolling undercover in an unmarked car when they heard a report on the police radio about a drive-by shooting in the 6800 block of 11th Avenue that had wounded three. They went to investigate.

The bullets hit two men Gates identified as members of the Rolling 60s Crips gang: Anthony Simpkins, 17, shot in the right knee and the left thigh, and Gregory McCoy, hit in the right lower leg. Police did not know McCoy’s age.

Suzanne Stewart, 29, who was also wounded, is not affiliated with any gangs. She was doing her laundry when she was shot, the chief said.

Shortly after the shooting, Pratt and DeLao saw a car matching the description of the vehicle used in the drive-by shooting and began following it. The car wound up at the Unocal gas station on the southeast corner of Florence Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard.

One of the gas station attendants, who insisted her name not be used --”I have to live here,” she explained--was about to go home when the suspects’ car arrived, about 8:20 p.m. “When the guy drove through here, he had a rifle in his hand and that is all I needed to know,” she said. “I took off.”

Gates said that Pratt and DeLao followed the car, parked and were about to get out when the car with Brown in it made a U-turn and shots were fired from an automatic weapon. Both officers, who were wearing police raid vests, returned fire.

Gates said he believes that their assailants knew they were police officers.

Jose Cuadrado, another Unocal attendant, said: “I heard a lot of shooting and I hit the ground. I thought it was safe and I looked up and there was more shooting.”

“It was like a war zone,” said customer Charles Thomas.

Pratt was pronounced dead at Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital. DeLao was not injured.

Although Pratt is the first Los Angeles police officer to die in an incident stemming from a gang-related drive-by shooting, Officer James H. Pagliotti, 28, was the first to die in gang-related violence. He was killed in a Sylmar shoot-out with two gang members involved in a drug deal in June, 1987. On June 7, Officer James Beyea was killed in North Hollywood while investigating a burglary call in another case police say is gang-related.