12 at Party Wounded in Drive-By Raid

Gunmen blasting from a passing vehicle wounded 12 people--including toddlers and other children--Friday night at a family gathering in the eastern San Gabriel Valley suburb of Valinda, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies reported.

The wounded included seven children and teen-agers, three women--one a 63-year-old grandmother--and two men. The victims were taken to the Queen of the Valley Hospital in West Covina and the Terrace Plaza Medical Center in Baldwin Park.

Lt. Mel Savage of the City of Industry substation said the 63-year-old woman was in critical condition at Queen of the Valley. An 18-month-old child may lose an eye, he said. The condition of a year-old child was not immediately known.

The victims were gathered in a patio on the side of a house in the 1100 block of Evanwood Avenue, near Fairgrove Avenue when gunmen opened fire with a variety of weapons, including a shotgun, shortly before 9 p.m., Savage said.

Leonard Mercado, 30, who said he was a cousin of many of the victims, said relatives were wrapping up a get-together at the home of Tony Lopez. He said they were celebrating the release of a family member from state prison.

“We were just having a good time and partying. We were just all leaving,” Mercado said. “I turned around. There was two cars driving by and they started shooting. I looked down and (a female cousin) was shot in the legs and stomach. I jumped on top of her and then dragged her to the back.”

He said several children were hit in a hail of more than 30 bullets, including what sounded like shotgun blasts and automatic weapons fire.

Adults scrambled to scoop up the fallen children, who Mercado said included a year-old girl, a 6-year-old boy, a 9-year-old boy and an 11-year-old boy.

Mercado said one of the most seriously injured was Marianne Lopez, 26, who lives in the Evanwood Avenue house. He said she had been hit in the stomach and legs.

“I know it’s gang-related,” Mercado said, adding several of his cousins are “ex-gang” members.

He said family members did not know why the shooting occurred, but he noted another cousin had been killed just five months ago around the corner from the scene of Friday night’s bloodbath.

He said there had been a continuing rivalry between the Latino gang his relatives had associated with and a black gang in the La Puente area.

“Everybody’s gonna move out of here. We don’t understand why it is happening,” he said.