13 Dead, 12 Wounded in Violence

At least 13 people were killed and 12 wounded in weekend violence that included rapes and a triple shooting in which a 13-year-old Watts girl was killed, authorities said Sunday.

Latashya Johnson, was shot by a pair of assailants about 6 a.m. Saturday after she and two friends were taken hostage in a second-floor apartment in the 2000 block of East Imperial Highway, authorities said.

Los Angeles Police Officer Mike Schwehr said the suspects broke into the apartment, raped two of the victims and then shot all three. Johnson died at the scene. The names and conditions of the two other women were not released.

The spate of killings began at 12:43 a.m. Saturday when gunmen in a passing vehicle fired on a group of 15 to 20 suspected gang members standing near the intersection of Whittier Boulevard and Record Avenue in East Los Angeles, said Sheriff’s Deputy George Ducoulombier. Four youths were wounded.

Shortly afterward, a car drove by again and the area was sprayed with shotgun fire. Four more people were wounded in that attack, including 13-year-old Abraham Valenzuela, who died at East Los Angeles Doctors Hospital.

Another shooting believed to be gang-related occurred at about 1:35 a.m., when police officers found 15-year-old Rigoberto Millan lying in an alley in the 2500 block of Fairmount Street in Boyle Heights, said the LAPD’s Schwehr. Millan died from gunshot wounds two hours later at County-USC Medical Center. No arrests have been made, Schwehr said.

The violence continued Sunday as Los Angeles police officers found the body of Ricardo Nunez, 25, who had been beaten and kicked to death by three assailants at about 1:20 a.m. in the 8400 block of South Main Street.

In other incidents:

* Ralph James King, a wheelchair-bound 58-year-old, was killed by shotgun fire at about 4 p.m. Saturday as he was lounging near the pool area of his apartment complex in the 100 block of Reno Street in Los Angeles.

Police said the shotgun was wielded by Robert Charles Cook, 46, who fired from his balcony, killing King and wounding another person. Police said Cook returned to his apartment and killed himself.

* Ramsey Jurkiewicz, 23, was shot Saturday at 5:50 p.m. during a dispute with a neighbor at his apartment building in the 1200 block of North Las Palmas Avenue in Hollywood, police said. Jose Estrada, 18, has been booked in connection with the shooting, police said.

* Wilfredo Soto, 23, was shot in the chest with a shotgun by another man during a dispute over a woman. Soto died Saturday evening in his front yard in the 6300 block of Ajax Street in Bell Gardens.

* Guadalupe Arreola, 16, was shot at about 5:45 p.m. Saturday in the 1000 block of East 7th Street in Long Beach by suspects in a passing vehicle, police said.

* Bunna Svay, 17, was killed in Long Beach about 6 p.m. Saturday in the 2100 block of Atlantic Avenue in a gun battle between her boyfriend, Visa Khoy, 19, and another man, Sokun Sam, 30, Long Beach police said. Both men were wounded, Lt. Al George said.

* Authorities also reported the killings of four men in unrelated incidents, including one in which a Hawthorne police officer shot a suspect.