Harbor Gateway quadruple shooting followed dispute in apartment

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LAPD officers investigate the scene around an apartment building in the 1600 block of West 205th Street, where three people were found dead. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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Children watch police investigators working the crime scene after three people were found dead at an apartment building in Harbor Gateway. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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An LAPD officer holds crime scene tape at Harvard Boulevard and 204th Street to allow a school bus to turn around, after streets were blocked off around the area where three people were found dead at an apartment building in the 1600 block of 205th Street in Harbor Gateway. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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As police tape blocks off their street, neighbors watch investigators in the area where three people were found dead in Harbor Gateway. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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Two men stand by the apartment building where three people were found dead in the 1600 block of 205th Street in Harbor Gateway. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

By Kate Mather and Joseph Serna

May 10, 2013 8:58 AM PT

Los Angeles police said residents in a Harbor Gateway neighborhood where three people were shot to death Friday morning have nothing to fear.

“There is no additional danger to the community members in the area,” said LAPD Capt. Nancy Lauer.

Officials said police received a 911 call about 5:35 a.m. from a resident reporting hearing eight or nine gunshots in an apartment building in the 1600 block of West 205thStreet, where officers found three victims.

There was a dispute inside an apartment there that led to the shooting, Lauer said.

About a block away, police found a fourth shooting victim walking near Del Amo Boulevard and Western Avenue and covered in blood, said Officer Christopher No. That person is listed in serious condition at a local hospital, Lauer said.

Authorities said a red Dodge Charger and a gray Ford Explorer were seen speeding away from the scene.

“We have a number of leads,” Lauer said.

Several blocks were cordoned off by police tape in the area, as detectives and officers huddled at the intersection of Harvard Boulevard and 206th Street.

Some neighbors walked over to watch the authorities at work, shaking their heads when asked if they had heard anything earlier. “I saw it on the news,” one man said.

Others watched from their front windows or porches.

The neighborhood is a mix of houses and apartment buildings, most surrounded by wrought-iron fences and many with flowers in the frontyard.

Friday’s deaths were the first homicides in the Harbor Gateway area this year, according to The Times’ Homicide Report.

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joseph.serna@latimes.com

@josephserna

kate.mather@latimes.com