Widespread Gun Violence Plagues Los Angeles

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, November 21, 2002

Widespread Gun Violence Plagues Los Angeles

Police in the second largest US city of Los Angeles are investigating a string of shootings on Wednesday that left two men dead and six others injured in a wave of gang violence.

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Police in the second largest US city of Los Angeles are investigating a string of shootings on Wednesday that left two men dead and six others injured in a wave of gang violence.

A man was shot twice early Wednesday morning before crashing his car near Parthenia Street and Tampa Avenue in Northridge. He was hospitalized in critical condition.

Another man was shot to death inside a Mercedes-Benz sedan during an argument on Wilshire Boulevard in city's Miracle Mile district just before midnight Tuesday.

Early Tuesday evening, a man was killed and six others were injured in three separate shootings that took place within a 35-minute period in South Los Angeles. Police said two of those appeared to be gang-related.

Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) have detained three peoplein connection with one of the murders in downtown.

The LAPD called for the public help in stemming the latest waveof gun shootings that usually involve gang activities. "There may be some potential risk that every body has this fear of retaliation but the reality is that if they do nothing, they're atgreater risk," LAPD Capt. Jim Miller of the 77th Division said.

At dozen of murders were reported over the weekend across the city, six of them occurred in largely minority south Los Angeles and that nine of them were committed with guns.

The wave of gun violence led the new LAPD chief William Brattonto vow Tuesday that LAPD officers would "get back in the game" after losing focus during several years of scandal.

Addressing reporters three weeks after he was sworn in, Brattonsaid five officer-involved shootings during the weekend also proved that there were too many guns on the streets and too many people willing to use them.

"These totals reveal that we've got to get the focus back on the business of fighting crime," the former New York City police commissioner said. "We have over time moved away from that as a priority and now we're at a point where we can get back in the game."

Bratton was hired to replace ex-LAPD chief Bernard Parks, who stepped down in April after failing to win the endorsement of Mayor James Hahn following a corruption scandal in the city's Rampart Division and widespread discontent among rank-and-file officers.

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