12 people were killed in an bloody weekend I want all the gangs crushed. I want gang attire demolished

12 people were killed in an bloody weekend - half of them in the San Fernando Valley. While the LAPD's top brass tried to assure residents there is nothing to panic about - even calling the weekend murder spike a "blip" - victims' families reeled in anguish. "I am devastated. I want all the gangs crushed. I want gang attire demolished," said Leigh Lopez before breaking down in tears as she lit a candle for her nephew, Johnny Ray Lopez, who was gunned down in Panorama City not far from his home as he walked to a friend's house. "I am sick of it. We need to do something," she said, noting that her nephew was not a gang member. "The mayor, the chief of police, they need to do something. They need to crack down like they say they are on television." The string of homicides began with a fatal fight outside a party in Hollywood about 9 p.m. Friday and ended shortly before midnight Sunday in South Los Angeles with the shooting death of a 20-year-old.
"There have been no connections or trends, nor can they be inferred as a result of these homicides," Assistant Chief Earl Paysinger said during an afternoon news conference Monday. "It is nothing to become alarmed about." Still, homicides are up 8 percent in the city and nearly 10 percent in the Valley over the same time last year. In the San Fernando Valley, the six killings ranged from a domestic-violence dispute, in which a man allegedly broke a wine bottle over the head of his mother's boyfriend and then stabbed him with it, to a drunk driver who slammed into the back of a car, killing the driver and his friend. None of the deaths appeared to be related and only one was blamed on gangs.
"The city is, in fact, not under siege," said Paysinger, the Los Angeles Police Department's head of operations. The last time the city had a similar wave of homicides was when 11 people were killed over a four-day period in January.
"This is indeed a blip on the continuum in terms of crime."
But he said with thousands of guns on the street, the weather heating up and gas prices rising, the LAPD will be on alert. Officers will be asked to defer vacations and training to keep up the number of officers on patrol, he said.
The LAPD is placing its elite Metro units in South Los Angeles and a violent-crime task force in the San Fernando Valley to quell crime hot spots. Investigators are also clocking in overtime in the Northeast and Central Valley, where there's been a rash of shootings and violent crime over the past week. Last month, six shootings killing two people and injuring many others, occurred within a four-hour period in the San Fernando Valley. "We are keeping our officers focused on hot spots and trying to deter further acts of violence by identifying people with guns," said Deputy Chief Michel Moore, who oversees the LAPD in the Valley. Police arrested suspects in five of this weekend's six Valley killings, including a 17-year-old. Police say the juvenile was a riding a bike when he approached Lopez and a friend about 2 p.m. Sunday near the 8400 block of Greenbush Avenue, asked them what gang they were from, then shot them. Lopez, who was hit several times in the back and torso, died at the scene. His friend was taken to a hospital and is reported in stable condition. Lopez was a musician in New Mexico and had returned to the Valley less than six months ago to help his sick mother. She fainted and struck her head when she heard the news of her son's death, her family said.
In Arleta just after midnight Saturday, police found the body of a man in his 30s that had apparently been wrapped and dumped. The man appeared to have died from multiple wounds to his torso, police said. Police are trying to determine his identity. Shortly before midnight in Sun Valley, a 34-year-old man was killed when another man hit him with a wine bottle and stabbed him with the broken glass. Police said a 20-year-old man from North Hollywood was in custody, but would not release his name. Detective Tom Townsend said the victim, who also was not identified, was a friend of the suspect's mother. "The suspect didn't like his mom having male companions," Townsend said. "I'm pretty happy right now because we got a confession." In Encino, two people were killed when their vehicle was rear-ended by a suspected drunk driver who was arrested in connection with the deaths. The 2 a.m. crash Saturday occurred when a 1995 Mercury Mystique driven west on Ventura Boulevard by Sean Mishlof, 24, hit the rear of a 1990 Nissan Sentra and the impact killed 23-year old Sepehr Keshavarz of Iran and 25-year-old Farzad Etesamifar of Reseda. Mishlof, who remained at the scene, was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving and charged with murder, police said.
At 2:40 a.m. Sunday in North Hills, security guards found the body of Soccoro Lopez, 29, who was parked behind a Walgreens, near Nordhoff Street and Columbus Avenue, and sitting behind the steering wheel of his Honda. Lopez, who left behind a wife and young child, was sitting in the driver's seat and had been shot in the torso - an apparent victim of a robbery.
Kenneth Harris, 44, who was described as a local transient, was later arrested in connection with the shooting, police said. He was being held at the Valley Jail in Van Nuys in lieu of $1 million bail.