The Spanish graffiti is blunt - and accurate: "Avenue of killers."
Scrawled in blue on a white wall, the words are a warning to anyone heading into the narrow dead-end alley lined with graffiti-scarred homes and litter-strewn lots.A car that took a wrong turn into the alley Sunday was ambushed in a hail of gang gunfire. A toddler in the car was killed and her little brother was wounded.
No arrests have been made, but six detectives are on the case. Authorities pinned the slayings on a particularly violent Hispanic gang, The Avenues.
"They own this alley," a woman, who identified herself only as Ann, said of gang members. "They party all night, drink beer and do drugs. They do what they want. One time some guy drove a little too fast down the alley and they firebombed his car."
Ann, whose back yard peers into the alley, owns two dogs to protect her home from gang members.
Another resident, who would not give her name, said her family doesn't go near the alley, just a few houses away, and never goes out at night.
"It's too dangerous around here," she said.
The latest violence in Cypress Park, a hilly neighborhood just northeast of downtown, erupted
about 2 a.m. Sunday when Timothy Stone, 25, was driving home from a barbecue with his girlfriend, Robynn Kuhen, 26; her brother David Dalton, 22; and Kuhen's three children, Christopher, 5; Stephanie, 3; and Joseph, 2.
Believing it was a shortcut, Stone turned up Isabel Street, not noticing the city sign reading, "Not a through street," or the unofficial sign, "Avenida . . . assecinos," meaning "Avenue of killers," although the second word is a misspelling of the Spanish word "asesinos."
As Stone turned around to leave the alley, 20 gang members surrounded his car and blocked the way with garbage cans and other objects, said police Detective Jim McCann.
When Stone crashed through the makeshift barricade, several in the crowd opened fire with handguns, piercing the car's metal and shattering its windows.A bullet hit Stephanie in the head. She died shortly afterward at a hospital. Joseph was struck in the foot as he sat in his car seat in front. He was listed in good condition Tuesday. Stone, who managed to drive the car to the family's nearby home after being shot in the back, was treated at a hospital and released.
Stephanie and Christopher had been sitting in the back seat between their mother and Dalton, who escaped injury after a passing bullet ripped two holes through his Chicago Bulls cap.
Police suspect the gang's motive was robbery. When Stone didn't stop the car, "they got angry," McCann said.
"They had to have known there were children in the car and that they were white," dispelling the notion that they believed they were attacking rival Hispanic gang members, he said.
Stephanie's aunt Tina Dalton told CNN, "They know that they did kill a baby. I hope that they rot in hell."
The gang has killed before, police said.
In the police department's Northeast Division, a 35-square-mile area that includes at least two gang-plagued neighborhoods, The Avenues are responsible for the "lion's share of criminal activity, including street robberies and a large percentage of homicides this year," Lt. Harold Clifton said.
"We're not talking the Elks club," Clifton said. "These are socially maladjusted animals. They're getting extremely more violent, and we don't have the resources to fight them."
Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti vowed that the killers would spend the rest of their lives in jail and City Councilman Mike Hernandez said he would ask his colleagues Tuesday to post a $25,000 reward for the capture of the shooters.
Gangs never scared Ray Martinez - until now.
A 60-year-old homeless man, Martinez has lived for three months inside a garage scrawled with graffiti. His only protection from the alley is a wrought-iron gate.
"I was hoping to get enough money to get a chain and lock at the hardware store," said Martinez, leaning on a cane and sipping beer from a paper bag. "Now I've got to leave. I don't feel safe anymore."