Free Republic

A car has plowed into the front of a Los Angeles house where a group of 11 mostly elderly people were holding a bible study and prayer meeting, leaving one person dead and eight injured, authorities said. The red sedan left a gaping hole in the house in the Harbor Gateway neighborhood on Wednesday night and was almost entirely inside when it stopped. …

LOS ANGELES - A 14-year-old girl was killed by Hispanic gang members who police say were targeting blacks. A 9-year-old girl died after being hit by a stray bullet as gang members exchanged shots near her home. A police officerwas wounded in a gunbattle with a suspected gangster. The soaring violence is prompting police and politicians to promise one of the toughest crackdowns against gangs in city history. "This is the monster, this is what drives people's fears," said Deputy Chief Charles Beck, who oversees a South Los Angeles district where gang-related crime jumped 24 percent during the year ending...

Another Gateway attack Crime: Man shot days after police announce gang crackdown. Article Launched: Two days after authorities announced a crackdown on gangs, a man was shot in the Harbor Gateway area early Saturday in a chilling attack with similarities to recent shootings believed to be gang-related. The victim, a black man with no known gang ties, was shot once in the chest by a Latino gunman who opened fire without uttering a word at about 2 a.m. in the 22500 block of Harvard Boulevard, just about a mile and a half south of where 14-year-old Cheryl Green was shot...