LOS ANGELES (AP) ― A gang member and a suspected associate are under arrest for a shooting that critically wounded a 6-year-old boy in a Los Angeles area where a Hispanic gang has targeted African American victims.
But police say it's unknown if Tuesday's attack was racially motivated. The mayor says the victim, who is African American, is on life support.
City leaders strongly assert they would not downplay an element of racial bias if it existed and they insist there has not been a serious increase in such crimes in Los Angeles.
Two Hispanic men, ages 25 and 26, were arrested early Wednesday, only 17 hours after bullets were fired at a family of six driving through the Harbor Gateway area in a sport utility vehicle.
Police Captain William Hayes told a Los Angeles news conference Wednesday one of the men is a local gang member and the other is "probably an associate" of the gang.
Officials say overall homicides are up so far this year, but gang violence and gang-related homicides are down in Los Angeles.
http://cbs2.com/local/Shooting.Boy.Harbor.2.669339.html
But police say it's unknown if Tuesday's attack was racially motivated. The mayor says the victim, who is African American, is on life support.
City leaders strongly assert they would not downplay an element of racial bias if it existed and they insist there has not been a serious increase in such crimes in Los Angeles.
Two Hispanic men, ages 25 and 26, were arrested early Wednesday, only 17 hours after bullets were fired at a family of six driving through the Harbor Gateway area in a sport utility vehicle.
Police Captain William Hayes told a Los Angeles news conference Wednesday one of the men is a local gang member and the other is "probably an associate" of the gang.
Officials say overall homicides are up so far this year, but gang violence and gang-related homicides are down in Los Angeles.
http://cbs2.com/local/Shooting.Boy.Harbor.2.669339.html
