3 dead, 12 wounded after gunfire at LA restaurant (updated)

Police are searching for at least two suspects and have two persons of interest in custody after an argument at what police described as a makeshift restaurant in South L.A. led to gunfire overnight, leaving three people dead and 12 wounded.

The shooting occurred around 12:30 a.m. in a neighborhood near Adams and La Brea boulevards in southwest Los Angeles, according to Los Angeles police Officer Mike Lopez.

Three adults were pronounced dead at the scene, and the injured were taken to various hospitals, where their conditions were described as ranging from critical to stable but serious, Lopez told KPCC.

Los Angeles police Sgt. Frank Preciado described the scene.

“At one point it was heavily populated with several individuals that were here,” Preciado told our media partner NBC4. “Everything from eating, to playing dominoes and listening to music, when all of a sudden there was some type of dispute that took place, and male and female returned with handguns, and there was an exchange of gunfire.”

Police said Saturday that they had one male and one female in custody and described them as persons of interest. LAPD officer Jenny Houser told KPCC Sunday morning that at least two suspects remain outstanding. She could not confirm that anyone was in custody.

Lopez said it was still unclear what led to the shooting.

“Our thoughts are with the families mourning or praying at bedsides today,” Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a statement.

None of the names of the victims were being released until next of kin were notified.

The owner of the eatery where the shooting took place told the Los Angeles Times that it is a catering business and he was hosting a birthday party when the incident occurred. 

“I do catering, that’s all I do,” he told the Times. “Except on Saturdays when people come over and I cook food for them.”

The shooting came as Los Angeles police struggle to contain a recent uptick in crime in South L.A.

Garcetti called it just the latest example of a gun violence epidemic that has affected the city and the nation.

“We must take action against easy access to firearms and the thoughtless, indiscriminate, murderous use of them,” Garcetti said. “We cannot tolerate these tragedies multiplying in communities across America.”

In February, the homicide rate in the four most violent police divisions in the city, all in South L.A., was 60 percent higher than the previous year.

LAPD Chief Charlie responded with the introduction of a Community Safety Operations Center (CSOC), a program that has boosted the police presence in those areas by hundreds of officers.

The murder rate fell, with the number of shooting victims down 17 percent by July, when Beck presented the mid-year crime statistics.

Still, at mid-year violent crime in L.A. was up 16.3 percent overall compared with the same time in 2015. The increase has been driven largely by aggravated assaults and robbery.

Beck has said the beefed up patrols need to be temporary.

“We cannot maintain the CSOC model indefinitely,” he said. “It robs too many resources from too much of our city.”

This story has been udpated.