2 Boys, Ages 13 and 14, Held in Slaying

A pair of reputed gang members were arrested for fatally shooting a teen-ager during a car chase and then shooting and wounding another youth at a junior high school earlier this week, Los Angeles police said Friday.

The suspects, 13 and 14 years old, whose names were not released because of their ages, were taken to Los Angeles County juvenile hall. There, according to South Bureau homicide Detective Paul Mize, police expect to charge the pair with murder and attempted murder for the two incidents in South Los Angeles.

They were arrested Thursday night after making admissions to detectives about the shootings. The two had been questioned Tuesday morning within hours of the shootings, but police did not have enough evidence to link them to the crimes at the time, Mize said.

He said detectives believe that the suspects shot both of their victims because they flashed hand signs that indicated they were from rival gangs. Police said the suspects were students at a nearby school that officers would not identify.

Police said the suspects were allegedly joy-riding in a small, imported car that had been stolen during a robbery in San Pedro. They used the car to chase their first victim, Donald Alvarado, 17, of Los Angeles through a residential neighborhood, police said.

Alvarado crashed his own car into another while trying make a turn at 58th Place and Budlong Avenue. As he motioned for the driver of the other car to take cover, the gunmen pulled up alongside and shot him.

Alvarado died a short time later at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, where he was taken with a gunshot wound in the right temple.

The pair then drove to nearby Mary McLeod Bethune Junior High School, where one of them shot a 15-year-old in the arm, police said. Dozens of other students on a mid-morning break stood watching, Mize said.

The wounded teen-ager, whom officers declined to identify, was treated for the gunshot wound. The school’s principal said the gunmen cruised past the school yelling obscenities before the shooting.