PANORAMA CITY : Youth Shot in Gunfight During Carjacking Dies
A 19-year-old gang member, shot in the head during a carjacking that went awry in Panorama City on Halloween night, has died after being removed from life support equipment, police said.
Donald Aragon, a popular apartment building owner, also was killed in the exchange of gunfire that occurred after as many as a dozen gang members tried to force him to give up his truck. Instead, he opened fire, striking two members of the gang, which openly peddles cocaine to motorists in the block of Blythe Street just west of Van Nuys Boulevard.
Los Angeles police Detective Joseph Aparicio identified the dead gang member as Abel Sanchez, a transient he said came from Mexico about three years ago and lived in vacant apartment buildings in the neighborhood with other gang members.
A wounded 17-year-old has been charged with one count of murder, Aparicio said. The youth was being held in the jail ward at County-USC Hospital.
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