2 Suspected Gang Members Held in Shooting of 5 People

After an 18-hour investigation, two suspected gang members were arrested Saturday night on suspicion of shooting five people--including a 4-year-old boy--in an attack on a Long Beach motel room, authorities said.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said that James Daughtery, 18, and Marquis Simril, 19, fired shotgun pellets into a crowded room in the Atlantic Motel at 2:55 a.m. Saturday. Deputies said the attack might have been retaliation for an earlier gang shooting, but they declined to elaborate.

The two were arrested at about 9 p.m. in Long Beach. They were booked at the Lakewood sheriff’s station on charges of attempted murder, said Deputy Bill Linnemeyer.

Witnesses at the motel said that two of the victims--4-year-old Damien Dennis and his mother, 34-year-old Sheila Norvelle--were regular motel residents. They had gone to the room where the attack took place after they left their own room, where Norvelle and her husband had argued.

Damien, who was shot in the chest and suffered punctured lungs, was in fair condition Sunday at Long Beach Memorial Hospital. Norvelle, who suffered stomach wounds, was in fair condition at St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach.

Two others injured in the attack--Jerry March McClellan, 15, who was hit in the chest and neck, and Ursula Walker, who suffered chest wounds--were in fair condition at Long Beach Memorial Hospital, a spokesman said.

Also injured in the attack was Larry Mayhand, 33, who was treated for leg wounds and later jailed. Both he and Walker were arrested on outstanding narcotics warrants, deputies said.