CANOGA PARK : Gang Member, 17, Is Fatally Shot
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Los Angeles police were searching Monday for the killers of a 17-year-old gang member who was gunned down in a drive-by shooting as he talked with friends outside a Canoga Park mini-mall.
Jaime Gomez of Woodland Hills died shortly after the attack at 11:45 p.m. Sunday in the parking lot of the Independence Square shopping center at 21013 Sherman Way, Detective Rick Swanston said.
Swanston said Gomez was a gang member and described the shooting as gang-related.
A 17-year-old girl, whose name was not released, was also injured in the shooting. She was treated for a gunshot wound to her right arm at West Valley Hospital and Health Center and released.
Gomez was talking with seven friends when a car carrying several young men pulled up alongside the group. One of the young men shouted a gang name and the front-seat passenger pulled out a handgun and fired several shots into the crowd, Swanston said.
One round hit Gomez in the chest and another struck the girl.
The car carrying the gunman sped off. Gomez’s friends took him and the girl to West Valley Hospital, where he died shortly after midnight.
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