AMBUSH IN PACOIMA KILLS TWO.

Byline: Jason Kandel Staff Writer

PACOIMA - Police were searching Thursday for a man who killed two suspected gang members and injured two others in a hail of gunfire from an semiautomatic rifle.

One victim, Akida Clay, 25, was pronounced dead at the scene after the 2:15 a.m. shooting in the 10900 block of Jamie Avenue. Three others were transported to hospitals, where a second victim, Daniel Sykes, 34, died.

Lonnie Diggs, 25, was treated for a gunshot wound to his back and arm and was released. Felincia Brown, 37, was shot in the foot and remained hospitalized late Thursday.

The shooting prompted additional Los Angeles Police Department patrols and a pair of gang intervention specialists to descend on the neighborhood.

``When is it gonna end?'' asked a frustrated Howard Loyd, an intervention specialist with Communities in Schools, as he rode past the shooting scene with his supervisor.

In a late-breaking development Thursday evening, a third man was killed in Pacoima in what police believed may be a gang-related shooting.

LAPD Sgt. Kim Kempton said it was unclear if the attacks were related.

About 10:46 p.m., officers responded to the 13400 block of Van Nuys Boulevard after a report of shots being fired. Police were trying to identify the victim Thursday night, and the suspects were only described as three Latino men who fled in a car, Kempton said.

The violence Thursday morning began when a gunman reportedly armed with a semiautomatic rifle hopped a backyard fence and ambushed the group as they stood in front of a house, police said.

Police believe the shooter might have been arguing with the victims before the gunfire erupted. However, the survivors have not been able to identify the shooter.

``Of the two people who lived, nobody's saying they know who the shooter is,'' said LAPD Detective Frank Bishop, the Foothill Division's homicide supervisor. ``They said they didn't see him.''

Detectives were interviewing several people they believe were involved in the argument.

``We know of people that were there previous to the shooting,'' Bishop said.

Although the shooting may not have been motivated by gang violence, police are tagging the case as such because they suspect the victims were associated with a street gang.

The attack came after a spate of weekend gang gunplay that left five wounded - one critically - in four Northeast Valley incidents. Police blame at least one incident on an ongoing feud within the Pacoima Project Boys gang.

``There's been a lot of shootings,'' Bishop said. ``We've been very lucky that not a lot of people have been dying.''

At the scene Thursday afternoon, an unidentified man took shovelfuls of dirt to cover blood near the curb. Several golfball-size chunks of asphalt, where bullets had glanced off, were visible next to the dirt.

Members of a community intervention team, Communities in Schools, met with family members to offer a hand and quell neighborhood anger.

``It's all stupidity,'' said resident Mike Pitre, 30, who identified himself as a friend of some of the victims. He said he had been hanging out with them and that some of them were drinking before the shooting occurred. The mood of the neighborhood was grim, Pitre said.

``Everybody's pissed off,'' he said. ``It's not a good place to be right about now.''

A woman named Lisa, who declined to give her last name, identified herself as Diggs' aunt. She said her nephew is a mechanic who grew up on the streets with the other victims, and that none of them were in gangs.

Staff Writer Ryan Oliver contributed to this report.

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Walk-up shooting location