CITY ASSAILS PARK SECURITY SLAIN MAN 2ND DEATH IN 2 MONTHS IN PACOIMA.

Byline: Patrick McGreevy and Blanca E. Cordova Daily News Staff Writers

Alarmed by the second killing at a Pacoima park in as many months, a City Council panel blasted the Los Angeles Police Department and park officials Monday for turning the parks over to drug dealers and demanded a new plan to drive out the criminals.

Councilman Richard Alarcon, who represents Pacoima, was furious that parks in his district and other parts of the city continue to be plagued by violence despite council demands that the problem be dealt with.

``It's just extremely frustrating to hear of no movement by management of either LAPD or Rec and Parks,'' Alarcon told officials of the two agencies during a hearing of the council's Public Safety Committee.

``You have acquiesced to the problem,'' Alarcon charged. ``You are giving our parks to the drug dealers.''

The anger and frustration of council members was fueled by news that a 40-year-old transient was found shot to death Monday in David Gonzales Park on Herrick Avenue in Pacoima.

The African-American man, whose name was withheld pending notification of relatives, was found by park workers at 6:30 a.m., possibly up to six hours after the shooting occurred.

The slaying comes a month after Kennedy High School football star Jaret Harris was shot to death as he rode a motorbike by Hubert Humphrey Memorial Park in Pacoima.

``It's very frustrating that people are continuing to die,'' Alarcon said.

Nearby residents said conditions at the park have gone from bad to worse in recent months.

``A lot of people are leaving from here,'' Sonia Miranda, who lives next door to the park and fears for the safety of her two young children, said in Spanish. ``It (the neighborhood) is very ruined . . . around here you hear a lot of shooting.''

Darrell Patterson, a coach for nearby Guardian Angel School, a kindergarten through eighth-grade Catholic school, was trying to conduct a football practice at the park Monday. He blamed the early morning discovery of the body and a drive-by shooting last week for scaring away eight of his players.

``It's just a shame for them (the students) because they have to practice and the schoolyard is so small,'' he said. ``Most of the parents came to pick their kids up right away (after school).''

During the committee's meeting, Alarcon expressed anger because the reports of shots fired came in at 12:30 a.m. Monday but the body was not found until 6:30 a.m.

``It seems to me that person should not have been laying there six hours. Maybe he would have survived,'' he said. ``It seems to me there ought to be better coordination. I don't know if the Police Department should have talked to the rangers to have them investigate closer.''

LAPD Detective Frank Bishop said he understands that police officers went to the park after getting the 12:30 a.m. call but did not find any evidence of a shooting.

Chief Park Ranger Hector Hernandez told the council committee that his rangers go off duty at 1 a.m. and that he does not have the resources to patrol parks 24 hours a day.

Both Humphrey and David Gonzales parks were among the 71 parks - including 20 in the San Fernando Valley - designated by the City Council last year as ``Safe Parks'' that would be targeted by the police and park rangers for extra enforcement efforts to reduce crime.

``I think the Safe Parks program is very effective,'' said Hernandez, citing the more than 30 arrests and 313 tickets issued in Safe Parks locations last month.

However, a report by the Parks and Recreation Department listed nearly three dozen of the Safe Parks as having continuing gang and drug activity last month.

The list shocked Councilwoman Laura Chick, the committee's chairwoman, who asked the LAPD to report on how it was following up on the reports of rangers.

Councilman Mike Feuer said the problem may be that too many parks have been included in the security program for the resources available.

At his request, the council committee directed Hernandez to come up with a plan to single out specific parks most in need of enforcement efforts, identify resources needed to do the job, and establish a time line for making the targeted parks safe for families.

Hernandez agreed he may be spreading his resources too thin by trying to target 71 problem parks with only 14 rangers.

Alarcon said the problem may require stationing officers full time in parks or increasing the number of park rangers.

The council committee asked the police and parks department to come up with a new action plan in the next 30 days for consideration by the committee.

For Claudia Martinez, a seventh-grader at Guardian Angel School, the violence near David Gonzales Park scares her, but it's a common occurrence. ``There is shooting around my block and fighting mostly every night. Sometimes fist fighting, but I usually hear gun shooting.''

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