DEPUTIES SAY PUBLIC VITAL IN CLEANUP\Gang-related crime takes toll on Lancaster neighborhood.

Byline: Bhavna Mistry Daily News Staff Writer

Apartments stand empty. Gangs fight over turf. Drug deals and gunfire is common.

Over the past five years, city officials, residents and deputies have seen the neighborhood north of Avenue I between Third Street East and Fifth Street East deteriorate.

"This is one of the worst areas we have in the city," said Carl Osterthaler, a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy working the gang detail. "We've noticed a problem for years. It's going to get better, but it's going to take time and a lot of effort."

Crime in the neighborhood hit a new peak nine days ago with the double-slaying of two young men, whose bleeding bodies lay between two Avenue H-14 apartment buildings for at least 20 minutes before neighbors reported the shooting.

When deputies arrived, Tyrone Overstreet was dead and Derek Armstrong was dying - both had been shot numerous times. Armstrong was transported to Antelope Valley Hospital but died 90 minutes later.

"The victims may have laid there more than 20 minutes before anyone reported the shooting," said homicide investigator Sgt. John View. "Most of the people in the surrounding area fear for their own lives.

"It's impossible that no one could have seen what had happened - based on the time of day and being a payday Friday," he added.

According to View, there have been many rumors circulating about the reason for the slaying. But investigators say the motive may be retaliation for a 1994 slaying on nearby Raysack Avenue, or the killings could be related to drug dealing, robbery or gang rivalry.

Overstreet, 18, of Lancaster, was a self-described gang member, formerly a member of a Pacoima gang, said View. Armstrong, also 18 and from Lancaster, had lived in the Antelope Valley most of his life and was the boyfriend of Overstreet's younger sister.

The list of neighborhood violence is long:

In March 1992 in the 45200 block of Raysack Avenue, an apartment manager who had ordered drug dealers away from his apartments was shot in the neck, shoulder and arm.

In November 1994, a 24-year-old Palmdale man was shot in the head in an apartment in the same block, in the slaying that detectives suspect might have prompted the March 1 killings.

In September, a 45-year-old taxicab driver was shot in the back by one of two men who attacked him in the 300 block of Avenue H-14, where he had been sent at 12:40 a.m. for a fare.

Four months later, another cabdriver was robbed and shot at by three teen-agers - but escaped uninjured - after he drove up for a call in the same block.

Lorenzo Palacios, 21, who has lived in the area for 12 years, says that he is afraid but has nowhere else to go.

"We're civilized people. We get along with everyone and stay out of trouble. But sometimes it's impossible," said Palacios. "It makes me scared. My sister's kids and my nephews live here."

Palacios and other residents make sure they are inside their homes by dark.

"I try and stay inside so I don't get shot," he said. "But sometimes you can't avoid it."

A 21-year-old mother of three who lives in the area with her boyfriend and her sister also is afraid.

"There's so much mess in these apartments," said the woman, who didn't want her name used. "My kids are afraid of the cops. I have to get them out of here."

"You hear gunshots all the time," she said. "You just keep your kids inside and make sure everything's covered and even then you're not safe."

Osterthaler says the neighborhood is infested by at least three sets of gangs, drawn to the Antelope Valley by its open spaces and low rent. Often, he said, parents who want to get out of gang territory in Los Angeles come to the Antelope Valley hoping to get their kids to safer ground.

"But they don't realize that Junior is already a full blown gangster and is bringing his activities this way."

Two of the gangs have claimed that area and are fighting over turf, said Osterthaler. "They're fighting over who's going to run drug traffic out of that area."

Although deputies have only been in contact with about a half-dozen gang members who live in the area, they believe associates come from other areas during disputes.

"It's such a varying number," said Osterthaler. "They're so transient."

The third gang isn't involved in rock cocaine sales, but its members commit robberies, burglaries and assaults, and have a running dispute with a Quartz Hill gang.

While gang deputies along with narcotics deputies work the area diligently, the area is surrounded by lookouts who yell "Greencoats" from building to building once they spot a deputy, deputies say.

"It's difficult for us to get into the area undetected," said Osterthaler. "By the time we get anywhere the dope's flushed or it's lost."

Residents are afraid to help, he said.

The neighborhood recently has been included within the city's Target Oriented Policing High Desert Storm area, which gets special patrols.

Originally running from 10th Street West to Sierra Highway and from Avenue H-8 to Lancaster Boulevard, the area's eastern borders were moved eastward to Fifth Street East, sheriff's officials said.

City officials have purchased nine apartment buildings along the Raysack Avenue cul-de-sac, boarded them up and are awaiting additional funding to purchase more buildings and tear them down.

"We want to remove them, so they are no longer a haven for criminal activity," said Michael Adams, senior redevelopment projects coordinator.

City officials also are working to improve street lighting. And through other programs, no-interest loans are available to homeowners who are interested in cleaning up their neighborhood or need to make emergency repairs.