POINT-BLANK VALLEY KILLINGS APPEAR TO BE MOTIVELESS.

Byline: SUSAN ABRAM Staff Writer

NORTH HOLLYWOOD -- There was intent behind the bullets that pierced the windows of a parked BMW at point-blank range, killing two 19-year-old cousins inside.

But police were still trying Monday to determine why Joel Cortez Alonzo and Alejandro Perez Lopez were targeted as they sat Sunday night in the parked car outside a Lankershim Boulevard Laundromat.

Alonzo's pregnant girlfriend, who was behind the wheel of the parked car, was shot in the thigh, and a bullet grazed her abdomen. Rocio Calliz, 20, and her unborn baby are expected to recover, police said.

``The windows were up, so there were no verbal exchanges. If nothing more, there wasn't even the typical gang question of `Where you from?''' said Los Angeles Police Department Detective Mike Coffey.

``The victims don't remotely resemble gang members. These are victims that should not be victims.''

Standing in the parking lot where her cousins were killed, Cynthia Alonzo said one worked as a tree trimmer and the other in maintenance -- and that neither was in a gang.

In the nearby Laundromat, an employee described hearing five or six shots and seeing the chaos that followed.

``It happened so fast,'' said Manuel Otella. ``The girl (Calliz) was trying to give CPR to her husband or boyfriend. She was desperate.''

As police sought clues to the slayings, they called the incident a troubling one in a recent series of brazen shootings in the San Fernando Valley and throughout Los Angeles.

Valleywide, aggravated assaults are 8 percent lower so far this year than in the same period of 2005, according to statistics provided by the LAPD. But homicides are up by almost 10 percent in the Valley. There had been 57 slayings by Sept. 2 this year, compared with 52 by the same date in 2005.

Over the Labor Day weekend, seven Angelenos were victims of homicide.

LAPD Deputy Chief Michel Moore, the Valley's commanding officer, said many victims have been in their late teens and early 20s, the ages most common in violent gangs. Moore and others emphasized not all shootings or aggravated assaults are gang-related, and they said no gangs are actively feuding in the Valley.

``But what is concerning is these individuals will shoot at the drop of a hat,'' Moore said about gang gunmen.

Police are still requesting the public's help in solving recent shootings and assaults, which include:

Angelo Bolla, 17, was gunned down in broad daylight Aug. 27 in front of shocked residents in the courtyard of a Pacoima apartment complex.

Shadminder Singh, 19, of North Hollywood was fatally shot as he stood on a sidewalk in the 11900 block of Hart Street. Police said a light-blue Nissan Sentra or Toyota Cressida approached the man and a passenger stepped out, spoke to Singh and then shot him several times.

The LAPD said two African-American men -- a 40-year-old security guard and a 19-year-old partygoer -- survived what may have been a race-related shooting about 1:20 a.m. Sept. 3 outside a community center at Gault and Eton streets in Canoga Park. Police said three Latinos in a car fired six shots at the victims with a .45-caliber handgun.

An LAPD sergeant was wounded Saturday when he was attacked by two men armed with a bottle and a knife in a Ventura Freeway pedestrian underpass in Woodland Hills.

Moore said police believe recruiting among gangs has been on the rise, and anti-gang officers work on what they call the ``10 percent'' problem of recidivists who commit 50 percent of all crimes.

``Our gang officers are working across the Valley seven days a week, focusing on those 10 percenters who have a propensity for reoffending,'' Moore said.

susan.abram(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

Detectives examine a BMW in which three people were shot -- two of them fatally -- in a parked car at a convenience center at the intersection of Lankershim Boulevard and Saticoy Street. The victims were shot through the window glass.

Eric Leonard/Special to the Daily News