RESIDENTS SEEK POLICE PROTECTION.

Byline: Lisa Van Proyen Staff Writer

PACOIMA - Residents called for more police protection Monday, outraged over three weekend gang shootings - including one that wounded a 9-year-old girl in her home.

Officers from the Los Angeles Police Department say they sympathize with the public outcry, but their hands are tied, with the number of officers dwindling as gangs grow more violent in the northeast San Fernando Valley.

``It was a rough weekend,'' said Los Angeles Police Capt. Kenneth Garner of the Foothill Division. ``I think the gangs have been more active.''

Like other divisions, Garner said he is stretched thin and juggling priority areas in which to assign his supply of officers, down by 24 in Foothill from this time last year.

But the captain vowed that the case involving the 9-year-old girl who was shot while watching television with her father at about 10:30 p.m. Saturday on Dronfield Avenue will take precedence over other cases.

``If you can't be safe inside your home, where can you be safe?'' Garner said. ``We're going to put a lot of pressure on solving this case.''

The girl was hit in the back by an errant bullet during a gang fight that erupted outside her home.

On Monday, the victim was hospitalized in fair condition after surgery that required removing 2 feet of her intestines, said LAPD Detective Kandis Schmidt of the Foothill Division's Special Enforcement Unit.

A separate ambush-style drive-by gang shooting occurred in Sylmar on Saturday morning that injured a 21-year-old suspected gang member, hit in the 14900 block of Oswald Street.

A third shooting in Foothill on Sunday morning left a home shot up in the 13000 block of Weidner Street in Pacoima. No victims were injured.

Elsewhere in the city, a gang shooting left 10-year-old Stephanie Raygoza and 19-year-old Raymond Hernandez - both innocent victims - dead on Sunday evening in the 100 block of Clarence Street in the LAPD's Hollenbeck Division.

Raygoza was riding a scooter on the sidewalk in front of her home and Hernandez was washing his car when the stray bullets struck the two.

Schmidt said gangs have become more active in her division in the past month.

``When school started, it all started up again. It's getting really active out there,'' she said.

She said more officers are needed to combat the gangs.

And the community agrees.

``I think we need more police presence. It's a sad day when we cannot live in our homes safely,'' said Jane McGlory, a Pacoima resident who lives two blocks away from where the 9-year-old was shot.

Garner said he plans to add at least two officers to his anti-gang unit. Already, he said, a higher number of officers have been reassigned to work Thursday through Sunday nights when more gang activity occurs.

He also plans to work more closely with the community so that residents can give police valuable information on where the gangs are congregating.

The captain asked anyone witnessing gangs congregating to contact Sgt. Joe Flores at the Foothill Division at [phone].

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Map: Site of shooting