50 Watch as Youth Is Run Over in Valley Gang Clash

While as many as 50 people looked on in horror in a Reseda shopping center parking lot, five suspected gang members chased a 17-year-old rival with baseball bats and then ran over him twice with a car, Los Angeles police said today.

“This was in broad daylight,” Detective Rick Swanston said. “They were very blatant about it. They acted like they didn’t care who saw them.”

Victor Escalante, 17, of Reseda was left unconscious by the 3:15 p.m. attack at the shopping plaza at 18300 Vanowen St., police said. He was taken to Northridge Hospital Medical Center, where he was in critical condition after surgery for massive internal injuries, Swanston said.

Numerous witnesses provided investigators with detailed descriptions of the suspects, their car and its license plate number. The car, which had been reported stolen Thursday, was found abandoned this morning in Canoga Park. Swanston said that the information from witnesses was used to identify two possible suspects but that no arrests had been made.

The attack stemmed from rivalry between gangs from Canoga Park and Reseda, police said. Early Thursday, two carloads of opposing gang members pulled next to each other on Parthenia Street at a traffic signal at Lindley Avenue. After exchanging insults, gang members jumped out of their cars and smashed windows in each other’s cars. The cars then sped away.

Later, one of the cars involved in that incident, a blue Camaro, was spotted by rival gang members at Reseda Park. The gang members, along with Escalante, chased the car from the park. Police said Escalante is apparently only an associate of the gang and did not take part in the earlier street confrontation.

About 3 p.m., Escalante was walking home by himself from the park when the Camaro stopped nearby and two gang members went after him with baseball bats, Swanston said.

Escalante eluded the chasers but then was run down by the Camaro, which crushed him against a car parked next to a Pioneer restaurant. Witnesses told police the driver then put the car in reverse and ran over Escalante a second time.