5 More Killings Add to City Toll

A double homicide in a Hollywood parking lot late Monday night brings to five the number of killings in Los Angeles since Sunday as the recent murder streak continued, police said Tuesday.

Antonio Arana Guirrie, 38, of Huntington Park was shot in a lot at Sunset Boulevard and Western Avenue about 11:25 p.m., the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said. The second victim was 49. His name was not released because his family had not been notified.

A friend, who was not injured, drove Guirrie to his home in South Los Angeles and then he was taken to Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, where he died, LAPD spokesman Jack Richter said.

Police said they had no suspects.

Three other killings have been reported in Los Angeles in recent days, all occurring late Sunday afternoon or evening and none with any identified suspects.

Police said Manuel Edgardo Palacios, 41, was hit by a stray bullet as he and his wife returned from a shopping trip Sunday afternoon to their home in the 1200 block of South Dacotah Street on the Eastside. He died soon afterward. Police spokeswoman Renee Montoya said the shots apparently came from a nearby recreation center and that the crime was gang-related.

About the same time, 19-year-old Martin Hernandez of South Gate was fatally shot in the 1200 block of 108th Street in South Los Angeles, Montoya said, when two men about his age drove by and fired at him several times.

Hernandez, who was hit in the head, chest and left leg, was taken to the King/Drew Medical Center, where he died.

Investigators said the killer and victim in that case may have been acquaintances and that the shooting was preceded by a dispute. This killing was not believed to be gang-related.

Police in the 77th Street Division, meanwhile, said they discovered the body of a man identified Tuesday by the coroner’s office as Derek Rene Akins, 34, of North Hollywood. Akins may have used a wheelchair found near his body late Sunday in an alley in the 1800 block of West Vernon Avenue near Western in South Los Angeles.

He had been shot twice in the head execution-style, said a police spokesman, Sgt. Bill Driver.

He said investigators didn’t have a motive or suspects in the case.