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Los Angeles Officer Shot While Breaking Up Illegal Party

The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - An illegal rave-style party that turned violent as authorities were breaking it up resulted in the death of a 19-year-old man and the wounding of four other people, including a police officer who shot the teenager to death, police said.

Anti-gang officers arrived at the party in South Los Angeles shortly before midnight Saturday and were ordering people to disperse when shots rang out, said Officer Don Cox, a police spokesman. As hundreds of people raced for the exits, Officer Mario Cardona, 30, confronted the gunman and exchanged fire with him, Cox said.

Cardona, who was struck in the abdomen, was hospitalized in stable condition.

Police identified the gunman as Jeremy Andre Cervantes, 19, of Los Angeles.

Three other shooting victims were also hospitalized, but their names and conditions were not immediately available.

Police Capt. Kenneth Garner said the shooting was prompted by “some kind of dispute over a woman.”

Assistant Police Chief Jim McDonnell told a news conference Sunday that such violence isn’t unusual at the crowded rave-style gatherings, which are often advertised by fliers posted on high school and middle school campuses that advertise sex, drugs and alcohol. Police said Saturday’s fatal shooting was the fifth at an illegal rave-style party in South Los Angeles this year.

“You just wonder where the parents are when they allow their kids to go to these parties,” McDonnell said.

He added that party promoters “jam-pack the kids in there, often times charge an entry fee to get in, and then pretty much anything and everything goes on.”

Police questioned as many as 100 people after the shooting but no one was immediately arrested.