By Ruben Vives and Courtney Lewis
Los Angeles Times
TORRANCE, Calif. — Three men were fatally shot and four were injured late Friday at a Torrance bowling alley, police said, and relatives and friends wept and shouted outside as they awaited word on the victims.
The shooting, which was apparently preceded by a fight, was reported at 11:54 p.m. at Gable House Bowl on Hawthorne Boulevard, near Sepulveda.
Officers arriving at the bowling alley discovered multiple people with gunshot wounds and began life-saving treatment. Three men died at the scene. Two injured males were taken to a hospital, and two others opted to seek medical attention on their own.
Officers were trying to identify the gunman or gunmen. No arrests were reported.
The scene was chaotic outside the bowling alley early Saturday. Slowly but gradually, people gathered behind the police tape were hearing that someone they knew was inside or had been killed. Some looked through photographs trying to pick out who may have been the gunman.
One man had a wound on his back that was covered with large bandages. His white shirt was torn and bloodstained.
Jesus Perez of San Pedro was inside during the shooting. “We just ran right into the bar and took cover. All we heard was just, like two people got shot.”
Perez said he heard about four gunshots.
“We heard there was a big fight before that. We just ran into the bar and we just took cover because after the fight we heard ‘pop! pop!’”
He said he took cover for about 15 minutes and a security guard escorted him out the back.
Brandon Tyre, 31, said he was inside celebrating a friend’s birthday. He was bowling when a fight broke out, then he heard gunshots. When he looked, his brother had been shot in the chest. Tyre was waiting for information on his brother, who remained inside.
Others outside the bowling alley were visibly shaken. Some men were vomiting. Women were crying, screaming and clinging together as a group.
“There was a fight, and then we heard nine gunshots,” said one man who declined to give his name before walking away.
Employees of Gable House Bowl, who could not give their names because they weren’t authorize to speak to the media, said violence at the establishment is rare. They said fights have broken out before in the parking lot, often because someone was drunk, but overall the business is calm. Families go there to have birthday parties.
Several police cars blocked Hawthorne and Sepulveda boulevards, and some were parked outside Gable House.
Family members who stood by yellow police tape around the parking lot tried to cross to see if a relative was OK. Some tried to make phone calls, only to get angry when they got no answer.
“I’m getting mad, my God in heaven I’m getting mad,” one woman screamed as they continued to wait for police to provide information. More families were arriving, some in tears.
Latrice Radford was at a movie when she noticed she had missed 25 phone calls. She later found out that her brother, 20-year-old Michael Radford, had been shot.
“We immediately drove down and stopped by Harbor-UCLA Medical Center but we were told he wasn’t there,” Radford said. She was standing behind the police tape, just outside Gable House Bowl, crying and waiting for information about him. Radford said her brother had just turned 20 last month.
Anyone with information on the incident is urged to call Torrance police at (310) 328-3456.
Copyright 2018 Los Angeles Times