Police Arrest Two in Gang Shooting Early Sunday

A gut-shot Echo Park gang member didn't want to tell police who shot him today, but less than an hour later officers arrested two possible suspects spotted in a recklessly driven car--about the same time a suspected drunken driver crashed into a patrol car.

The victim, a man in his 30s whose name police withheld, was shot in the 1600 block of Fargo Street about 12:55 a.m. and taken to County-USC Medical Center. Police withheld his name, and no hospital condition was available.

But police said the man had stable vital signs a few hours after the attack. "The victim was shot once in the stomach but stable at County-USC,'' Los Angeles police Sgt. Lisa Phillips of Northeast Station said. "He was talking, but uncooperative to officers.''

A gun that may have been used in the shooting was thrown from a vehicle seen being driven recklessly at or near Allison Avenue and La Veta Terrace about 1:40 a.m.

Police chased the vehicle to Crosby Place and West Kensington Road, where two men got out and ran, Phillips said. Both were cornered and arrested in the 800 block of Echo Park Avenue, he said. Just as the two were handcuffed, a drunken driving suspect rear-ended a police car, Phillips said, adding that that person was arrested as well, Phillips said.

None of the names were made public, pending booking. An officer who complained of pain in a leg after chasing one of the two shooting suspects went to a hospital to be checked out, she said.