South LA shootings: 4 dead, several injured

SOUTH LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Four people died and several others were injured in at least seven shootings in less than 12 hours throughout the South Los Angeles area, police said.

The most recent shooting occurred around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday at Jefferson Boulevard and 8th Avenue. The circumstances surrounding that shooting were not immediately released.

Three hours earlier, a murder was reported one block away on Jefferson Boulevard and 9th Avenue. The victim in that shooting was identified by family members as Brittney Barnett, a mother of three young boys. Barnett had just come from a family barbecue when she and her friend were shot in an alley, according to her sister, Synickqua Mims.

"She's gone, you know, and I just have to be strong for my nephews. She was a single mom and she's been raising all three of them on her own at 25 years old, doing a really, really great job," said Mims.

Investigators believe the shooting was gang related.

"I just think she was in the wrong place at the wrong time," Barnett's father, Kevin Smith, said. "It just needs to stop, it just needs to stop, you know, it's just senseless."

Less than an hour before Barnett's death, James Smith, 20, was fatally shot near Adams Boulevard and Dalton Avenue around 8:30 p.m., police said.

His family says Smith was walking down the street with a friend when a gunman came up to him and shot him in the back of the head and leg. His friend was also shot. He remains in critical condition.

Smith's family says Smith was born and raised in L.A. but had moved to Pittsburgh to live with his godfather. He recently came back to L.A. to reconnect with his mom, but was supposed to return to Pittsburgh next week to start school and start working as a security guard. A candlelight vigil was held for Smith at the scene of the crime Tuesday night.

Investigators believe Barnett and Smith's murders may have been related, according to LAPD spokeswoman Jane Kim.

"The incident that took place on Jefferson Boulevard and 9th Avenue may be in retaliation to the shooting that happened in the 2600 block of Dalton Avenue," Kim said.

Two other people were killed around 2 p.m. at a car wash on Vermont and Florence avenues. Detectives say the incident was a deadly case of road rage. The trouble allegedly began as two men, traveling in a white car, and the two suspects, traveling in a dark SUV, got into an argument as they headed westbound on Florence Avenue.

The two parties ended up at a nearby car wash where the fight turned deadly. The victims, ages 26 and 33, were both pronounced dead at a local hospitals. The two suspects fled the scene and remain at large.

The other shootings involved injuries and damage to private property. At one point, police reported one shooting per hour and officers at the South Bureau had to go on modified tactical alert.

The incidents are not believed to be related, but some of them may be gang-related, police said. Suspect and vehicle descriptions for the shootings were not immediately available.

Anyone with information regarding the shootings was urged to contact LAPD at (877) LAPD-24-7.