Troubling spotlight on street violence

Podcasters, YouTubers offer news, rumors on L.A. gangs. Do they help or hurt the city?

- BY LIBOR JANY

MICHAEL BLACKSHIRE Los Angeles Times AN LAPD detective investigates a shooting scene in Exposition Park where two people were killed in 2024.

A group of men were hanging around outside a liquor store in the strip mall on Manchester Avenue and Figueroa Street in South Los Angeles when they spotted a woman walk past.

As two of the men moved toward her, two others appeared in the parking lot. Surveillance video from the incident last month — since widely shared online — captured what happened next: A hail of bullets. People scrambling for cover. A body sprawled on the pavement.

The video was replayed over and over on YouTube after it was posted by an account called Hood War Stories. Operated anonymously, the account is one of several with large followings that are dedicated to chronicling gang culture across Los Angeles, offering a combustible mix of news and wild speculation.

While drawing fans by providing an insider’s view of a shadowy world, the content fans flames of simmering beefs, increasing the potential for retaliation, critics say.

Hood War Stories identified the man gunned down in the strip mall shooting by the nickname “Chipmunk” and called the killing “a tipping point that set the streets on fire.” Four others ‘were wounded, with city officials saying victims were between the ages of 19 and 45.

SKIPP TOWNSEND, a gang interventionist, lamented “clout chasers” who exploit other people’s trauma to try to gain larger audiences.

(JONATHAN ALCORN For The Times)

The shooting brought out the city’s mayor and police chief, who, while standing before abank of TV cameras, condemned the senseless taking oflife.