LOS ANGELES – When gang members want out of the lifestyle, they can turn to Homeboy Industries, where even convicted felons can count on finding work and someone to talk to.
A Homeboy shirt once was likened to a Red Cross armband in a war zone. Donning it meant safe passage in a gang-gripped community.
No longer. In the past six weeks, two members of the group’s graffiti removal crew have been gunned down on the job.
“Homeboys had this image of protection and respect, and that’s ending,” said Patricia Zarate, who owns a cafe up the street from the organization. “They were respected even on the street. If they aren’t safe, then nobody is.”
Police say Homeboy Industries is not a specific target, but the killings are emblematic of the increased terror that gangs have spread in communities across Los Angeles.
While violent crime is down 15 percent citywide, gang killings have risen more than 20 percent this year. The upsurge has been blamed on a variety of factors, including the release of gang leaders who have finished prison terms and may be igniting power struggles and settling old scores.
The Rev. Gregory Boyle, a Roman Catholic priest who runs the Homeboy program for former gang members, said this week he would temporarily suspend its anti-graffiti efforts. He met Thursday with law enforcement officers to discuss ways to reduce the violence.
“It’s just knocked the wind out of me,” Boyle said of Tuesday’s shooting of 25-year-old Arturo Casas outside the group’s offices in Boyle Heights, east of downtown.
Casas was sitting at a stoplight in a Homeboy truck about noon, on his way to erase graffiti, when a man shot him repeatedly, police said. The killing came hours before East Los Angeles’ annual anti-crime march.
On June 24, Homeboy worker Rafael Gomez, 35, was shot and killed while removing graffiti early in the morning.
No arrests have been made. Authorities say the killings are not related, but the motives remain unclear.
The nonprofit group employs many recently released felons, and Boyle acknowledged that the road out of gang life is not always a smooth one.
“It’s like (drug) recovery,” Boyle said. “You get people coming here at very different stages.”
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