Surfer34

https://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?se...les&id=8678023

KOREATOWN, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- One bicyclist was shot dead and another was wounded in Koreatown on Saturday afternoon

I eat right next to this all the time. Well, I mean I used to. LA sucks so bad I moved.

B. Carfree

I guess they took the joke about it being more expensive to maim someone with a car than to kill the person a bit too seriously. Stories like this are really unsettling, especially since I live in a state where several counties, including mine, are all-but-eliminating sheriff's patrols.

Digital_Cowboy

Do the police have any idea as to what the motive was behind the shootings?

Surfer34

If I had to guess its probably more gang related than two guys in spandex riding their carbon specialized bikes. The area in question isnt the best area.

bikepro

That is extremely brutal. I would certainly avoid that area. Everytime I think I would like to see the death penalty abolished, something like this happens.

Chris516

+1000

1FJEF

Ditto

dynodonn 

I curious to know if this incident was due to road rage, or gang related with rivals who just happen to be riding bicycles at the time.

Digital_Cowboy

Reading the linked article that was my first thought, "Is this gang related?"

It's sad when reading a story like this that we think gang.

Chris516

While I don't live in Los Angeles, I am not quick to judge what happened, as a result of the supposed gang hostility in the given neighborhood. When I read the story at ABC7(Los Angeles)'s website, the thing that came to mind, was the hostility towards cyclists'. Because, While the car hit the cyclist, it didn't seem like it was intentional. Yet, When the car's passenger got out and killed the first cyclist by shooting them after 'supposedly' unintentionally hitting them, to me that screamed hostility towards cyclists'. Not like the cyclists' were 'marked' for being 'taken care of' as is so often the case in gang retaliations.

CB HI

Los Angeles, gang or drug dealer competition related is a reasonable guess.

Digital_Cowboy

Are you suggesting that you don't think that it's possible for gangs to use bikes to transport drugs? In a story that was linked to here, I think that that might have been part of the cops reasoning for stopping a kid on a bicycle on the trail in a "bad" part of Tampa.

Digital_Cowboy

Like I said, how said is it that most of us were thinking along those lines when we read this?

Mos6502

I would expect, if it were road rage, it'd be more likely for the driver to have gotten out and shot the guy.
That it was the passenger who got out and fired seems to suggest something more premeditated than road rage.

Chris516

While transportation of illegal drugs by bicycle is certainly plausible. I don't think that and/or gang activity was the reason for the cyclist being killed. At least from what I read in story.

Chris516

Yes. The story from the station's news department, just didn't make sense for the situation to be absolutely gang or drug-related. Because, Like I had mentioned before, for it to be gang-related, there would have already been a 'price' on the head of the cyclist that was killed.

Chris516

Agreed. But not gang, or drug-related. At the same time, I do think that 'road rage' deserves some element of consideration, due to the circumstances.

SurlyLaika

you are an idiot! Do you really take Hollywood stereotypes as accurate representations of reality?? No, this was not drug or gang related. Sounds more like road rage and hostility towards cyclists.

Digital_Cowboy

Agreed, that it was the passenger and not the driver shooting at not only the downed cyclist but the fleeing cyclist suggests that there is more here than meets the eye. And that it probably goes beyond road rage.

If you had to speculate, then what do you think was the reason? Road rage alone also does not make sense. As if it was road rage, then wouldn't it make more sense that it would have been the driver who got out and not the passenger?

How do you know that there wasn't? Normal people do not shot at the people they hit or almost hit. The now former firefighter (I forget now where he was from) aside, and he shot at the father because use "advice" was ignored.

Sadly, it wouldn't surprise me if this does turn out to be either drug and/or gang related.

CB HI

That type of crap happens all the time in LA. Has nothing to do with movie stereotypes. Passengers do not get out and shoot 2 cyclist because the driver is road raging.

They have shot people for just turning down the wrong road into a dead end.

There was a trucker once that repeatedly got hit, stomped on and a brick thrown against his head on live TV. Maybe you missed that.

So stop posting foolish name calling.

PS - I thought I remembered your forum name, you are the guy that did not even know road wheels are also sized in 26", and you are calling me an idiot?

Digital_Cowboy

If it had been the driver I could agree with you, but given that it was the passenger I think that drugs, or gang, or irate husband/boyfriend/lover makes more sense.

Did any of you who think that this is a "simple case of road rage" actually watch the video embedded in the article? The police are saying that this was a DELIBERATE attack. And that the white SUV was CHASING the bicycle. And that according to one witness there were some 17 shots fired.

I don't know about those of you who are saying that this was a case of "road rage," but to me that says that there is something else going on here that we do not yet know about.

Chris516

Maybe, But I don't think an irate husband/boyfriend/lover would put out a contract killing for this. When two cyclists' where shot.

I hadn't originally noticed the multiple shots and being chased. But, Since two cyclists' were shot, killing one, it sounds like something more sinister than gang-on-gang violence.

I am still not totally convinced that it was gang-related, aside from the fact that there were three perps n' two victims.

The one deceased cyclist was asian, but the race of the other cyclist or the perps, was not mentioned. Asian gangs displaced African-American gangs some years ago for being the most dangerous.

Surfer34

This is definetly NOT a case of road rage/hostility towards cyclists.

dynodonn 

OK, provide a link or any evidence that it's not.

Digital_Cowboy

Sadly, I have read/heard stories about husbands/boyfriends that have taken out "contracts" on their wives/girlfriends/boyfriends and likewise there have been stories in the news of women doing the same. Anything is within the realm of possibility.

That two cyclists were chased and shot at I would say that it rules out the irate lover aspect of things. How do we/you know that this isn't some new gang related initiation rite?

I'm sorry, but the odds and the facts that they were apparently chasing the deceased cyclist suggests something more sinister than "simple road rage." Hopefully you're right and those of us who are thinking that this might be gang related are wrong. But the circumstantial evidence does point to a possible gang related activity.

Where do you get that the first victim was an Asian? I can't find it mentioned in the article nor do I think that it was mentioned in the video. About the only thing in the video that suggests race is the cyclists name. But it is wrong to assume based on his name that he is/was Asian.