Local News in Brief : 4 Die in Shootings Blamed on Gangs

Four separate apparently gang-related shootings took the lives of three men and a 16-year-old boy, police and Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies reported Thursday.

Joe Burnell, 33, of Compton died at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center after four men accosted him at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday as he walked along a South Los Angeles street and one of them opened fire with a shotgun.

Less than three hours later, police said, Allan Thomas, 19, was standing with friends on a corner west of the USC campus when three other young men approached and one of the three shot Thomas. He was taken to California Medical Center where he died shortly before 9 p.m.

At about the same time, police said, a 16-year-old boy was shot by someone who walked up to a car in which he was sitting with four friends in the Mid-City section of Los Angeles. The victim was taken to Midway Hospital, where he died. His name was withheld pending notification of relatives.

Then, at 12:25 a.m. Thursday, Charles Tillman, 22, was fatally shot by one of three men who drove up in a car as he stood with friends outside a South Los Angeles apartment house, sheriff’s deputies said.