LOS ANGELES, Nov. 22 (UPI) -- The homicide rate in Los Angeles continued at a feverish pitch Thursday night when a street corner fight turned into a shooting that claimed the 17th life in the city in the past week.
Los Angeles has already claimed the highest homicide rate in the nation this year, and the slaying late Thursday afternoon of a high school student ticked the death toll for this year to 593, its highest level since 1996.
The victim died in front of a doughnut shop when, according to witnesses, he got into an altercation with another youth after possibly being mistaken for a gang member.
Police have attributed the rise in violence to growing gang tension, although the specific cause of the apparent war remains largely a mystery.
"People will think nothing of shooting at someone because they looked at them wrong or were wearing the wrong color or drove by at the wrong time," Police Chief William Bratton told the Los Angeles Times.
Bratton took office last month amid an already rising crime rate and promised to ratchet up the aggressiveness of the department while at the same time implementing reforms called for in the wake of the Rampart corruption scandal.
The LAPD this week sent a task force of officers, U.S. marshals, California Highway Patrol officers, FBI and parole agents to the city's skid row area where they arrested 108 transients and residents, more than half of whom were charged with parole violations.
