Two possible suspects questioned in a preliminary investigation that found that argument triggered battle during party

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

An early morning argument at a Los Angeles restaurant apparently triggered a gun battle that left three people dead and 12 wounded, authorities said on Saturday.

Police who arrived at the scene found shell casings and blood throughout the restaurant, located west of downtown Los Angeles.

Two possible suspects were being questioned.

LAPD officer Mike Lopez said a preliminary investigation found a party was under way at the restaurant, operating out of a converted home, at 12.30am on Saturday when the argument started.

A man and woman left the building, then returned and the restaurant erupted in gunfire.

Three people died at the scene, and 12 others were transported to local hospitals. Their conditions ranged from critical to stable but serious.

Mayor Eric Garcetti said he was confident police would unravel questions surrounding the shooting, and expressed sympathy for victims’ families.

He called it “the latest example of a senseless gun violence epidemic that causes so much pain and sorrow in our city and across the nation.

“We cannot tolerate these tragedies multiplying in communities across America,” Garcetti said in a statement.

Police did not disclose the names or ages of the fatalities or the wounded. The shooting occurred in a residential area of modest homes. Investigators were snapping photographs and scouring the ground in an area that extended over two blocks.

“There was some type of party there,” Lopez said. After the couple left the restaurant and returned, “that’s when the shooting occurred”.

Neighbor Sheryl Cobb said she was awakened by screaming and gunfire, but never left her home for fear of getting caught in a crossfire. “Bullets don’t have names on them,” she said.

LAPD sergeant Frank Preciado told the Los Angeles Times that the restaurant was “a bloody scene with shell casings everywhere”. One firearm was recovered.

The Times described the restaurant as a popular Jamaican eatery in a converted house that features a DJ on Friday night.