2 Robbers Kill Motorist; Burglary Suspect Is Shot

A robbery rampage through the Wilshire area ended with one man dead and another victim seriously wounded Sunday, while in other weekend violence a suspected burglar who grappled with a UCLA police officer was shot and wounded, officers said.

Two men went on an early morning robbery rampage in the Wilshire area, attacking a series of victims as they tried to enter or park their cars, officers said. The first victim, Young Nam Lee, 51, was shot in the face and killed about 2:10 a.m. just after he parked his car in the 300 block of South Harvard Avenue. The gunmen, who had demanded money, took the victim’s car stereo and fled. Police said the killers are two Latino men, 20 to 30 years old, who were wearing white T-shirts and blue jeans.

Within an hour, officers said, the same suspects robbed and shot another man at 9th Street and Western Avenue. A third man was robbed at gunpoint at 3rd Street and Serrano Avenue and a woman was robbed and pistol-whipped at Hobart Boulevard and 9th Street. The same men are believed to have committed all four crimes, officers said.

In Westwood, Herman L. Daniel, 24, was shot in the thigh by a plainclothes UCLA police officer about 8:20 a.m. Sunday inside the Mathematical Sciences Building, site of a series of computer equipment thefts, a spokeswoman said.

Daniel, who is not a UCLA student, hit the unidentified officer twice with a cane and once with his fist, said spokeswoman Karen Mack. At one point the officer lost control of his gun but was able to retrieve the weapon and shot Daniel once in self-defense, she said.

The officer was patrolling the math building because several burglaries had occurred there recently, Mack said.