Police on Alert After Game Turns Violent

Los Angeles police were placed on a brief tactical alter Tuesday night after a pickup basketball game at the Jordan Down housing project degenerated into gunfire.

Detective William Smith of the Police Department’s Southeast Division said that passing squad cars were fired upon and that rocks and bottles were thrown, but there were no injuries or arrests in the 9:30 p.m. incident.

Smith said officers had come to break up a basketball game between rival gangs that had resulted in violence.

But witnesses said the incident began earlier in the evening, when a police officer who had pulled over a motorist was fired upon as he questioned the driver outside the gymnasium.