Teenager Believed to be Part of Tagging Crew Shot in Highland Park

Detectives from the LAPD's Northeast Division Gang Unit are investigating the shooting of a male teenager near Avenue 53 and North Figueroa Street on Thursday afternoon.

According to Detective David Mejia, the teen was grazed in the side of his torso with a bullet at around 3 p.m. on Thursday and is expected to fully recover.

Mejia said the victim and another teen (exact ages could not be provided for either), were walking southbound on Figueroa near Avenue 54 when they were approached by another pair of teenagers.

"They got into some kind of dispute and that escalated into a physical fight," Mejia said.

Mejia said the victim and his partner ran away from the scene on foot, before doubling back to the area of 5300 North Figueroa, at which point they were allegedly shot at by different pair of teens.

No descriptions were provided of the shooters other than that they were males in their early 20s.

The victim is believed to be a member of a local tagging crew, Mejia said, and this brother is also believed to affiliated with a local gang.

On Wednesday, Northeast Graffiti Busters, a local group that cleans up graffiti within 24 hours of receiving information from the public, removed tags from the wall of an office building on Colorado Boulevard, near the Figueroa Street crossing. Some tags that were removed on a traffic sign nearby reappeared shortly after the Graffiti Busters crew left. Click here to read that story.

We will provide more details as we get them.