Region’s Homicide Rate Up 6.3% in 1991 : Murder: Although gang activity accounted for some of the rise, killings among friends and families were a major factor.

Family members, lovers and friends killing each other with knives, clubs and guns accounted for a good share of the 6.3% increase in the murder rate in the San Gabriel Valley last year, law enforcement officials said.

The area from Pasadena to Pomona between the Angeles National Forest and the Pomona Freeway tallied 184 murders, compared with 173 in 1990, according to police statistics.

“We ran the gamut,” said Monterey Park Police Sgt. Orlo Olsen of the city’s nine murders. “We had stabbing deaths, we had shooting deaths, and we had an 18-month-old child who was shaken to death.”

Although gang-related slayings and assaults by strangers accounted for part of the rise, authorities said the growth is typical of an increasingly violent society in which disputes often end with deadly force.

“It appears that people run out of options, rationality goes right out the window and, suddenly, they revert to their weapons,” West Covina Police Cmdr. John Distelrath said.

West Covina officers investigated 15 murders last year, compared with 11 in 1990. They included the May 14 shooting deaths of 17-year-old Tracy Teschner; her sister, Tanya, 18, and their mother, Evelina, 53. Matthew Lee Walker, 18, Tracy’s spurned boyfriend, who allegedly followed the girl for a year after the romance broke off, was suspected. Before police could arrest him, the youth shot himself to death in Huntington Beach.

Monterey Park, which averages three murders yearly and had none in 1990, jumped to nine last year. Many of those deaths, like the Teschner slayings, were intimate affairs, Olsen said.

“We had two unsolved murders, but the rest of them were family-related, or the victim was known by friends,” he said.

Pasadena, with 16 murders last year, compared with 1990’s 13, also had its share of intimate violence.

Three teen-age girls were shotgunned to death March 21 after an afternoon of beer-drinking and partying in a Pasadena pool house. Fellow party-goers David Adkins, 16, and Vinny Hebrock, 17, will stand trial in February for the killings.

But 1991 also logged its share of murders by strangers.

The deaths of five people, kidnaped and robbed for a few hundred dollars each at automatic teller machines, sparked panic throughout the area and garnered intense media coverage.

The “mall murders,” so called because two of the victims were kidnaped from a shopping center, boosted the murder count in four locations where bodies were dumped: Monrovia, West Covina, El Monte and Irwindale.

After the summer-long crime spree, four people were arrested Aug. 30 in a pre-dawn raid on a West Covina apartment and charged with the murders. The four--Vincent Hubbard, 26; John Lewis, 21; Eileen Huber, 20, and Robbin Machuca, 26--will be given a trial date later this month.

The valley’s deadliest hot spot--with 32 murders last year--was the 40 square miles patrolled by deputies from the City of Industry sheriff’s station.

The area includes gang-heavy Bassett, Valinda and La Puente, where deputies in the Operation Safe Streets program keep track of 2,500 known gang members.

Although the murder tally increased by only one, from 31 in 1990, more of the slayings were gang-related--21 last year, compared with 17 in 1990--Sheriff’s Lt. Marvin Cavanaugh said.

“The gang culture now has taken on such a violent complexion,” he said. “They are much more indiscriminate. We’ve had several instances where totally innocent bystanders were killed.”

Pomona, with 24 murders, qualified as another deadly-force hot spot. But that total was a significant decrease from the 34 slayings logged in 1990.

The reduction can be attributed to aggressive enforcement by a new anti-gang task force, said Pomona Police Lt. Ron Frazier, head of the group. Two detectives, nine officers and a sergeant patrol full time in plainclothes and unmarked cars to monitor and prevent crime by the city’s estimated 1,500 gang members.

“They work primarily nights and weekends, and they’re in the gang areas,” Frazier said. “If they see a group out on the streets, they’ll stop and talk to them.”

Other high-homicide areas included El Monte with 14 murders last year, compared with nine in 1990; Baldwin Park with 12, compared with eight in 1990, and El Monte with 14, compared with nine in 1990.

The Sheriff’s Department logged six homicides in the area patrolled by deputies from the Altadena-Crescenta Valley sheriff’s stations. Sixteen homicides occurred in neighborhoods under the jurisdiction of the Walnut-San Dimas station. And 18 murders were committed in the area patrolled by deputies from the Temple City station, including Duarte, South El Monte, Rosemead, South San Gabriel and Temple City.

Those stations tallied eight, 15 and 20 homicides respectively in 1990.

Areas recording only one homicide or none last year include Arcadia, Covina, Claremont, Glendora, Irwindale, La Verne, San Gabriel, San Marino, Sierra Madre and South Pasadena.