Life And Death With the Gangs

Michael was a home boy; Kellie dreamed of modeling . . .

Michael Hagan's idea of a good time is to guzzle a few bottles of Olde English "800" Malt Liquor and smoke PCP with his fellow gang members in the slums of south central Los Angeles. There is no telling what might happen.

During one Monday-evening binge, Hagan, 23, and his "home boys" decided to have some sport with a rival gang. Flushed with bravado, five of them piled into a blue Buick and sped toward enemy turf. There they spotted four teenagers, two of them girls, standing at a corner in front of a cinder-block wall covered with gang graffiti. Hagan...

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