4 Youths Held in Brutal Crime Wave

SAN FRANCISCO — Four youths were in custody Wednesday in connection with a series of random robberies, kidnapings and murders so brutal that even veteran police officers were shocked, authorities said.

“This is juvenile crime at its absolutely most violent . . . a rampage,” said Inspector Mike Jeffries of the San Francisco Police Department.

One of the boys, a 16-year-old, is the suspected shooter in the two murders. On Monday, after his arrest, he tried to escape from the Youth Guidance Center by holding a makeshift knife to the throat of a nurse, police say. A group of 20 officers thwarted the attempt.

The unnamed youth was the oldest of the crime suspects, which included as many as five teen-agers who randomly chose victims from shopping malls in San Mateo County and in San Francisco, authorities said.

Police say the spree began in early October and that over the next two weeks one or more of the youths killed 29-year-old Fatt Leong after robbing him of $150 at a park; abducted and killed Ka Wong, 28, of South San Francisco, who was accosted in the parking lot of a mall; kidnaped a teen-ager from the same parking lot; attacked cab driver Joao Lucovich after he had let off a fare; robbed cab driver Charles Tidwell of $60, and robbed a woman at gunpoint at an automated teller machine in Daly City.

Despite the seriousness of the crimes, Inspector Mike Byrne said the group’s 16-year-old leader was “surprised and annoyed that he was even going to be detained.”

“He said he had to go to a dance that night,” Byrne said.