Local News in Brief : 2nd Gang ‘Peace Summit’

Ministers who convinced a dozen street gang members to hold a “peace summit” last month announced Tuesday that another summit involving as many as 50 gang members will be held later this month.

The Rev. Charles Mims Jr., pastor of the Tabernacle of Faith Church in Watts, made the announcement after giving an invocation at a meeting of the county Board of Supervisors.

Mims said the decision to hold a second summit was made when gang slayings resumed several days after the three-day summit between about a dozen members of the rival Bloods and Crips, the two major affiliations of black street gangs.

Gang members who participated in the late July summit had called for fellow gang members to refrain from violence for a week and to observe seven days of prayer. But there have been at least half a dozen gang killings since the summit.