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Police close off Lot 8 on Saturday as they investigate one of two shooting incidents that occurre

Police are investigating a shooting that occurred early Saturday morning, leaving one person wounded and marking the second shooting incident in as many weeks for the UCLA area.

Shots were fired in front of the Sigma Nu fraternity house on Gayley Avenue at about 2:26 a.m., according to university police and eyewitnesses.

The shooting victim was described as a male non-student who suffered a wound to his ankle.

The victim was transported to a local hospital and is in good condition, according to the Los Angeles Police Department, which is investigating the shooting.

The shooting happened at the tail end of a party held in the fraternity house, but not hosted by Sigma Nu.

Shortly after, shots were fired in Lot 8 – located about two blocks east of the fraternity house on Strathmore Avenue. No one was hurt, according to university police, which is investigating that particular incident.

Police would not comment on whether the two incidents were related, but according to eyewitness testimony, this appears to be the case.

According to eyewitnesses, police began clearing out partygoers in front of the fraternity house shortly after the Gayley Avenue incident.

Jonathan Forney, a third-year political science and philosophy student and social chairman of the nearby Beta Theta Pi fraternity, said he saw the events unfold from his vantage point on one of his house’s balconies – which on Gayley Avenue has a clear line of vision of both Sigma Nu and Lot 8.

Forney said as police began to disperse people from the party, people on the west side of Gayley Avenue started running south toward Westwood Village, and that others on the east side of the street ran toward Lot 8.

He added that he heard a gunshot come from the general area of the parking garage, followed by cars speeding out of it.

Sigma Nu did not sponsor the party where the shooting occurred. House manager Sarman Bravo-Karimi said the building was rented out to party-management group 3 Tha Hard Way, which is run by UCLA students.

Bravo-Karimi, who attended the party, added that it attracted people from throughout Los Angeles, saying 3 Tha Hard Way conducted intense advertising for the event.

A phone message left on Saturday for 3 Tha Hard Way was not returned.

The group’s Web site billed the event at the Sigma Nu house as “The UCLA Blue and Gold Bash.”

Derrick Klunchoo, a third-year economics students and Sigma Nu member, said most of the fraternity members were out for the night and not present at the party going on in their house.

Fraternity officials agreed the party was unmanageable for most of its duration, due in part to the amount of people present both inside and outside, which according to rough estimates totaled as many as 800 partygoers.

“It was out of control, from the get-go. There were too many people there,” said Mark Hardin, director of risk management for the Interfraternity Council, who stopped by the party in its early stages.

“(There were) probably a lot of people there who couldn’t get into the party and thought they should, and they’re drinking, so that’s just asking for stuff to go down,” he said.

Bravo-Karimi said the party inside the house was alcohol and drug-free, and that security was instructed not to admit anyone who was under the influence.

“Pretty much everyone seemed sober,” he said.

But the crowd outside the house – which Bravo-Karimi estimated to be as high as 200 people – was less regulated.

Hardin said the large amount of people spilling into the street was a large part of why Black Sunday – a tradition in which fraternities throw raucous kick-off parties before the alcohol-free fall rush period – has been cancelled for the past two years.

Another factor, highlighted by Saturday’s incident, was the attraction of out-of-towners, he said.

The aftermath of the scene – in which police closed off much of the west side of Gayley Avenue in front of the house – prevented many members of Sigma Nu from returning home. Many, including Klunchoo, had to find other accommodations for the night.

Other students were left stranded for a ride home later in the morning, since Lot 8 was closed off as university police investigated the shooting incident at this location. At 10:15 a.m., four students of the Fashion Institute for Design and Merchandising could be seen sitting on the curb in front of Lot 8, denied access to their car that was parked in the garage.

“We’ve been waiting since 8 a.m.,” said Brooke Barney, a first-year student at the FIDM who attended a nearby party in Westwood the previous night with her three roommates. “The cops said it would take two hours,” she added.

But as of late Saturday morning, they were out of luck.

They began calling for a taxi to their home in Burbank, and called to arrange people to fill in for them at their jobs.

The incident was the second shooting incident at or near UCLA in the past two weeks.

On Oct. 5, a university police officer shot an alleged trespasser in Kerckhoff Hall, who police said attacked the officer. In that case, the alleged assailant, Willie Davis Frazier, pled not guilty Wednesday to charges of assault and removing an officer’s weapon. He now awaits a preliminary hearing while LAPD continues to investigate the incident.