A shooting was reported at the Pacoima fair in Los Angeles in which multiple people were injured. “Sounds like a shooting at a fair in Pacoima, Glenoaks/Van Nuys. Multiple injuries,” reported Downtown LA Scanner. The report claimed one person suffered an injury to the thigh. 

Where is Pacoima? 

Pacoima is located in Los Angeles, California. It is one of the oldest neighbourhoods in the San Fernando Valley of LA.  Pacoima has Mission Hills on its West, Arleta to its south, Sun Valley to its south east, Lake View Terrace to its northeast and the city of San Fernando on the north. Pacoima is spread of 18.5 square kilometres. 

Pacoima was initially inhabited by the Fernandeno-Tongva and Tatavian people, Indian tribes local to California. The written history of Pacoima begins in 1769 when Spaniards entered the San Fernando Valley. 

Pacoima’s transformation into a township of sorts happened during World War II. A rapid expansion of the workforce at Lockheed’s main plant located in Burbank, a place near Pacoima, led to Pacoima quickly transforming from a dusty farm area to a bedroom community with fast-growing industries surrounding it. 

Pacoima, in the late 1940s, became the place where impoverished people would turn to in order to escape the poverty trap. The end of the Second World War saw a large number of African Americans settle down in Pacoima during the second wave of what is known as the Great Migration. By 1960, nearly 100 of the 10,000 African American people living in the San Fernando Valley lived in Pacoima. 

Pacoima’s low housing costs saw a large influx of rural Mexicans settle down in the city in the hope of employment in the manufacturing industry. African Americans, who by then had created a certain degree of wealth, sought to move out of the unplanned neighbourhood. The end of Pacoima’s manufacturing industry reduced the economic base of the region.