Pablo Lopez / The Fresno Bee

About 40 people held hands Sunday evening and asked God to end gang violence in a southwest Fresno neighborhood where two people were killed in a recent drive-by shooting.

Some of them also questioned Council Member Cynthia Sterling's commitment to solve the area's gang problem. A day after the killings, Sterling asked that rival gangs agree to a 60-day truce.

"Is this just lip service from a politician?" said Susan Bechara, founder of the House of Hope, a Fresno nonprofit that helps troubled youths, including gang members.

Bechara joined the organizers of the prayer gathering, the Rev. Floyd D. Harris Jr. of the civil rights group National Network in Action, and Pastor B.T. Lewis II of the Rising Star Missionary Baptist Church, along with church members and neighborhood residents. They prayed for homicide victims Stanley Lyday, 49, and Jasper Jerome Johnson, 17.

The event was on Strother Avenue, where the victims were gunned down Wednesday. Southwest Fresno, including Strother, has long been a predominantly black community and is home to many predominantly black gangs.

Harris and Bechara said Sterling might have good intentions, but they wondered whether the council member has the will to speak out. "She needs to tell the truth. City leaders have ignored this side of town," allowing gang violence and drug dealing to fester, Bechara said.

The killings of Lyday and Johnson in the 200 block of West Strother Avenue were the latest acts of violence in a neighborhood with a long history of black gang activity and the trafficking of rock cocaine, according to police and court records.

Sterling on Thursday issued a plea for a 60-day truce, asking gang members to put down their weapons. She also asked gang leaders to call her so they can work together to stop the violence.

Bechara and Harris said it is unlikely that black gang leaders will call Sterling. Instead, Harris said he and others plan to go block by block and talk with black gang members and residents in hopes of finding a solution to the violence.

Efforts to speak to Sterling on Sunday were unsuccessful.

Police Chief Jerry Dyer said Sunday that Sterling's idea of a gang truce faces hurdles because black gangs have no leaders -- gang members function on their own, making it difficult for any one person to bring peace to that area.

Truces have happened before, Dyer said, but that was more than a decade ago and it involved two feuding Asian gangs. Dyer said Bechara orchestrated the truce.

The Asian gangs had leaders and Bechara had their respect -- two key elements that are missing in the current plea for a truce, Dyer said.

In southwest Fresno, police are dealing with more than two feuding gangs.

Lyday and Johnson were killed about 8 p.m. Wednesday outside 217 W. Strother Ave., a known hangout for the Strother Boys street gang, court documents state. Investigators have not said whether either Lyday or Johnson was the intended target.

The Strother Boys have formed an alliance with a dozen other westside street gangs and each of them has carved their turf to sell rock cocaine, the documents say. Those gangs are being challenged by at least four rival gangs, which also have formed an alliance and call themselves the "Murder Squad," the documents say.

Bechara and Harris said gangs are a problem throughout Fresno, and the city is making an effort to crack down on one gang, the Bulldogs. But, they said, city officials have largely ignored gang problems on the city's west side.

They said Sterling is not the only person to ignore the problem; some church leaders in the black community also are to blame.

"They like to preach from the safety of their church," Bechara said. "They are scared to go to the people in the streets" to see why they are killing each other.

Harris said he agrees with Bechara, adding that politicians are more worried about their political careers than the people. Westside church leaders have to do their part, he said.

"We must lead by example," Harris said.

Sunday, some church leaders joined Harris, Bechara and Lewis in prayer and religious songs on Strother Avenue. The sight prompted Lewis to ask God for forgiveness.

"It's time to pray for the children, pray for their pain and loss," Lewis said.

"Let us pray to end the evil that has perpetrated the streets here."