El Segundo shooting victim loses his job
Here's one you will not believe.Devan Jackson, the 20-year-old man shot when he went to the movies in El Segundo last week, was terminated from his job today.
Devan told me his employer, Pinnacle Travel Services in El Segundo, said he missed too many days of work in the last year. Devan's been off all week and will be off work for awhile.
He said he previously missed eight or nine days because his grandmother died and because of sickness.
I tried calling his employer, but they start work at 6 and are already gone
for the day.Devan answered phones for the company and made car rental, hotel and other reservations for American Express customers.
Devan was struck with a bullet when gunman
Jonathan Taylor began shooting in the crowded lobby at two El Segundo police officers. Taylor shot both officers before they killed him.
Devan, who was in line with his girlfriend for tickets, was struck in the leg. Police said the bullet was fired from Taylor's gun.
The bullet broke his leg and remains lodged in the bone. He told me that a doctor told me today that it will remain there. His leg appears to be healing and removing the bullet would damage a nerve.
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Larry Altman has covered crime in the South Bay since 1990. He's seen it all - the missing model who turned up dead in the desert, the wives found dead in trunks, the high-school coaches who get a little too close to their players. He drives his young colleagues nuts with his "I remember when" stories. He welcomes your tips and observations about the present, and you can mix in a little Lakers basketball talk if you like.
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Denise Nix knew as young as grade school, when she spent every summer working on the camp newspaper, that she wanted to be a journalist. Denise has spent most of the last 12 years of her career in the courtroom. She joined the Daily Breeze in 2001, where she tracks and reports on hundreds of cases at every level of the justice system. And she's never, ever, seen a judge use a gavel.
E-mail Denise at denise.nix@dailybreeze.com.
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I just want to say that I think this action of Mr. Devan Jackson was very unfair. The action of the police officers being so quick to handcuff him without questioning him shows how much they care, if I'm not mistaken I believe the police are supposed to protect and serve. The action of the handcuffing and also telling Mr. Devan Jackson to quote "Shutup!" was just downright wrong and I think there should be some kind of compensation for that action taking place, especially because of the fact that now he has lost his job over something that could have been prevented if he were getting the medical attention he needed instead of being treated like the suspect.
Oh, boy, this is a lawsuit waiting to happen. Maybe he was a borderline employee anyway, but if I was his employer, I would think twice about the negative publicity that firing him is going to generate - very dumb, IMHO. Right now, would YOU use Pinnacle Travel?? I wouldn't!
As far as the handcuffing incident, that's another story. Did I read that over 100 officers responded to this shooting? I'm sure there was a lot of confusion about it. However, in Harbor Gateway, you couldn't get 100 officers to respond to anything - I think they're more afraid of the gangs than the folks who live there.
One of these days, we'll realize that we need to reinstitute apprenticeship programs and have more common sense about dealing with violence than we currently have. If kids had something positive to do (and physically draining, like farming) they'd be less likely to shoot each other. Where is common sense these days?
Oh boy. So it is unfair to handcuff a person who may or may not be involved in the shooting of two police officers? Why would the officer at the hospital handcuff him and not question him? Maybe he was a patrol officer and his responsibility was to detain this person and not question him. In that case he would tell Mr. Jackson to keep quiet. He would not want Mr. Jackson making any statements without being read his rights. Instead of being so quick to judge officers actions as wrong, think about why they may be doing it. Stop being so quick to jump to conclusions. And he didnt lose his job because he was detained while in the hospital. He lost his job for missing too many days of work. Is that the city's or police officers fault? Always look for a quick way to make a dollar arent we?
It is amazing how employers do not value employees anymore. If the young man missed too many days last year, why did they wait until now to terminate him. Something else is going on here.
Oh no, that is so unfair. Even if he has missed too many days of work, that is not fair to fire the man.He is lucky to be alive, it could have ended a lot worse. I agree with the previous writer, this is a lawsuit in the making.
Dont forget, we are only hearing one side of the story here. Will be interesting to hear if the his employer has anything to say.
I agree 100% with "anon". The police are there to protect citizens. It's not as though they get handed a playbill when they walk into a crime scene identifying who the good guys are and who the bad guys are! They can't read minds! Its not uncommon for the "bad" guys to try to blend into the crowd to escape. And when you're talking about something as serious as a fatal shooting, you can't be too cautious. The police need to take extra measures to secure the situation for the safety of all. If that means inconvenience to some innocent people, well, that's a small price for society to pay than to have more people injured or killed. And for the person so quick to say that this guy should be compensated -- well, where do you think that the money is coming from? From taxpayers, of course, including ME. Either with higher taxes, or by diverting funds that should have been used to hire and train more officers and others to protect YOU! I feel sorry for this man who was shot. But the police didn't shoot him and it ticks me off when I hear people rush to say that he should get money from anyone other than the shooter!
To be honest i think it is unfair for him to loose his job because he had to miss work afther he was shot, i bet there are other emplees there who have missed more days then him that still has there job, i could see if he missed for a lame reason but he has proof for the reason for missing and im willing to bet that theres a female working there whos probly on maternity leave!!!! And for the officers im not racist but this is a good point im about to make... Now i know there was alot of people of all races at the movie i work across the street from it, so why would the police detain him as a possible suspect when theres probly other guys around him and just because the suspect was black they assume that his partners are black also they dont know!! so why not detain everyone in the area and handcuff them im sure there were enough officers there to do that but they didnt... they only did him like that, what about the people that were with the suspect what did they do to them.....
Dee,everyone was detained. Once the police arrived no one was allowed to walk away from the theatres. Being handcuffed at the hospital has nothing to do with being black and everything to do with this person no longer being at the crime scene. At the crime scene there are many officers to make sure people dont sneak away. Belive it or not all police actions are not based on race
The police are to take charge of the situation and control all that is going on at the moment. I commend the police for their actions. I guess it always is, "you can't please everybody."
I know Devan personally, and he went to work almost directly after getting released from the hospital. He was so fearful of losing his job, he didn't want to take the chance that someone didn't believe him, so he went there as "proof" to show his Employer that he was infact injured.
Who gives a damn about Policy and Procedures when it involves a situation like this one. There should be some type of expections to the rules..I really would like to hear what American Express has to say about this matter! How heartless was this!