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A 17-year-old North Hollywood girl who died after being shot and abandoned at a local hospital last month was suspected of participating in a botched car burglary, investigators said Friday.

The new information comes a day after officials announced that two men suspected in the death of Darlene Robles were arrested and charged with her murder and second-degree burglary of a vehicle.

Michael Gonzalez, 24, of North Hollywood, was arrested April 16 at 11:30 a.m. at his home, according to Det. Robert Bub of the Los Angeles Police Department's Van Nuys Division.

Alejandro Aguirre, 26, of Sun Valley, was arrested April 26 when he appeared in court in Lancaster on an unrelated charge, Bub said.

Both men pleaded not guilty to murder and second-degree burglary of a vehicle and are due back in court on May 25 for preliminary hearing setting.

Police were originally looking for three suspects who were caught on surveillance footage on April 6 at Kaiser Permanente hospital in Panorama City, where they left Robles in the emergency room. She later died of a gunshot wound.

In the footage, an SUV pulls up to a hospital entrance and drives away as a man and woman push Robles into the emergency room in a wheelchair.

Aguirre, the suspected gunman, is believed to have driven the SUV to the hospital, where he got out pushed Robles into the ER. Gonzalez is believed to have driven the SUV away, Bub said.

Robles was shot in Sherman Oaks, according to the coroner's office.

Robles, Gonzalez and Aguirre, along with the unidentified woman, were trying to steal a car when the car's owner confronted them, Bub said. It was unclear if Aguirre allegedly fired a warning shot or intended to hit the burglary victim, but the shot struck Robles, Bub said.

Investigators do not have enough evidence to put together a case against the woman, but the investigation is ongoing, Bub said.

Alexander Brooks is seen in a recent photo on his computer monitor that sits with his recording equipment in his room. Brooks,19, was killed in a hit-and-run accident Monday night just around the corner from his home. Brooks was interested in producing hip-hop music and often recorded his friends in his bedroom that has a makeshift studio in a hallway leading to a rooftop deck. | See photo gallery. (John McCoy/Staff Photographer)

MISSION HILLS -- Alexander J. Brooks wanted to be an organ donor.

A year ago, the then-18-year-old Mission Hills resident told his fraternal twin brother: If I'm gone and I can't use my organs, I'd rather somebody be able to use them.

That was the kind of young man that Brooks was developing into, his family said, before he was killed by a hit-and-run driver Monday in Mission Hills.

Brooks, 19, was pronounced dead at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center after he was struck while crossing the street around the corner from his own home.

And in the end, his wish to become an organ donor could not be fulfilled.

Forty minutes after Brooks died at the hospital, his family gave permission for his organs to be harvested. Several hours later, they learned that police were not allowing the operation, citing an ongoing investigation.

The opportunity for the James Monroe High School grad to be a donor had passed.

It was disappointing, his family members said.

"But it certainly speaks to the type of person he is - was - and his gentleness," said Olivia Walker, Brooks' grandmother. "He was an amazing young man."

Brooks, who was studying business at Los Angeles Mission College in Sylmar, was crossing the street at an unmarked crosswalk at Langdon Avenue and Lassen Street at about 10 p.m. He was heading home after visiting a friend with whom he recorded hip-hop music.

Brooks was almost there - the condo that he shared with his mother and two brothers was just around the corner.

Then, a driver headed west on Lassen struck Brooks so hard that the pedestrian was propelled 50 feet into oncoming traffic, where he was struck again by another vehicle. The first driver took off. The second driver stopped and called police.

Neighbors, who reported hearing a loud crash, could only describe the vehicle as a black sedan, with possibly some front-end damage from the impact.

His death was at least the third hit-and-run fatality reported this year in the San Fernando Valley, according to Officer Karen Rayner of the Los Angeles Police Department. As of last week, there had been 1,968 hit-and-runs in the Valley since January, down 15 percent from the same period last year.

Brooks, who family members called "Allie," and "momma's boy," was an aspiring hip-hop artist who had spent the last summer living in a recording studio producing tracks in Northern California. He was self taught in piano, drums and guitar and learned through trial-and-error how to connect mixers and synthesizers to the computer.

He also converted a stairwell leading from his room to the rooftop into a recording studio measuring just two-feet by three-feet wide by plastering the walls with cardboard cupholders from McDonald's, egg cartons and mattress pads. He'd charge $25 for each track he produced.

"He'd say, `I'll make it work to my advantage'," said his aunt, Shawn Johnson, adding that Brooks was even able to stylize the thick glasses he had to wear because of vision problems. "That was typical Allie."

Friends often crowded eight to 10 deep as he laid out tracks in his room, surrounded by walls neatly covered with Brooks' own graffiti-style drawings, magazine covers of hip-hop and rap artists, and a math achievement award from James Monroe high.

"Allie was such his own man that people gravitated towards him," said Johnson.

"He trusted everybody," Jones said. "He was just that open, just that big-hearted."

Brooks had just completed his freshman year at L.A. Mission College and was about to start at the Musicians Institute College of Contemporary Music in Hollywood in the fall.

Although he hadn't yet decided on a stage name - he sometimes used Yung Apaco, Soul Child, Allie Boy, AB2 - he had grabbed the attention of some music producers, such as those for rapper E-40. By last year, he had already produced and recorded his first song, "Never Fall," for which he had also written the lyrics.

Following a piano intro, Brooks sings about being raised single-handedly by his mother, a talent agent, and his father, who he had just begun reconnecting with in the last year.

"Ya'll ever wonder? If you were to have one parent in your life, possibly no parents in your life?" Brooks lamented. "Sometimes that happens. That one person you love may be gone."

For Aaron Brooks, Alexander's younger twin by 30 minutes, the feeling was all too fresh. He changed the screensaver on his phone to his twin's picture, sometimes staring at the photo, shaking his head and then breaking down.

"I hurt so bad in my heart," Aaron Brooks, who is deaf, wrote in texts and online. "I miss my brother. I lost my best friend."

The family plans to start a musician's scholarship in Brooks' name.

"Helping someone, that was his heart," Walker said. "That's what Allie would have wanted."

Anyone with more information is asked to call Valley Traffic Division detectives at 818-644-8020.

Anyone wishing to remain anonymous should call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS or text 274637. Tips leading to an arrest can earn up to $1,000.

Hip-hop artist Alexander Brooks' MySpace page (with links to "Never Fall" and other music)

Photo (right): Aaron Brooks,19, is comforted by his older brother Stefon Morgan, 21, as they sit in their brother Alexander's bedroom. (John McCoy/Staff Photographer)

Jose Aldana, left, and Winder Barrios, both 24-year-old Van Nuys residents, escaped Wednesday, April 28, 2010, from the North County Correctional Facility in Castaic. (Los Angeles Sheriff's Department)

Two inmates who escaped from the North County Correctional Facility near Castaic early Wednesday were captured 16 hours later, according to the Los Angeles Sheriff's Office.

Jose Aldana and Winder Barrios, both 24 and from Van Nuys, had escaped from the prison shortly after 1 a.m. from a loading dock area, according to Steve Whitmore, spokesman for the sheriff's office.

They were caught around 5 p.m. after a resident reported being approached by two males asking for clothing at Commerce Center Drive and Hasley Canyon Road, Whitmore said.

Sheriffs responded to the area and found them hiding in a metal storage container. They were arrested without incident and additionally charged with escape from a custody facility, according to officials.

USC bomb threat came from psychiatric ward, police sources say
From the L.A. Times - A bomb threat at USC that shut down a part of campus turned out to be a hoax by a caller from the psychiatric ward at County-USC Hospital.

The caller had apparently reported various crimes earlier in the day, the sources said. He finally got the attention of authorities when he reported a "nuclear weapon" at the USC campus.

Wilson High students deny witness intimidation charges in Melody Ross case
From the Long Beach Press-Telegram - LONG BEACH - Two Wilson High School students on Wednesday denied charges that they tried to intimidate a witness in the murder of a classmate after the 2009 homecoming game.

The girls, who have not been identified because they are minors, are accused of trying to intimidate witnesses who testified on April 15 and 16 in the preliminary hearing for two local gang members accused of killing 16-year-old Melody Ross, a Wilson honor student, at the end of the high school's homecoming game last October.

Police officer sentenced for 3 DUIs
From the Orange County Register - WESTMINSTER - An Anaheim police officer was sentenced to 10 months in jail Wednesday after pleading guilty to three misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence of prescription drugs.

Kevin Noel Schlueter, 37, of Costa Mesa, must serve six months in a residential drug treatment facility as a condition of his sentence handed down by Superior Court Judge Michael Cassidy. He was also placed on five years of informal probation and ordered to attend a multiple-offender alcohol program.

Pomona middle school burglarized, computers and money stolen
From the L.A. Daily News - POMONA - Authorities today were investigating a burglary at a Pomona middle school in which computer equipment and about $1,000 raised by students was taken, according to police and broadcast reports.

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From Daily News wire services:

Police today sought an attempted kidnapping suspect who tried to kidnap a woman as
she walked to her car in an apartment complex parking lot in Reseda.

The kidnapping attempt occurred at 4:20 a.m. in the 17900 block of Sherman Way, according to police.

A man approached the woman from behind and covered her mouth with his left hand, according to an account from the victim related by a police officer.

As the man struggled with the suspect, he dropped a white T-shirt that he had been holding in his right hand. When he tried to pick up the shirt, the woman escaped and the man ran.

The suspect was described as a Latino in his early 20s between 5 '5 feet tall and 5'10 inches tall.

Police asked anyone with information to call Det. Ed Page or Det. John Doerbecker at 818-374-7700.

Anyone wishing to remain anonymous should call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (800-222-8477). Tipsters may also contact Crime Stoppers by texting to phone number 274637 (C-R-I-M-E-S on most keypads) with a cell phone. All text messages should begin with the letters "LAPD. Tips leading to an arrest can earn up to $1,000.

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Three gang members have been arrested after an 18-year-old student was stabbed at R. Rex Parris High School in Palmdale earlier today, according to the Palmdale Sheriff's Station.

The student had been sitting on a planter in front of the school, at 38801 Clock Tower Plaza Drive, when he was approached by three males at about 11:20 a.m., said Deputy Robbie Royster.

The student and men had a verbal altercation when one of the men stabbed him in the torso, Royster said. The student fell backwards and kicked at the man, who stabbed him two more times in the legs, Royster said. The suspects then fled on foot.

Sheriffs set up a containment area and the school was sent into lockdown as police searched for the suspects. The men were found in a car several blocks away at Carolside Avenue and Avenue P5, Royster said.

It was unclear what the relationship was between the student and the men.

The student was transported to a local hospital, where he is expected to recover from the non-life threatening wounds, Royster said.

No other injuries were reported.

Officials at the school declined to comment when reached by phone, citing the involvement of minors.

Anyone with more information is asked to contact Det. Richard O'Neal at 661-272-2400.

Anyone wishing to remain anonymous should call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (800-222-8477). Tipsters may also contact Crime Stoppers by texting to phone number 274637 (C-R-I-M-E-S on most keypads) with a cell phone. Tips leading to an arrest can earn up to $1,000.

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Helicopters circled the sky for several hours as police swarmed a North Hills neighborhood where a possible officer-involved shooting was reported this morning, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Neighbors reported that about 15 gang members had gathered in the 15500 block of Chase Street shortly before 10 a.m. to spray graffiti, and that shots had been fired after police arrived, said Richard French, LAPD spokesman.

Two people were taken into custody and it remained unclear if they were going to be charged, according to French.

No injuries were reported.

Signs along the I-5 in Castaic on Wednesday, April 28, 2010, warn motorists not to pick up hitch hikers after 24-year-old Jose Antonio Aldana and 24-year-old Winder Estuardo Barrios, both of Van Nuys. escaped from the North County Correctional Facility in Castaic, where they were in jail for armed robbery. (Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer)

From Daily News wire services:

CASTAIC -- Two inmates due in court this morning escaped from the North County Correctional Facility near Castaic, authorities said.

Jose Aldana and Winder Barrios, both 24 and from Van Nuys, apparently escaped from a loading dock area about 1 a.m. at the jail complex at 29340 The Old Road, said Steve Whitmore of the Sheriff's Headquarters Bureau. They were discovered missing about two hours afterward, Whitmore said.

"They were on a work crew together at a kitchen dock where trucks come and go," Whitmore told ABC7. "It's a secure area. But we believe that they may have planned this -- we're relatively convinced of that. And then at 3:15, the wristband count revealed that they were missing."

Both men were wearing light-green jail clothes.

Whitmore said the men were armed robbery suspects who were arrested April 2, 2009, by Los Angeles police. They were in the midst of being tried in downtown Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta, who is presiding over the pair's trial, ruled today that the trial would continue despite the men's absence, according to Jane Robison of the District Attorney's Office.

Aldana and Barrios are charged with eight counts of second-degree robbery involving a series of robberies in March 2009, along with seven counts - - including home-invasion robbery and false imprisonment by violence -- stemming from an alleged March 27, 2009, attack in Encino.

Aldana is also charged with a misdemeanor sexual battery charge involving a separate incident on March 26, 2009.

The men are Hispanic, weigh about 180 pounds, and have black hair and brown eyes. Aldana is 5 feet 3 inches tall, and Barrios is 5 feet 10 inches tall. Barrios has a tattoo of a seahorse on his left shoulder.

The jail was locked down, and sirens were activated to warn the surrounding communities, said sheriff's Deputy Benjamin Grubb. Electronic signs along the Golden State (5) Freeway in the area warned motorists, "Caution Do Not Pick Up Hitch Hikers."

Deputies in helicopters and on motorcycles searched the rugged terrain around the facility.

Photos: Jose Aldana (top) and Winder Barrios (bottom). Courtesy of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department

The flag is removed from the casket of fomer LAPD Chief Daryl Gates at the formal Honor Ceremony at Our Lady of the Angeles Cathedral on Tuesday. Gates passed away last week after a battle with cancer at age 83. (David Crane/Los Angeles Daily News)

By C.J. Lin and Rick Orlov, Staff Writers

In the weeks before he died, bedridden from fighting a losing battle with cancer, former LAPD Chief Daryl F. Gates was visited by an LAPD helicopter hovering outside his hospital window.

Even though Gates was weak, he got up, put on his SWAT hat and stood at attention. He continued to salute the crew even as the chopper flew away, tears streaming down his cheeks.

It was a moment that spoke to just how dedicated Gates was to the department that he headed for 14 years and its officers, said retired LAPD Deputy Chief Mike Hillmann, speaking at Gates' funeral on Tuesday.

It also spoke to how strongly officers felt about him, even though he had left office nearly 20 years before. A steady stream of officers traveled from all over the state to his bedside to say their goodbyes, in what must have looked like a police convention in the hospital, Hillmann said.

"He was the chief to police officers," Hillmann said. "He was truly America's police chief."

On Tuesday, law enforcement officers from across the nation, as well as firefighters and members of the U.S. armed services, gathered to pay final respects to Gates, who died April 16 at his home in Dana Point.

The morning began with an elaborate procession through downtown L.A. that ended with funeral services at Our Lady of the City of Angels Cathedral.

Under gray skies, dozens of family members, bagpipers and a cortege of officers - on foot, motorcycle and horseback - escorted a black hearse from the new Police Administration Building to the cathedral. Police Chief Charlie Beck and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa followed behind. Officers and military men who were not part of the procession saluted from the sidewalk.

The procession passed through an arch formed by the ladders of two fire trucks, from which a large American flag hung.

Officers lined the entrance to the cathedral and saluted as Gates' flag-draped, polished wooden casket was carried by eight uniformed pallbearers inside. The cathedral, which normally seats 3,000, held 3,200 for the nondenominational service as fire marshals made contingency plans to allow officers to stand in the aisles.

"It was a beautiful ceremony for a man who really loved the city," said Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca. "Enough cannot be said about Daryl Gates the human being. He was a humanitarian."

The sea of dark blue uniforms gathered outside the cathedral for an honor ceremony afterwards underscored Gates' popularity among the LAPD's front-line officers, who saw in him a defender of their practices and a protector of law enforcement regardless of political or media backlash.

"How is it that this man who was chief almost two decades ago remains so significant?" Beck said.

"It's simple, really. He loved this place. He respected the men and women of this place. He loved them unconditionally.

"And we loved him back."

An honor guard fired a 21-gun salute and four LAPD helicopters performed a "missing man fly over" formation, spliting off in four directions over Gates' casket. Church bells tolled.

The flag draped over the casket was folded by the honor guard and presented to Gates' daughter Debbie by Beck, who kneeled in front of her and placed the flag in her lap.

Three other flags were presented to his other daughter, son and brother, retired Capt. Steve Gates.

An end-of-watch broadcast echoed over the ranks, listing Gates' career, serial number 6432, and referring to him as "The Chief."

"There will never be another like Daryl," Beck said. "Daryl Gates became the Los Angeles Police Department. And the Los Angeles Police Department became Daryl Gates."

As the 49th police chief, Gates presided over a department that was considered vastly understaffed - 7,400 officers for a city then of more than 2.5 million people - an issue which almost became a point of pride within the department. It was a time when the crime rates were much higher, and homicides were triple the figure of today's rate.

Gates, chief from 1978 to 1992, is credited with creating the SWAT teams as well as the DARE anti-drug program. The hiring of women and minority officers increased under his watch. Most famously, perhaps, was his writing of Special Order 40 - an issue that remains controversial - which prohibits officers from asking the immigration status of crime victims.

"Even if it was a difficult or unpopular decision... Chief Gates worked tirelessly," Villaraigosa said. "He will be remembered as someone who paved the way for the modern police department."

But Gates will also be linked to an era of hostile ties with many in the city - particularly minorities, whose only positive contact with officers might have been a wave from a passing patrol car.

The hostility boiled over following the videotaped beating of African-American motorist Rodney King by four white officers in Lakeview Terrace. Their acquittal on criminal charges sparked four days of riots that left more than 50 people dead and caused an estimated $1 billion in damage.

When Gates was told that his best course of action was to take a stance against the officers following the public release of the videotape, his response to advisers was "to go pound sand," said Jay Grodin, Gates' attorney and best friend. Gates said the officers were entitled to a fair and impartial investigation, Grodin recalled.

"Daryl was not one of the greatest diplomats in history," said former Gov. Pete Wilson. "But Daryl Gates and the department he molded far exceeded excellent."

Gates was born Aug. 20, 1926, and grew up in Glendale and Highland Park. He enlisted in the Navy and served two years before enrolling at the University of Southern California. He joined the LAPD in 1949 when his wife became pregnant.

Gates moved up quickly through the ranks and became a driver for then-Chief William Parker, a job he later said taught him more about the city and politics than any other position he ever held. During his years as an officer and as chief, Gates saw some of the most controversial crimes and issues in city history. They included the death of Marilyn Monroe, the assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, the Watts riots, and the Manson Family and Hillside Strangler cases.

But it was the King beating and the subsequent riots that gave further impetus to a series of reforms developed by a panel under the direction of former Secretary of State Warren Christopher.

Among the changes was limiting the job to two five-year terms, making sure no chief would ever again serve as long as Gates.

Former Ultimate Fighting champion Tito Ortiz wipes a tear from his eye as he listens to his attorney Chip Matthews speaks to the media Monday, April 26, 2010, at the Firenze Osteria restaurant in North Hollywood. Ortiz had been arrested on suspicion of domestic violence towards his girlfriend Jenna Jameson. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok)

Tito Ortiz arrested, accuses Jenna Jameson of drug use:
From the L.A. Daily News - Mixed martial arts star Tito Ortiz claims his ex-porn star girlfriend is addicted to Oxycontin, and he blames Jenna Jameson's drug use for his arrest Monday on suspicion of domestic violence.

Ortiz was arrested in Huntington Beach at the home he shares with Jameson and their twin sons. Several hours after posting bail, Ortiz and his attorney accused Jameson of drug addiction and claimed Ortiz never struck her.

Two men wheel ATM with $15,000 out of Garden Grove hotel lobby:
From the L.A. Times - Two men remain at large after wheeling away an ATM machine full of $15,000 in cash early Monday morning and arousing the suspicion of coffee shop worker.

According to Garden Grove police, one of the men, who wheeled a moving dolly into the lobby of the Crown Plaza Hotel about 5:10 a.m. Monday, was wearing a black vest with yellow lettering that could have been confused for a police or security guard uniform.

Police search for suspect who attacked man with box cutter on MTA bus:
From the L.A. Daily News - An assailant with a box cutter attacked a man on an MTA bus #270 at Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue today, authorities said.

The victim, who was attacked about 1:30 a.m., was taken to a hospital with a head wound.

Peeking at celebrity medical records lands former UCLA researcher in prison:
From the L.A. Daily News - A former UCLA School of Medicine researcher will spend four months in federal prison for illegally peaking at confidential private records of celebrities, high-profile patients and co-workers.

Those whose records he accessed include Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, Tom Hanks, Sharon Osbourne, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Barbara Walters, Anne Rice, Elizabeth Banks and Leonardo DiCaprio, according to sentencing papers filed April 19 in Los Angeles federal court.

Man crashes car into DMV building during driving test:
From the Whittier Daily News - Driving tests at the DMV can be nerve-wracking. Just ask Lucas Holliday.

When the 18-year-old Whittier man got behind the wheel Monday at the Department of Motor Vehicle office on Painter Avenue, he promptly lost control of his beige 2006 Toyota Corolla and smashed into the west wall of the DMV building.

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From Daily News wire services:

RESEDA -- A man on a bicycle chased and caught a suspected drunken driver who led police on a chase that ended with a crash, a sergeant said today.

The driver, whose name was unavailable, was arrested on suspicion of felony drunken driving and hit-and-run after crashing near Saticoy Street and Lindley Avenue about 9:20 p.m. Monday, said Los Angeles police Sgt. Rolland Cannon of the Valley Traffic Division.

Police backed off the pursuit just before the crash due to excessive speed, Cannon said.

The suspect ran a red light at Saticoy and Lindley, collided with a car, "barrel-rolled" the vehicle, got out and ran east, Cannon said.

Somebody on a bicycle saw the crash, followed the suspect and caught him, Cannon said.

A woman in the car that was struck complained of chest pain and was taken to a hospital to be checked out, Cannon said. She was later released.

By Rick Orlov, Staff Writer

The LAPD has slashed its backlog of untested rape kits from 6,132 to 648, but says it could expedite the process further if the FBI lifts a regulation requiring the verification of tests conducted by private labs.

City Councilman Greig Smith, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, said officials are lobbying federal lawmakers to change an FBI requirement that local police departments repeat DNA tests conducted by independent laboratories if the results are going to be used as evidence in court.

"Council President (Eric) Garcetti and I met with members of Congress and they were very sympathetic to what we were saying," Smith said. "They said to the FBI that if they didn't find an accommodation, legislation would be introduced and that's something the FBI doesn't want."

Read the full story at the L.A. Daily News.

Visitors pay their respects to former Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates. Gates died last month after a battle with bladder cancer. A public visitation was held at the Deaton Auditorium at the LAPD Headquarters in Los Angeles monday. Funeral services will be held Tuesday. | See photo gallery. (Photo by David Crane/Los Angeles Daily News)

Hundreds of mourners filed past the flag-draped coffin of retired LAPD Chief Daryl F. Gates on Monday during a public visitation for the "cop's cop" who came to symbolize both the best and worst of law enforcement.

Many of the guests made the sign of the cross as they paused at Gates' polished wooden casket, which was flanked by uniformed police officers standing at attention at the new Los Angeles Police Department headquarters. Mourners also paused to take photos of Gates' hat, badge and white gloves, which were displayed atop a white columned pedestal nearby.

The uniformed officers, from the elite Metropolitan Division - which includes the Special Weapons and Tactics team that Gates established - were relieved every 15 minutes in a formal changing of the guard - a gesture to honor one of Los Angeles' longest-serving police chiefs.

The visitation began two days of memorial services for Gates, who died April 16 of bladder cancer at his home in Dana Point. He was 83.

A procession through downtown is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. today, beginning at the new headquarters and ending at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, where an invitation-only, nondenominational service is set for 9 a.m. A public ceremony in the cathedral's plaza will follow.

For the last month, police officers have been wearing a black mourning band in honor of SWAT officer Robert "R.J." Cottle, a sergeant major in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve who was killed in Afghanistan by a roadside bomb.

During the visitation, a picture of Cottle and Gates rested on a stand next to a guestbook. One man wrote, "Thank you Chief" next to his name.

As a slide show marking highlights of Gates' 14-year stint as chief played above the casket, mourner Ruby Boord sank to her knees, her head bowed in prayer.

Although she worked as a parking enforcement officer for the LAPD, she never personally knew the chief. Still, Gates so reminded her of her own late father, she made the 45-minute drive from her home in Santa Clarita to pay her last respects.

"He left such a big impact on me," said Boord, who would see Gates in the hallways of Parker Center. "He always reminded me of my dad at work because they had the same work ethic.

"(Gates) was a wonderful man, very supportive, always there for the troops. He loved the city of L.A. even though a lot of people didn't see it that way."

While Gates was adored by his men and recognized for a number of crime-fighting innovations, he also became a symbol of heavy-handed policing tactics.

His tenure as police chief, from 1978-1992, will be forever tarnished by the beating of African-American motorist Rodney King by four white officers and the deadly riots that devastated the city in the wake of their acquittal.

Still, Gates will be remembered by many as a father figure who always looked out for his officers.

Garry Couso-Vasquez, who served on the SWAT team during his 23 years with the LAPD and later became chief of the Montebello Police Department, said he tried to emulate Gates in his own career.

"I'm here to pay my respects to the man who taught me how to be a chief," said Couso-Vasquez, who added that Gates always reminded him to care about his subordinates. "It was almost like seeing my own father lying there. I never thought this day would come."

While heading the Montebello force, Couso-Vasquez said, he frequently called Gates for advice on difficult decisions, such as how to handle an officer-involved shooting. Gates' answer always told him, "Put yourself in the officer's shoes."

"You'll never find a greater chief who cared about his men and women," Couso-Vasquez said. "He did that until the day he entered heaven."

Donna and Harvey Stone of Reseda, recalled just how much Gates cared about his officers when Harvey Stone's brother, an LAPD officer, was dying of cancer.

Although the officer and Gates had never been particularly close, the chief still came to visit at the house and later at the hospital before her brother-in-law died at age 38, Donna Stone said.

"It shows what kind of people person he was," she said. "Just very, very supportive of families."

Sgt. Steven Williams and Officer Sergio Ortiz of the LAPD's training division, credited Gates with inspiring them to join the force.

"He was just a cop's cop," Williams said. "Even though he was the chief, I feel like he would talk to you like your father or in your peer group. He made everybody feel important, like they were the president of the United States."

When Williams and Ortiz graduated from the Police Academy, Gates handed them their diplomas. Both men have now been with the department for 28 and 22 years, respectively.

"We both feel like we're losing our father," Williams said. "He was a role model for us and we wanted to be like him."

The city has scheduled full closures of the following streets in downtown between 6:30 AM and Noon for former LAPD Chief Daryl F. Gates' funeral procession on Tuesday:

• Temple Street between Broadway and Grand Avenue



• Hill Street between Temple and Ord Streets, and all of Hill Place

Local Access Only (Court employees)

• Hill Street between 1st and Temple Streets

• 1st Street between Main and Hill Streets



• Broadway between 2nd and Judge John Aiso Streets

Suggested detour routes are as follows:

• To the North: Cesar Chavez


• To the East: Los Angeles Street


• To the South: 2nd Street


• To the West: Figueroa Street and Beaudry Avenue

Click here for a map of all closures in the area.

A closed-casket viewing for fomer LAPD chief Daryl F. Gates, who died April 16 of bladder cancer at age 83, will begin at noon today at police headquarters.

The viewing will last until 8 p.m. in the Ronald F. Deaton Civic Auditorium at LAPD headquarters, 100 W. First St.

A white hearse carrying Gates coffin arrived around 9:30 a.m., escorted by several officers riding motorcycles.

The viewing is the first part of a two-day tribute to Gates. A funeral procession to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels and an elaborate ceremony will take place Tuesday morning.

Hill Street, Broadway and Spring Street will be closed south of the Santa Ana (101) Freeway for the 8:35 a.m. procession, and the closure is expected to last about 20 minutes. First Street between Main and Hill streets will also be closed briefly, at about 8:30 a.m.

From Daily News wire services:

Los Angeles residents can get up to $200 by turning in their firearms -- no questions asked -- on May 8, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced today.

"I want to implore all Angelenos to join us in making this year's Gun Buyback (program) even more successful than the last," Villaraigosa said. "By working together, thinking strategically and offering the right incentives, we can create a safer Los Angeles, neighborhood by neighborhood."

Under the program -- which will run from 10 a.m. through 3 p.m. on May 8 -- community and faith-based organizations will work with the Los Angeles Police Department in providing five "neutral" locations where people can surrender their firearms in exchange for a Ralphs grocery store gift card or a prepaid VISA card.

The amount of the gift cards will depend on the type of firearm. For assault weapons, the amount is up to $200; for handguns, shotguns and rifles, up to $100.

"Last year, we reclaimed 1,700 guns and assault weapons (in) the most successful gun buyback program in the United States of America," Villaraigosa said.

"The LAPD is focused on this. Our Gang Reduction and Youth Reduction Office is working with intervention workers to really reach out," he said. "Our hope is that this is going to be even more successful that last year."

Villaraigosa said the city handed out 1,302 gift cards worth about $130,200 last year. This year, although the number of sites has been whittled down from 19 to five, it is prepared to spend $200,000.

People can turn in their firearms at the following locations:

• in East Los Angeles, at Legacy L.A., 1350 N. San Pablo St.;

• in South Los Angeles, at Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, 7900 S. Western Ave.;

• in the Harbor area, at the Park & Ride lot at 1300 W. Pacific Coast Highway, Wilmington;

• in Hollywood, at the Farm Fresh Ranch Grocery Store, 5520 Sunset Blvd.; and

• in the San Fernando Valley, at the Facey Medical Center parking lot, 11165 Sepulveda Blvd.

By Troy Anderson, Staff Writer

A 26-year-old fugitive accused in a brazen shooting that left four men dead at a Valley Village cafe was charged Thursday with mayhem and multiple murder counts that could make him eligible for the death penalty, officials said.

Nerses Galstyan was being held Thursday in Seattle in lieu of $4 million bail. He was apprehended Tuesday in Washington state along with his 24-year-old brother, Samuel, who was later released.

During a news conference at LAPD headquarters, officials said video surveillance confirmed that Nerses Galstyan had been at the Hot Spot Cafe on April 3 and left after the shooting that killed four men and wounded two others.

Read the full story at the Daily News.

By Jerry Berrios, Staff Writer

Jovanna Lugo always put her family first.

On Wednesday, that philosophy put her on a fatal path with an LAPD cruiser on a busy Sylmar street.

Lugo was making the short trip to her sister's house to pick up visiting relatives for an evening of hot chocolate and bread at her home.

It was too cold for them to walk so Lugo offered to pick them up. Her husband, Julio, stayed home, watching their 2-year-old son, Leonardo.

After all, she would be right back.

"She never made it," her father Jesse Lugo said Thursday.

Read the full story at the Daily News.

From CBS:

A LAPD patrol unit crashed into a car in the 12800 block of North Glenoaks Blvd. in Sylmar on April 21, 2010. One person was killed at the scene and two LAPD officers were treated for minor injuries. (Gene Blevins/LA Daily News)

From Daily News wire services:

SYLMAR - A 27-year-old woman killed when her car was struck by a Los Angeles Police Department patrol car in Sylmar was making a U-turn when the crash occurred, police said today.

Jovanna Lugo of Sylmar was killed in the crash, which occurred at Glenoaks Boulevard and Dyer Street at 8:10 p.m. Wednesday, said LAPD Officer Norma Eisenman.

"A black and white Los Angeles police vehicle was traveling northbound on Glenoaks and impacted the Corolla (driven by Lugo) as it was negotiating the U-turn," Eisenman said. "As a result of the collision, Lugo died at the scene."

The police car was not responding to a call, according to an LAPD Valley Traffic Division duty officer.

The two officers in the patrol car involved in the collision suffered moderate injuries and were taken to a hospital, Eisenman said.

See photo gallery at the LA Daily News.

Los Angeles police are seeking additional victims who may have been sexually assaulted by a Malibu professional trainer who also works in Westwood.

Gregory Isaacs, 49, was arrested in January after he allegedly sexually assaulted a 27-year-old female who lived at the Westwood apartment complex where he oversaw a workout facility. He assaulted at least one victim in his office there, police said.

Isaacs, whose website advertises weekend training retreats and says he trains celebrities, is currently released on bail.

Anyone who may have been assaulted by Isaacs or has any information about an assault is urged to contact Operation-West Bureau Sex Crimes Detail, Detective Geoff Tavares at 213-473-0438 or 213-473-0416.

Anyone wishing to remain anonymous should call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (800-222-8477). Tipsters may also contact Crimestoppers by texting to phone number 274637 (C-R-I-M-E-S on most keypads) with a cell phone. All text messages should begin with the letters "LAPD. Tips leading to an arrest can earn up to $1,000.

A man suspected of killing four men in a shooting prompted by an argument inside a North Hollywood restaurant earlier this month was arrested near Seattle, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.

Nerses Arthur Galstyan, a 28-year-old Armenian national, was arrested Tuesday along with his brother, Samuel Galstyan, in Kenmore, Washington, said Deputy U.S. Marshal Richard L. Ploof.

Los Angeles police had originally named Nerses Galstyan as the sole suspect in the shooting at the Hot Spot Cafe Mediterranean Restaurant at 11651 Riverside Drive. It was not clear what Samuel Galstyan's involvement was in that shooting or if he was involved at all, but Ploof said he was also wanted on a murder warrant originating from Los Angeles.

Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese, head of the LAPD's Valley Bureau, said he had no information on Samuel Galstyan's arrest.

"There are no details other than to know that the suspect we wanted is in custody," Albanese said.

Albanese could not say when the suspects would be brought back to Los Angeles, citing extradition issues.

About 20 law enforcement officials including the Marshal's Pacific Northwest Fugitive Apprehension Task Force and a SWAT team from Kings County made the arrest at a home around 8:15 p.m. Tuesday. Officials had set up surveillance on the home after being contacted by the Los Angeles Police Department, Ploof said.

The Galstyans were called out of the home and surrendered without incident, Ploof said.
Ploof declined to name the relationship between the Galstyans and the homeowners.

Nerses Galstyan has been sought since the April 3 shooting that left four men dead and two others injured. Killed were: Hayk Yegnanyan, 25; Sarkis Karadjian, 26; Harut Baburyan, 28; and Vardan Tofalyan, 31.

The men all knew each other and had been eating at the restaurant, police said.

After LAPD identified Nerses Galstyan as the alleged shooter on April 9, a federal grand jury on the same day indicted Galstyan on three counts of illegally dealing firearms and possession of two semi-automatic rifles with obliterated serial numbers.

If convicted of those three counts, he could face a maximum of 15 years in prison.

A Reseda man was in jail Wednesday after police arrested him for kidnap with the intent to commit a sexual assault on a woman who was 8-months pregnant, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Jason Wade Foreman, 38, was arrested Tuesday in Van Nuys after police saw him inside a stolen car near the intersection of Saticoy Street and Balboa Boulevard, according to the West Valley station.

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Foreman, a resident of a Reseda sober living home, was arrested without incident and investigators also found a handgun and burglary tools in the car, police said.

He was being held on $2,010,000 bond. A court date had not been set as of Wednesday.

Foreman was wanted for a Feb. 22 incident in which he tried to kidnap a woman, police said.

The woman was walking in an alley in broad daylight when Foreman drove past her, parked, opened the trunk, grabbed the victim in a bear hug and tried to force her into the trunk, police said.

The victim bit the suspect's arm and broke free, and Foreman fled in his car, police said.
Detectives identified and tracked Foreman through surveillance video, which showed his license plate.

"We knew he was a predator, but the stolen car, the gun and burglary tools are indicators that he likely victimized people in a broad scope of crime," said Capt. John Egan.

Funeral services will be held next week for Daryl F. Gates, the former Los Angeles Police Department chief who died last week after a battle with bladder cancer in his Dana Point home.

The service is scheduled for 9 a.m. Tuesday at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, 555 West Temple Street, Los Angeles. It will be closed to the public, but an honors ceremony will take place in the plaza.

Visitation will be Monday from noon to 8 p.m. in the Deaton Auditorium at LAPD headquarters, 100 W. 1st Street, Los Angeles.

The date coincides with the one-month anniversary that officers have worn a black mourning band for LAPD SWAT officer R.J. Cottle, a sergeant major in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve killed in Afghanistan.

Gates, the longest tenured chief in city history, headed LAPD 1978 to 1992. He oversaw the department during controversial times, including the 1992 L.A. riots and the Rodney King beating.

From Daily News wire services:

LOS ANGELES - A multi-pronged approach to help victims of domestic violence was launched today in Los Angeles in conjunction with Denim Day, during which people wear denim to raise awareness about rape and sexual assault.

With a $1.1 million grant from the Department of Justice's Office of Violence Against Women, the initiative seeks to increase the rate of domestic violence prosecutions, and provide services to victims.

It will fund training programs and a new electronic case management system so that the Los Angeles Police Department, City Attorney's Office and service providers can track the progress of domestic violence cases.

"Today, we stand to speak out and break the silence in support of victims of domestic violence," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said.

The initiative will also increase funding for the city's Domestic Abuse Response Teams, which provide victims with, among other things, crisis intervention, medical and emergency room advocacy, counseling, support groups, referrals to shelters, legal services, self-defense classes and assistance in obtaining restraining orders.

Finally, the initiative includes the Stop Abuse from Existing (SAFE) public awareness campaign, which directs victims to www.safela.org.

The website contains emergency hotline numbers, shelter information and means to obtain legal services through the City Attorney's office, the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles and Neighborhood Local Services.

A Los Angeles man accused of using stolen credit cards to rack up nearly $18,000 for local theme parks tickets was busted by sheriff's deputies last week at a meeting in which he resold tickets to a buyer responding to an online ad, authorities said.

William E. Redd, 37, is facing felony grand theft charges after he allegedly used stolen credit cards to buy tickets or pay for other charges in at least 12 separate transactions at Six Flags Magic Mountain and Knott's Berry Farm, the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's station announced Wednesday.

He then sold the tickets on Craigslist in a scheme dating back to last year, authorities said.

Investigators, working with Six Flags loss prevention officers, tracked Redd through his online activity and transactions and set up a meeting with him to buy tickets last Thursday. Detectives monitored the exchange nearby and arrested him shortly after, according to the station.

Detectives conducted a parole search of Redd's home in the 1100 block of West 77th Street and recovered more evidence, according to the station.

"These thieves may think they are safe hiding behind the wall of the Internet," said Capt. Paul Becker. "But we will not be deterred."

Redd is being held without bail. He is scheduled to be arraigned in Newhall Municipal Court on May 3.

From Daily News wire services:

CALABASAS - Former NFL player Corey Dillon was arrested today near Calabasas for allegedly driving drunk.

Dillon, 35, was taken into custody about 3:40 a.m. on northbound Mulholland Drive near the Ventura (101) Freeway, said Lt. Rich Erickson of the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff's Station.

Dillon was booked on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs, and was released on a citation to appear at the Malibu courthouse on June 21, Erickson said.

Two deputies were driving north on Mulholland Drive when they saw a red 2010 Chevrolet Camaro with paper plates and two male occupants "driving slowly behind them" and "conducted a traffic stop to verify the vehicle's registration," Erickson said.

"Mr. Dillon displayed multiple symptoms of being under the influence, and he admitted to having been drinking earlier in the evening," the lieutenant said.

Dillon played with the Cincinnati Bengals and the New England Patriots.

Police are asking for help in finding the drivers of two vehicles involved in separate hit-and-runs that left two men in serious condition in Van Nuys.

• A 43-year-old man who was riding his bicycle westbound on Oxnard Street just west of Fulton Avenue was struck by a truck driven by a male at about 12:17 p.m. on April 16 , according to the Los Angeles Police Department Valley Traffic division.

  
  
  According to witnesses, the truck was traveling westbound on Oxnard Street and was trying to pass the bicyclist when a metal object attached to the truck possibly hit the man, police said.

  The bicyclist was transported to a local hospital with severe injuries and was listed in serious condition.

  There was no further description on the truck.

  Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Jackson at 818-644-8020 or 818-644-8028


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• In the second incident, a man in his 30s was crossing the street on Victory Boulevard on April 17 at 8:25 p.m. when a car going eastbound on Victory hit him at the Willis Avenue intersection.

  
  
  The man was transported to a local hospital with severe injuries and is listed in serious condition.

  There was no further description on the driver or the car.

  Anyone with information on that incident is asked to call Officer Scott DeWitt at 818-644-8027.

  
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Two sobriety and drivers license checkpoints will be in effect Saturday in the North Hollywood area as police try to curb a 27 percent increase from last year in DUI-related accidents.

Checkpoints will be at:

• Lankershim Boulevard and Magnolia Boulevard, 7 p.m. to 2 a.m.


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• Cahuenga Boulevard between Broadlawn Drive and Lankershim Boulevard, 9 p.m. to 4 a.m.


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There have been 61 DUI traffic collisions in North Hollywood since January, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

There will also be a checkpoint in the Pacific area at Lincoln Boulevard between Washington Boulevard and Maxella Avenue on Friday from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m.

Since January, there have been 29 DUI-related crashes and 265 hit-and-runs in that area, LAPD said.

A 35-year-old Palmdale man convicted of raping a 10-year-old girl in a movie theater was sentenced on Tuesday to 63 years to life in prison for the 2006 attack.

Marque Clark was found guilty last month of forcible rape, kidnapping to commit another crime, aggravated sexual assault, sodomy of a person under 14 and forcible lewd act on a child.

Clark will not be eligible for parole until he's nearly 89, said prosecutor S. Kelly Cromer of the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. The sentence is comprised of two consecutive terms, Cromer said.

The sentence, handed down by Superior Court Judge Lisa Chung, stems from the Aug. 29, 2006 incident in which Clark forced the girl at knifepoint from a hallway into the back of an empty movie theater at the Cinemark Movies 10 in the Antelope Valley Mall. He raped her behind a movie screen, then fled out a back door.

Sheriff's deputies arrested Clark three weeks later on DNA evidence and found the girl's cell phone hidden behind some bushes at his home, where he told them they would find it.

Detectives, who were interviewing sex offenders in the area, had originally visited Clark's west Palmdale home to talk to his 60-year-old father, a registered sex offender convicted of molesting a girl in the mid-1980s.

But Clark's father wasn't home, and while talking to detectives, Clark admitted that he had been at the mall the day of the attack. Detectives obtained mall security camera footage and noted a man who resembled Clark. He later failed a lie-detector test when taken into custody and confessed to the crime, detectives said.

Clark's public defender, Steve Kwon, could not be reached for comment.

4/20/10 3:15 p.m. update: LAPD has released video footage of the attempted break-in.

Police are asking for help in identifying a three-woman burglary crew that investigators think is responsible for at least three break-ins in the Encino area.

The most recent "knock knock" burglary attempt was April 16 at a home in Encino Hills south of Ventura Boulevard, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

The three women, who were wearing caps or hooded sweatshirts, appear to be in their 20s. They were caught by a homeowner's surveillance camera as they knocked repeatedly on the front door at about 10:30 a.m., police said.

When no one answered, they moved to the back of the house and broke a window, but were apparently scared away when a burglar alarm went off, police said.

The vehicle the suspects are using is a gray or light-colored compact, police said.

Anyone with information on the suspects is asked to call West Valley division Dets. Jeffrey Dunn or Maggie Brownell at 818-374-7730.

Anyone wishing to remain anonymous may call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS or text 274637. All text messages should begin with the letters "LAPD." Tips leading to an arrest can earn up to $1,000.

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Los Angeles police are continuing an investigation into the killing of a male teen who was shot during a party early Saturday in Pacoima.

Trevon Coats, 17, was among a large group of people outside a home at 12900 W. Desmond St. at 2:15 a.m. when someone in the group pulled a gun and shot him in the head, according to Det. Heather Gahry of LAPD Foothill station.

Coats, of Pacoima, died at 11:50 a.m. at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, according to the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office.

The shooting did not appear to be gang-related, Gahry said.

No other information was available.

Coats' killing is at least the seventh in Pacoima since Jan. 1.

Anyone with more information is asked to call Foothill station at 818-834-3115.

Anyone wishing to remain anonymous may call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS or text 274637. All text messages should begin with the letters "LAPD." Tips leading to an arrest can earn up to $1,000.

The parents of a Sun Valley teen who was killed after testifying as a witness to a gang killing will not receive the millions in damages sought from the city and two LAPD detectives in a lawsuit, a jury ruled Thursday.

The two-week trial in federal court also resulted in a verdict of no punitive damages against the two defendant police officers. The parents of Martha Puebla, 16, had sought several million dollars in damages and had demanded $950,000 in punitive damages.

The case stems from a November 2002 Vineland Boyz gang killing in which Puebla was a witness. She testified in court and despite numerous threats against her, Puebla did not enter the witness relocation program. Her parents said she was never offered protection.

The detectives, Martin Pinner and Juan Rodriguez, had told then-alleged killer Jose "Pepe" Ledesma during an interrogation that Puebla had identified him as the shooter. Ledesma, while in jail, made a call asking someone to make her disappear.

Puebla was murdered by members of the gang 12 days after she testified, according to the City Attorney's Office.

Puebla's parents filed a lawsuit alleging civil rights violations and negligence on behalf of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Read the L.A. Times' story of the events leading up to Puebla's killing here.

An autopsy is scheduled today for a Topanga woman who was found shot to death inside a car in North Hollywood on Tuesday, according to the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office.

Anel Juarez, 37, was pronounced dead from multiple gunshot wounds in the 12200 block of Gault Street after police responded to a call of shots fired at 10:10 p.m. Tuesday, said Detective Steve Castro at the Los Angeles Police Department's North Hollywood station.

Juarez was identified Wednesday afternoon.

No other information was immediately available.

"The investigation is ongoing and we're working all leads," Castro said.

Anyone with more information is asked to call Castro or Detective Mark O'Donnell at 818-623-4075.

Anyone wishing to remain anonymous may call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS or text 274637. All text messages should begin with the letters "LAPD." Tips leading to an arrest can earn up to $1,000.

Los Angeles police are searching for three suspects who dropped a female off at a Panorama City hospital last week, where she died shortly after of a gunshot wound.

The female was identified as Darlene Robles, 17, of North Hollywood. Robles was left at Kaiser Permanente hospital in the 13600 block of Willard Street by two unidentified males and a female at about 5 a.m. on April 6, police said.

Detectives, who have released surveillance video of the people pulling up in an SUV and wheeling Robles to the emergency room, have named the trio as suspects and are asking the public's help in finding them.

In the video, Robles is slumped in a wheelchair as a man, followed by a woman, pushes her into the ER. The man and woman embrace, then leave.

The case is under investigation to determine the motive for the shooting. Robles was shot in Sherman Oaks, according to the coroner's office.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Van Nuys Division homicide detectives at 818-374-0040.

Anyone wishing to remain anonymous may call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS or text 274637. All text messages should begin with the letters "LAPD." Tips leading to an arrest can earn up to $1,000.

Police on Friday identified a man who allegedly killed four men and wounded two others in a North Hollywood restaurant last Saturday, while a federal grand jury in a separate investigation indicted the suspect on illegally dealing firearms.

Nerses Arthur Galstyan, 28, of North Hollywood, is accused of opening fire inside the Hot Spot Cafe, a Mediterranean restaurant at 11651 Riverside Dr., as a group of people celebrated a birthday.

Galstyan had been part of the group and fired multiple rounds in anger when he became involved in an argument with several men, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Surveillance video from the restaurant shows that Galstyan was in the restaurant, then left after the shooting, police said.

Police executed search warrants at a North Hollywood home that was Galstyan's previous residence, and a Glendale home on Friday morning, but were unable to find him. He is believed to be in the area, armed and very dangerous, Beck said.

"Yes, this is a dangerous person - extremely dangerous - and I have concerns about my police officers when they make contact with him," Beck said. "But this is not a random act. This is not something that people in the Valley or any other place eating at any other restaurant should have to worry about."

The victims were identified as Harut Baburyan, 28, Sarkis Karadjian, 26, Vardan Tofalyan, 31, and Hayk Yegnanyan, 25.

At least one of the two men who were injured was still in a coma with multiple rounds still in his body, said Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese, head of LAPD's Valley Bureau. He was still in critical care in the intensive care unit, but was expected to recover, Albanese said.

Beck declined to comment on whether others in the group may have returned fire and also on reports that the killings were tied to a 2007 murder of a 24-year-old man whose body was found on Mulholland Drive.

Also on Friday morning, a federal grand jury indicted Galstyan on three counts related to weapons dealing charges filed in February. Prior to October 2009, Galstyan and others sold firearms without a license and he possessed two Spike's Tactical .223 caliber semi-automatic rifles with obliterated serial numbers, according to court documents.

Galstyan allegedly imported, cleaned and prepared the guns to sell, according to an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He also allegedly told an informant that he could sell rifles, AK-47s, and 10,000 to 100,000 rounds of ammunition, according to court documents.

If convicted on all three counts, he could face a maximum of 15 years in prison, said Andre Birotte Jr., U.S. Attorney.

Baburyan, one of the victims, had a lengthy criminal record. He was convicted of attempted auto fraud and sentenced to six months in prison in 2007. He was also convicted in 2000 of receiving stolen property and sentenced to 18 days in jail and five years' probation, and then another 16 months in prison for illegal possession of a semi-automatic weapon, in 2006 according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

Anyone with more information is asked to call Detective Wallace Tennelle or Detective Luis Romero, Robbery Homicide Division at 213-486-6890. Anyone wishing to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS, and tips leading to an arrest can earn up to $1,000.

Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton has been awarded the honorary title of Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire -- one step below knighthood -- for his help with policing throughout Britain. The rare honor by Queen Elizabeth was announced Thursday.

A new study from Harvard looks at the changes in the Los Angeles Police Department over the last nearly 20 years. Today, 53 percent of new graduates were Latino, compared with 45 percent in 1990.

dailynews.com

Police arrested a 26-year-old man in connection with attempting to kidnap a girl.

José Maldonado was arrested at his house in the 13000 block of Montague Street in Arleta.

He tried to snatch a girl at knifepoint in Arleta, on May 18, 2009, at 4:30 p.m.

The victim told police she was walking home when the suspect got out of a parked car and approached her, wearing a white T-shirt that obscured the lower portion of his face. According to the victim, he then grabbed her, threatened her with a six-inch folding knife and told her to get into the car. At that point, a struggle for control of the knife ensued.

From a distance, the victim's father saw what was happening, so he began yelling and running toward the scuffle, which caused Maldonado to stop what he was doing, get back into his car and drive away.

Detective investigation and resources led to the identification of Maldonado, and he was arrested without incident. He has been booked for attempted kidnapping and is being held on $1 million bail.

Anyone with more information about the incident or who has been a victim of a similar crime is urged to contact Mission Division Detectives Bishop or Gonzales at (818) 838-9810. After hours or on weekends, calls may be directed to a 24-hour, toll-free number at 1-877-LAPD-24-7 (527-3247). Callers may also text "Crimes" with a cell phone or log on to www.lapdonline.org and click on web tips. When using a cell phone, all messages should begin with "LAPD." Tipsters may remain anonymous.

Los Angeles police officers issued hundreds of citations to motorists who failed to yield to pedestrians during a sting operation in Northridge.

The traffic enforcement operation took place on Friday, May 8, 2009 between 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Reseda Boulevard and Vincennes Street.

Although there has been a 17% reduction of auto vs. pedestrian traffic collisions in the San Fernando Valley, there has been a 30% increase of these types of collisions in Devonshire Area, thus far this year. In an effort to increase pedestrian safety, officers from Devonshire Area and Valley Traffic Division conducted aggressive enforcement on the state's pedestrian safety laws, specifically, laws requiring drivers to yield to pedestrians within crosswalks.

The enforcement resulted in 187 motorists being cited primarily for drivers failing to yield to pedestrians crossing within a marked crosswalk. Police officers, in plain clothes, walked across Reseda Boulevard and when motorists failed to yield to the pedestrians they were stopped and cited.

California has a right-of-way law for pedestrians within crosswalks, either marked or unmarked, which requires drivers to yield to pedestrians and exercise due care for their safety.

The Los Angeles Police Department would like to remind motorists and pedestrians to be extra cautious when driving or walking across streets.

For further information contact Detective William Bustos, Valley Traffic Division, at (818) 644-8020.

On Monday evening a man was killed in the parking structure at the Beverly Center. Los Angeles Police Department homicide detectives are investigating the murder.

On May 18, 2009, at 3:11 p.m., officers from Wilshire Area responded to a call for service at the Beverly Center, located at 8500 Beverly Boulevard. When they arrived, the officers found an adult male suffering from several gunshot wounds.

The Los Angeles Fire Department was notified and transported the victim to a local hospital where he died a short time later.

During the investigation, homicide detectives identified the suspect who left the scene before the officers arrived. The suspect, Aubrey Louis Berry, a 23-year-old male, from Georgia was arrested for the murder at the Los Angeles International Airport. Berry is being held on $1 million bail.

Wilshire Area homicide detectives are handling the investigation and are still looking into the motive for the murder.

The victim's identity has not yet been confirmed, pending verification from the Los Angeles Coroner's Office. The victim was identified by friends, family and his publicist as the rapper Dolla, whose real name was Roderick Anthony Burton II.

Anyone with information about the incident is encouraged to contact Wilshire Homicide Detective Frank Carrillo at (213) 473-0446. During off-hours, calls may be directed to a 24-hour, toll-free number at 1-877-LAPD-24-7 (527-3247). Callers may also text "Crimes" with a cell phone or log on to LAPD and click on Web tips. When using a cell phone, all messages should begin with "LAPD." Tipsters may remain anonymous.

Sometimes you gotta wonder what people are thinking.

VAN NUYS - A man accused of firing several rounds from an assault weapon into a parking lot following a domestic dispute pleaded today, the District Attorney's Office announced.

Deputy District Attorney Isidoro Baly of the Van Nuys Branch Office said Amir David Tamado Nejad, 28, of Woodland Hills pleaded no contest to two counts of assault with an assault weapon and admitted special allegations of personal use of an assault weapon. The defendant also admitted a prior strike, a 1998 conviction for conspiracy to commit a drive-by shooting.

Judge Richard Kirschner ordered the defendant to return for sentencing on June 15 in Department G of Van Nuys Superior Court. Nejad is expected to be sentenced to 26 years and eight months in state prison.

Following a domestic dispute between Nejad and his girlfriend on May 25, 2008, the defendant fired five rounds into a parking lot where his girlfriend and a security guard stood. During a search of his apartment, police discovered 12 firearms and more than 200 pounds of ammunition.

Los Angeles police detectives are asking for the public's help in identifying the suspects responsible for the shooting deaths of 25-year-old Alejandro Robleos Perez and 19-year-old Javier Cordero Gonzalez.

The men were killed Saturday, May 16, 2009 about 4:30 a.m. near 2909 West Hyde Park Boulevard. The victims were standing on the sidewalk when the suspects approached them. The suspects suddenly began shooting multiple rounds, killing Perez and Gonzales.

Detectives have not determined whether the shooting is gang related.

Anyone with information regarding this murder investigation is asked to contact Criminal Gang Homicide Group Detectives Kenneth White and Refugio Garza at (213) 485-1383. After hours or on weekends, calls may be directed to a 24-hour, toll-free number at 1-877-LAPD-24-7 (527-3247) or by texting CRIMES (274637) and beginning the message with the letters LAPD. Tipsters may also submit information on the LAPD website: www.lapdonline.org. All tips may remain anonymous.

A 46-year-old man accused of stealing $100,000 from the Union Rescue Mission, then setting a fire to cover up the crime, pleaded, six days into his on-going jury trial.

Deputy District Attorney Sabrina Corsa said Alvin Synder pleaded no contest to one count each of first-degree residential burglary, grand theft of personal property, arson of property and attempt to burn a structure.

The defendant additionally admitted the allegation that a person was present in the dwelling at the time of the burglary and that the dollar-amount of property taken exceeded $65,000. Synder also admitted one prior strike conviction and four prison priors.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Monica Bachner ordered the defendant to return for sentencing on June 30, 2009, in Department 129 of the Foltz Criminal Justice Center. The defendant remains in custody and is being held without bail.

Synder pleaded open to the court, meaning the plea agreement was not part of a negotiated settlement with the District Attorney's Office. The defendant faces a maximum prison term of 21 years.

The charges stem from an incident on December 2, 2007, during which Synder broke into a safe in the cashier's office of the Union Rescue Mission and took $100,000 in cash and jewelry. A fire was set in a backroom of the office to destroy evidence, according to authorities. The defendant was arrested the next day.

The Union Rescue Mission - a homeless shelter, temporary residence and church for hundreds of individuals and families - houses a safe where clients deposit money and jewelry for safekeeping. The Union Rescue Mission accommodates up to 800 people on a given night.

An anticlimactic end to a violent incident went down yesterday when a man who had just shot and mortally wounded his ex-girlfriend led police on a pursuit that started in the San Fernando Valley and ended with his arrest in Corona.

On Wednesday, May 13, 2009 at around 12:05 p.m., Mission Area Patrol Officers were dispatched to a radio call of a shooting that had just occurred in the 8300 block of Van Nuys Boulevard. Officers found the victim, a female, Hispanic, 27-years-old, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.

Witnesses described seeing the suspect, identified as 27-year-old Jasper Stallings, force the victim into a red Dodge Ram pickup truck that was parked in the Rite-Aid parking lot in the 8400 block of Van Nuys Boulevard. They then heard gunfire as the truck drove away, across the parking lot. As the truck neared the 24-Hour Fitness Center the victim either fell, or was pushed out of the truck. Witnesses heard at least one additional gunshot.

Stallings drove away headed south through the parking lot, got onto the Hollywood Freeway, and eventually headed to Corona. There, the suspect stopped and was arrested.

During the investigation detectives discovered that the truck Stallings was driving had been taken in a kidnapping/carjack incident that had occurred earlier in the day in the northeast area of the San Fernando Valley. The victim of that incident was forced at gunpoint to get into the passenger seat and was driven to Victorville where he was robbed and left at the side of the road, unharmed.

The shooting victim, whose identity is being withheld until her family can be notified, was pronounced dead at a local hospital at about 2:50 p.m.

Stallings was booked into jail on a murder charge and is being held without bail. He faces charges including, domestic violence, kidnap, robbery, and carjacking.

Anyone with additional information is encouraged to contact LAPD Mission Detective Jim Freund at (818) 838-9810. After hours and on weekends, calls may be directed to a 24-hour, toll-free number at1-877-LAPD-24-7 (527-3247). Callers may also text "Crimes" with a cell phone or log on to www.lapdonline.org and click on Web tips. When using a cell phone, all messages should begin with "LAPD." Tipsters may remain anonymous.

The Chicago School of Professional Psychology will honor the late LAPD Deputy Chief Kenneth O. Garner with the inaugural President's Award for Visionary Leadership.

The award will be presented to Assistant Chief of Police, Sharon Papa on his behalf, by Dr. Michael Horowitz, president of The Chicago School.

Garner, who died March 1 at age 53 is recognized for his dedication and service to the greater Los Angeles community, "for his belief that within each person resides the ability to change, and for his willingness to break down barriers, open communication, and seek unity through collaboration."

His LAPD bio.

Paul M. Weber, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, issued the following statement today regarding the release of the SWAT report to the media:

Our legal advisors have expressed serious concerns over the LAPD's decision to release to the news media such a detailed report containing opinions of officers' performance and describing in detail safety tactics used by our officers during this tragic event. Nevertheless, the report from the Chief of Police supports what the LAPPL has always said about the February 7, 2008 SWAT incident in West San Fernando Valley - the officers involved are heroes in every sense of the word. Their bravery and courage under fire epitomizes what it means to be a police officer and it is no wonder the President of the United States recognized these officers.

The Times' Joel Rubin follows the inquiry into last February's fatal killing of LAPD SWAT Officer Randal Simmons during a standoff in Winnetka.

An internal investigation found that the officers involved acted appropriately, the officers were not perfect, LAPD Chief William J. Bratton said.

Although the officers' conduct, including their decision to use deadly force, was within department rules, the review panel and Bratton expressed concern about some aspects of the response. For example, communication among the officers was imperfect at times, as inaccurate information about the situation was relayed to responding SWAT officers.

L.A. Now.

Read the Daily News' complete coverage of the incident.

LAPD Chief William Bratton put out a press release responding to proposed cuts by a Los Angeles City Council committee that proposes spending for police hiring beginning July 1, 2009.

He writes:

I am gravely concerned that the City Council's Budget and Finance Committee approved a proposal late today that calls for an end to police hiring beginning July 1, 2009. While I appreciate the severity of the city's financial situation and the difficult decisions city council members will be forced to make, it is shortsighted to consider stopping all police hiring, including hiring to replace retiring LAPD officers. Public safety should never be sacrificed.

If the entire city council approves this proposal, there is a strong potential that the eight straight years of crime decreases the LAPD has worked so hard to achieve, could come to an end.

The Department has proven that cops count, police matter. Sufficiently resourced, we can and do save lives and make the city of Los Angeles safer.

The city of Los Angeles is offering a $50,000 reward to help locate a murder suspect.

On January 25, 2008 about 11:30 p.m., Alvaro Ely Calderon was walking near the intersection of Strathern Street and Bellaire Avenue in North Hollywood when someone shot him. Witnesses saw a white, four-door Toyota, Honda or Nissan speed away from the scene.

Cops are asking that anyone with information about this crime call North Hollywood Homicide Detectives at (818) 623-4075. After hours or on weekends, calls may be directed to the North Hollywood Watch Commander at (818) 623-4016, or a 24 hour toll-free number at 1-877-LAPD-24-7 or by texting CRIMES (274637) and beginning the message with the letters "LAPD." Tipsters can also submit information on the LAPD website www.lapdonline.org. All tips may remain anonymous.

Police announced the arrest of a man and an accomplice believed responsible for the murder of a 24-year-old man named Victor Solis.

Solis was killed May 2, 2009, at 1:45 p.m. at Pepper Street in Cypress Park. He was discovered shot inside a vehicle. He was taken to a local hospital but he died.

Detectives identified two suspects, 21-year-old Adrian Martinez and 18-year-old Joshua Ricardo Galindes. Both men were believed to be gang members. Detectives believe Galindes was the triggerman.

Martinez late last week. Police found Galindes Monday afternoon in an area he was known to hang out in and saw him getting out of a car carrying a gun. Galindes tossed his weapon and tried to run away but was caught a short time later. His gun was also recovered, although it was not the same caliber as the weapon used in the killing, police said.

Police are asking that anyone with additional information is encouraged to contact LAPD Northeast Division detectives at (213) 847-4261. After hours and on weekends, calls may be directed to a 24-hour, toll-free number at1-877-LAPD-24-7 (527-3247). Callers may also text "Crimes" with a cell phone or log on to www.lapdonline.org and click on Web tips. When using a cell phone, all messages should begin with "LAPD." Tipsters may remain anonymous.

A 44-year-old Glendale man on probation for arson pleaded no contest today to arson in connection with a series of fires in Griffith Park last year, the District Attorney's office announced.

Gary Allen Lintz pleaded no contest to one count of arson of a structure or forest and admitted the special allegations of great bodily injury to a firefighter and of having a prior arson conviction, said Deputy District Attorney Frances Young with Target Crimes.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Norm Shapiro sentenced Lintz to 16 years in state prison. In return for his plea, three felony counts of arson in Griffith Park were dismissed.

Lintz was arrested Aug. 23, 2008 after hikers allegedly saw him near Griffith Park Drive shortly after a brush fire had broken out. He was charged with four arsons that occurred on July 27, Aug. 4, Aug. 16 and Aug. 23 in the park. At the time of his arrest, he was on probation for a 2007 arson fire conviction.

Relatives of a 17-year-old youth slain by an illegal alien -- sparking an unsuccessful drive to put what became known as "Jamiel's Law" on the city ballot -- have sued the county for wrongful death.

It's unusual for authorities to reveal an undercover operation in advance, but Los Angeles police announced today they will send minors to ask adults to buy alcohol for them near Los Angeles high schools later this month.

The 11th annual Safe & Sober Graduation Operation, which will begin May 23, is an attempt to reduce the availability of alcohol to minors, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Forty one officers died in the line of duty in 2008, according to statistics released today by the FBI.

The FBI broke the stats down by region - 20 police officers were killed in the South, nine in the Midwest, nine in the West, and three in the Northeast.

The number of officers killed was 17 fewer than in 2007.

So what do you do when you put out a call for guns in exchange for gift cards during a recession but run out of gift cards in the first two-hours of the event?

Call in the calvary.

Los Angeles' citywide gun buyback program was called an unexpected success after nearly 1,700 firearms were collected Saturday from owners who'd been promised anonymity, "no questions asked" and - very important - $100 gift cards.

In a way, the effort proved too successful: So many people showed up at collection sites with handguns and rifles in their trunks that organizers ran out of the Ralphs and Visa gift cards in the first two hours.

Some people went ahead and turned in weapons without the financial incentive. But an untold number of drivers left in a huff.

Burbank police just released results that clears two of their officers who were involved in a recent shootout with a man who opened fire at them a couple months ago at Foy Park:

On March 8, at 9:20 p.m., officers Neil Gunn and Ryan Benavidez contacted a suspicious subject in Foy Park. As the officers maneuvered the patrol vehicle toward the subject, he began firing at them with a 357 magnum. Officer Neil Gunn returned fire and the subject was taken into custody a short time later on Hollywood Way.

Rashammond Mapp, 32, of Burbank, was booked for the attempted murder of two police officers. His bail was set at $1 million. The suspect was arraigned on March 11. His preliminary hearing is set for July 27.

Burbank Police Department policy requires that a shooting board be held regarding the discharge of firearms by our officers. The board was comprised of a captain, a sergeant, the department training coordinator, and the senior rangemaster.

After a thorough examination of the evidence, reports, and exhibits, the board determined that the shooting was within policy as the officer was defending himself from death or serious injury from an armed attack.

English poster

Spanish poster

A Canoga Park man faces arraignment later this month on a murder charge stemming from the alleged fatal shooting of his older brother, whose body has not been found, the District Attorney's office announced.

Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman of the Major Crimes Division filed the case on Monday against 34-year-old Hossein Shirazi. Shirazi was charged with one count of murdering his 49-year-old brother, Mohammad Shirazi, sometime between April 12, 2008, and May 2, 2008. The complaint alleged Hossein Shirazi personally used a handgun to commit the crime.

Authorities alleged that Hossein Shirazi shot his brother at the family home in Canoga Park while the men's parents were on vacation in Iran.

Silverman said Hossein Shirazi is scheduled to appear for arraignment on May 13, in Department 100 of Van Nuys Superior Court. He is in custody on $2 million bail.

The defendant was arrested by detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department's West Valley Division on April 30. The case was filed on Monday and the arraignment postponed after a brief court appearance in Van Nuys that day.

If convicted, the defendant faces a possible life-with-parole sentence.

This afternoon at 12:30, Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo is holding a press conference to announce his latest crack down with a gang injunction against Barrio Van Nuys.

"BVN or Barrio Van Nuys gang is as dangerous or as potent as MS-13, 18th Street or any gang in the city," Delgadillo said Wednesday after filing paperwork seeking the injunction in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Cops this morning are saying they're waiting for an autopsy to be conducted on two men who drowned yesterday in a Sylmar pool before they rule the case out as a crime.

Paramedics were sent to 13378 N. Borden Ave., near Tyler Street, at 7:07 last night, said d'Lisa Davies of the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Firefighters found the men, thought to be in their 30s, at the bottom of the pool, pulled them out, and pronounced them dead, Davies said.

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is asking for the public's help for any information leading to the arrest of a crew of burglary suspects targeting businesses in Koreatown.

On various dates, several commercial business burglaries have occurred between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., when the businesses are closed.

Suspects have been captured on surveillance cameras in possession of burglary tools and wearing hooded sweatshirts, scarves, gloves and headgear designed to cover up their faces. Suspects are able to gain entry by using pry tools and various entry points such as rear and front doors, windows and from the roof. These suspects are in the business of searching for basic, hand-carried valuables such as cash or jewelry.

Note: The LAPD would like encourage all business owners to review their security plans and determine the best methods of operation for their own business in order to minimize the chances of overnight burglaries.

Anyone with information regarding this series of business burglaries or other crimes is encouraged to contact Olympic Burglary Detective Adrian Chin at (213) 382-9440. During off-hours, calls may be directed to a 24-hour, toll-free number at 1-877-LAPD-24-7 (527-3247). Callers may also text "Crimes" with a cell phone or log on to www.lapdonline.org and click on Web tips. When using a cell phone, all messages should begin with "LAPD." Tipsters may remain anonymous.

You can leave your guns at home ... or you can turn them into the LAPD and get a gift card for $100 for pistols and $200 for assault weapons.

TURN IN YOUR GUNS....No questions asked

The Los Angeles Police Department Topanga Division is taking part in the 2009 Anonymous Gun Buyback Program. This event is taking place on May 9th, 2009 at locations all around the city. Participants will receive a Visa or Ralph's Supermarket gift card in the amount of $100.00 for handguns and $200.00 for assault weapons (while supplies last).

This event is completely anonymous and no questions will be asked. Please transport your firearms unloaded and in the trunk of your vehicle.

The turn in location for Topanga Area (West Hills, Woodland Hills, Canoga Park, and Winnetka) will be located at:

Hope Chapel of the Valley
7930 Mason Ave
Canoga Park, CA 91306

The event will be from 10:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. For other locations around the city or any questions, please call the Topanga Area Senior Lead Office at (818) 756-3070. Updated locations and information may be available from the Los Angeles City Web site
or the CBS Web site.

The Los Angeles Police Commission today approved the creation of a Purple Heart medal to honor officers killed or severely injured in the line of duty.

Good morning. Here's what's new in crime this morning.

• Los Angeles police detectives are looking for clues in a North Hollywood weekend shooting that left one man dead and another behind bars. dailynews.com

• A Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy was arrested on Monday night, accused of attacking his wife and her male acquaintance. abc.com

• Two people were sent to the hospital after a wild pursuit and crash in the Athens area of Los Angeles. abc.com

Cops put out this release about a homicide in Pacoima.

Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) detectives are asking for the public's help to find the persons responsible for the shooting death of 19-year-old Samuel Trujillo of Pacoima.

On Wednesday, September 10 at about 8:40 p.m., Foothill patrol officers responded to a radio call of a shooting that occurred in the 11600 block of Woodcock Avenue in Pacoima. When officers arrived, they found a victim of a gunshot wound.

The victim was transported to a local area hospital where he later died of his injury.

Investigators believe that unknown suspects approached Trujillo and exchanged words concerning gang affiliation. The suspect, who was accompanied by several others, shot the victim.

The suspects are described as male Hispanics, in their 20s, wearing dark clothing.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Foothill Homicide Detectives Jose Martinez and Joshua Byers at 818-834-3115. After hours and on weekends calls may be directed to the 24-hour, toll-free number, 1-877-LAW-FULL (529-3855).

This morning a man stabbed a man in Sunland. Details are still trickling in. Here's the skinny.

SUNLAND - A man in his 20s was found stabbed this morning on Sherman Grove Avenue in Sunland and a man in his 50s surrendered to police in connection with the assault

dailynews.com

Police tonight are going to hold a press conference about the arrest of a sexual assault suspect.

On August 14, 2008, Miguel Angel Barrera, 44, a resident of Chino Hills, was arrested for multiple sexual assaults which occurred in the North Hollywood Area. To date, Barrera is known to have committed sexual offenses against three victims over the past two years.

The female victims are 14 through 23 years old. Barrera met his victims as they walked along the street in both the North Hollywood and Hollywood areas. He offered them high dollar employment as models for magazines and commercials. Barrera often spoke of his connection with movie studios while displaying business cards and photography equipment. After the victims agreed, they were taken to motels in Studio City where they were initially photographed before Barrera sexually assaulted them. Barrera is an Argentinean with black hair and light colored eyes, 5-10, 190 lbs. He speaks with an Argentinean accent, dark complexion, and wears his hair slightly long.

Barrera has been associated with two different vehicles. A white 4-door sedan and a red 4-door, 2005 Dodge truck, license number 7P17947.

Barrera's mug photo along with a photograph of his truck will be made available during the news conference.

The Los Angeles Police Department is interested in speaking with anyone who may have information on Barrera. All inquiries may be made to North Hollywood Detective Karen Crawford at (818) 623-4090.

LAPD's throwing a party.

Well, kinda, the LAPD will be celebrating the national "Night out" program today between 5 -9 p.m. at Warner Center Park along with scores of others.

The idea behind what is now the "25th Annual National Night Out" is to raise crime prevention awareness and strengthen community and police relations nationally. Across the country thousands of agencies and community groups will be gathering for their local event.

In the Valley, this year's festivities are sponsored by Target and the Valley Cultural Center. Pete Demetriou of KFWB, is the Emcee with DJ Doc Dewberry providing live entertainment. Plus free food and bounders, face painting and slides for the kiddies.

Also, the West Valley station will be open for guided tours.

For additional information, please contact Senior Lead Officer Janet Zumstein at (818) 374-7634.

A hearing on papparzzi called by Councilman Dennis Zine is a "farce," LAPD Chief William Bratton said this morning, and said he won't be attending and wasting city resources.

"Since Britney started wearing clothes and behaving, Paris is out of town not bothering anyone anymore, thank God, and evidently Lindsey Lohan has gone gay, you don't seem to have an issue," he told Channel 4 KNBC news this morning. "If the ones who attract the paparrazi behave in the first place like we expect of anyone, it solves 90 percent of the problem. The rest we can deal with."

Bratton went on to blast Zine, a fomer LAPD officer, for "grandstanding."

"LAPD has no intention of dealing with this farce," he said.
It appears that he was a morning run or some kind of workout when he spotted the cameras and walked over to "set the record straight." Check out the video.
Bratton has butted heads with Zine before, most recently over Special Order 40. Zine proposed changing the longstanding policy intended to encourage immigrants to report violent crimes, but Bratton firmly opposed changing a single word.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies shot and killed a man last night in Lennox. Sheriff's officials say the shooting occurred shortly before midnight Wednesday, and the suspect was pronounced dead at the scene. No deputies were hurt. Officials would not yet say what prompted the shooting. Lennox is an unincorporated area, about 10 miles southwest of downtown Los Angeles.

Channel 4 news is reporting that the man, tentatively identified as Christian Cortillo, who is between 33 and 35-years-old was not armed, but possibly had been reaching under a seat for something when at least three deputies approached his vehicle.

The deputies were investigating a narcotics dealer who was selling drugs on the street when they saw the suspect sitting in his car. When he reached under the passenger seat, a deputy thought he was reaching for a weapon and fired at least one shot, striking the man in the upper torso.

Criminal Justice Center
• Preliminary hearing in the case of Michael Henschel and Alan Mitchell, Valley businessman and an associate charged in a widespread real estate fraud case.

San Fernando Courthouse
• Trial status conference in in the case of Kimberly Carter, a Northridge woman charged with murder.
• Testimony in the trial of Roberto Mendez Alba and Edwardo Medina, charged with kidnapping for ransom.
• Arraignment for Ernesto Romero, Ritchi Palomo, Eddie Alvirez, Oscar Abdiez Andia, Victor Torres, Ronald Ruiz and Erik Viveros charged in a gang-related kidnapping for ransom.
• Jury trial in the case of James Anthony Rojas, a Mission Hills man charged in widespread real estate foreclosure fraud case.

Antelope Valley Courthouse
• Sentencing in the case of Christopher Anthony Hall, a Palmdale RV driver charged with murder and attempted murder.

Van Nuys Courthouse
• Status hearing in the case of Jesse Bernard Winnick, a man charged with fatally stabbing his mother.

San Fernando Courthouse
• Pretrial conference in the case of Jacquelin Linaras, charged in the death of an infant.

Van Nuys Courthouse
• Preliminary hearing in the case of Kevin Lamont Thomas, a former coach at Birmingham High School charged with sexually molesting four teenage girls in a private basketball camp he ran.
• Pretrial conference in the case of Bennett Ira Goldberg, a man charged with animal cruelty after his dog died in a hot car.

Pasadena Courthouse
• Jury trial in the case of Ezel Ethan Channel, a Nickelodeon employee charged with child molestation.

My colleague, Larry Altman, over at the Daily Breeze in Torrance got the scoop today of a ring of burglars busted in some 40 cases from the South Bay to Tarzana. Check out the Crime and Courts blog for more.

San Fernando Courthouse
• Jury selection in the case of Roberto Mendez Alba and Edwardo Medina, charged in kidnapping for ransom.
• Pretrial conference and motions in the case of Antonio Rodriguez and Debby Saravia, charged with child abuse, murder in death of 5-year-old girl, alleged abuse of 6-year-old boy. Saravia and Rodriguez were arrested in November 2004 after paramedics were called to a home in the 28000 block of Sturbridge Drive in Castaic and found the girl in convulsions, sheriff's officials said shortly after the two were taken into custody.

Van Nuys Courthouse
• Preliminary hearing setting in the case of Pedro Ortiz, who was charged in San Fernando Valley child molestations.

Van Nuys Courthouse
• Pretrial conference in the case of Jay Selznick, who was charged with carjacking.

Pasadena Courthouse
• Mental competency report in the case of Song Nam Chang, who was charged with the murder of his son.

Pasadena Courthouse
• Pretrial conference in the case of Ara Grigoryan, who was charged with murder.

San Fernando Courthouse
• Pretrial conference in the case of Jacquelin Linaras, charged in the death of an infant.

San Fernando Courthouse>
• Pretrial conference in the case of Anthonio Llerenas, accused of using a child as a shield.

Rachel Uranga takes us into the streets with the LAPD's domestic violence unit.

The FBI gathered investigators, psychologists and crime analysts from across the country to come up with profiles of serial killers.

Their study released today from the Behavorial Science wing of the bureau is supposed to help cops detect those killers. Along the way it busts some of those myths that serial killers are freaky loners like Hannibal Lecter, or that they simply want to get caught, like the Zodiac Killer.

It's an interesting read, with background on where the phenomenon of serial killers began and even a letter from Jack the Ripper.

Dear Boss I keep on hearing the police have caught me but they wont fix me just yet. I have laughed when they look so clever and talk about being on the right track. That joke about Leather Apron gave me real fits. I am down on whores and I shant quit ripping them till I do get buckled. Grand work the last job was. I gave the lady no time to squeal. How can they catch me now. I love my work and want to start again. You will soon hear of me with my funny little games. I saved some of the proper red stuff in a ginger beer bottle over the last job to write with but it went thick like glue and I cant use it. Red ink is fit enough I hope ha. ha. The next job I do I shall clip the ladys ears off and send to the police officers just for jolly wouldn't you. Keep this letter back till I do a bit more work, then give it out straight. My knife's so nice and sharp I want to get to work right away if I get a chance. Good luck. Yours truly Jack the Ripper

Here's the report.

......And a few "myth busters" from the press release:

1) Serial killers are not all dysfunctional loners: some have had wives and kids and full-time jobs and have been very active in their community or church or both.
2) Serial killers are not all white males: the racial diversification of serial killers generally mirrors the overall U.S. population.
3) Serial killers do not want to get caught: over time, as they kill without being discovered, they get careless during their crimes.

LAPD Chief William Bratton and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa held yet another press conference this week to tout falling crime numbers. This time, it was the mid-year report. (See story for details)

Numbers are a tricky thing and often politicians use them to tell the story they want to tell in the press, so I asked Cmdr. Jerry Szymanski over at Valley Bureau --who I am sure wants to also tell a story of cops supressing gangs-- about how these crimes are classified and possibly manipulated.

First of all a crime is considered a gang crime if the suspect or the victim is a gang member _ regardless of what motivated the crime. For instance if a gang member is robbed at a liquor store: gang crime. If a female gang member is raped by her non-gang boyfriend: gang crime. And vice-versa.

The department tracks 12 violent gang crimes; homicide, aggravated assault, attacks on officers, rape, robbery, carjacking, kidnapping, shots fired into dwelling, arson, criminal threats and extortion.

Arguably, there's ways to hide gang crimes from other crimes. For instance, you can classify the number of homicides, which are up, as non-gang crimes and make it look as if gang crime is falling all together.

But Szymanski assured me this wasn't the case and frankly few people have a good inside view of what the LAPD is doing other than federal monitors. But to be sure he pointed to a statistic that most accept as one of the best ways to measure violence in the city: the number of people shot.

Across the board, it's falling whether it is a gang crime or not.

In the Valley, year to date, there's been 125 people shot compared to 172 last year.

From the AP:

LOS ANGELES (AP) A policeman who made anti-gay remarks during off-duty hours as a pastor is suing the Los Angeles Police Department, alleging religious discrimination.

Sergeant Eric Holyfield, dressed in clergy attire, told mourners during a 2006 eulogy for a fellow officer that homosexual acts were "sinful" and an "abomination" and would lead to eternal condemnation.

Deputy Police Chief Charlie Beck, who was among the mourners, filed a formal complaint against Holyfield after the funeral.

The lawsuit says LAPD brass then passed him up for promotions and pay raises in retaliation.

Three LAPD officers were placed on home assignment and prosecutors are looking into possible charges after a judge abruptly ended a trial and exonerated a man accused of cocaine possession after a defense attorney produced a video that contradicted the cops' statements.

LA Times reporter Jack Leonard broke the story and suggested in his article that the story reeked of the 1990s Rampart scandal that wound costing the department millions and forced them into a federal consent decree. It also exposed what federal officials said was a pattern or practice of excessive force, false arrests and unreasonable searches and seizures.

LAPD Chief William Bratton told the civilian Police Commission this morning, "We won't tolerate breaking the law to enforce the law."

The department's own internal affairs has launched an investigation, and the LAPD turned over information to federal monitors.

"There will be a full, comprehensive and speedy investigation involving all the players," Bratton said. "(The investigation) will move forward very quickly and very forcefully."

You'll like this one. Cops in a small Georgia town are charging motorists caught in a police pursuit a surcharge to help cover the police officers' fuel costs. They hope to genterate an additional $26,000 a year. Apparently this isn't the only police force changing habits due to high gas prices. Other agencies like Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, are getting out of their cars and hoofing it or hopping on bikes.

In South Fayette, also in Pennsylvania, officers have been told not to sit parked up with air conditioning on.

The local police chief told his patrols: "If you want to stay cool, park under a tree."

A check a while back to see if the LAPD has followed suit. Nope. LAPD officers have not gotten out of their cars due to the rise in gas prices. But stay tuned. The city still is in a big budget crunch.

If you haven't checked out our new Valley Crime Map, you should. It's a list of 92 significant crimes - from homicides, to assaults to shootings, to robberies and burglaries - in the Valley since May. I've been compiling the data and uploading it into a new online database that maps the crimes out by street and allows you, the viewer to, search by neighborhood and get up-to-date information about crime near you.

Thanks to the Los Angeles Police Department's Valley Bureau, the information comes to me about daily. I'd like to know what you think about the map and how we can make it more useful. E-mail me with your thoughts.

A judge approved a preliminary injunction against the San Fers gang this morning, a move that now restricts the movement of hundreds of gang members over a 9.5-mile stretch of the Northeast Valley and gives police broader arrest authority.

In a hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court that lasted just a few minutes, Judge David P. Yaffe granted the request from the City Attorney's Office and District Attorney's Office. Nobody voiced opposition in court.

Previously, community members have complained the injunction, one of the city's largest, spreads too far, folding in middle class neighborhoods in Sylmar and San Fernando untouched by daily violence.

But after several town hall meetings, both the Sylmar and Mission Hills neighborhood councils backed the injunction even as some argue police and prosecutors pushed it through without consulting the community.

Check out the DN story.

There seems to be a bit of a disagreement among the region's top cops about the root causes of gang violence; racial tensions versus gang loyalty.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca believes serious inter-racial tension fuels the city's gang problem and he made a strong case for it an LA Times opinion piece that ran a few weeks ago. In doing so, he directly took on LAPD Chief William Bratton, who has repeatedly pointed out that violence emanates from gang affiliation, not skin pigmentation. To clarify his point, head of LAPD's detective bureau and 30-year veteran Charlie Beck laid out his argument in the LATimes Opinon section today.

It is true, of course, that many of L.A.'s gangs are organized along racial lines. Gangs almost always have been. You name the race or ethnic group and, during some time in history, some of their number have resorted to forming gangs to leverage their power in society. The Italians and the Irish come to mind in the 20th century. But being made up along racial lines doesn't mean that every crime is racially motivated. Mostly, the gang violence we see on the streets of Los Angeles is committed for other reasons -- over turf control, over traditional gang rivalries, over drug deals, over who disrespected whom, and over women. These are not racially motivated killings.

The danger of overstating racial conflict, thereby turning a discussion into a self-fulfilling prophesy, is very real. As our city grows and as demographics shift, cross-racial contacts increase, along with opportunities for conflict.
IT sho

Of course, you have to keep in my mind that the two men see gangs from very different places. Beck works the streets where gang members' first loyalty is to their neighborhood or close friends. With freedom, gang members can pick and chose who and when to fight.
Baca oversees the county's overcrowded jail system, where loyalty is not so clear cut and alliances are key to survival. There, race constantly bubbles to the surface. Inmates are often separated not only along gang lines but race, because in a place that nobody can call home, it is easier to define loyalty by skin color.

Last night, the Sylmar Neighborhood Council held a community meeting on a proposed 9.5-square-mile gang injunction zone, one of the largest in the city.

Under the injunction -- the fifth in the San Fernando Valley and 37th citywide -- those identified as San Fers gang members would not be able to associate in public places or stay out past curfew and could not act as lookouts or be in the presence of controlled substances in the area, which covers all of San Fernando and Sylmar.

I didn't get a chance to go but I am told the auditorium at Sylmar High School was packed with residents.

The gang coordinator at the City Attorney's Office, police, and representatives from city Councilman Richard Alarcon's office and gang experts all took questions.

Luis Rodriguez, who lives in the injunction zone and is the author of "Always Running," a memoir of growing up in gangs, said it was one of the most informative and frank meetings he has been to about the injunction, but he still left feeling that everyone was circling around the problem.

"We have to deal with the roots," he said. "Right now we are squeezing the gangs out of the L.A., but we are not stopping it. All we are doing is spreading."

Read past jump to see Alarcon's letter.

Industry publications were abuzz this with speculation that "LAPD," a pilot TV show based on Los Angeles cops, could replace the long running NBC show "E.R." which is heading into its final season.

John Wells, the producer of The West Wing," "ER," and "Third Watch" set up the drama series and writer Ann Biderman of "NYPD Blues" is on board.

It's been quite a while since we have had a serious network LA-based cop show and it would be interesting to see how the LAPD is portrayed. Corrupt cops based out of the LAPD's Rampart division in the 1990s inspired the creators of the "The Shield," another LAPD cop show on the FX network that is also heading toward a final season. In real life, former gang cop Rafael Perez stole six pounds of cocaine from the LAPD's evidence room, framed gang members and covered up a bank robbery. He was sentenced to 23 five years in prison.

Let's see if LA cops are Adam-12 or Rafael Perez this time around.

So I updated the Valley Crime Map, compiling a month's worth of information provided by the LAPD's Valley Bureau. You can search by neighborhood to see what crimes have been going near you. Check it out here. And tell me what you think.

The spokesman for the state's Justice Department forwarded me the state's significant cases for May. Included are big weapons, drugs and fraud cases. Enjoy.

CACHE OF WEAPONS AND AMMO FOUND IN PROBATIONER'S RESIDENCE

Special Agents with the Bureau of Firearms (BOF) checked the Armed Prohibited Person System and noted that a subject, Tom Powell, was listed as owning three firearms; however, due to previous criminal conviction he is prohibited from possessing and owning firearms. When agents determined that Powell was on searchable probation out of San Benito County, they conducted a search of his residence and located over 1,300 rounds of ammunition and a large gun safe. Powell told officers he had sold all of his weapons but he could not produce any records regarding the sales. A locksmith was called to the residence and opened the safe where agents retrieved five rifles, four handguns and one shotgun. Powell was arrested while other agents continued the search of the house. Located in the attic were additional weapons, including an unregistered AR-15 assault weapon, a 12-gauge shotgun and a revolver.

COMMERCIAL BRIBERY SCHEME AT CAL CASINO

While Special Agents from the Riverside Office of the Bureau of Gambling Control (BGC) were investigating several management employees of the Pechanga Resort and Casino, the Agents uncovered evidence that floor supervisor, Kathy Zhou, who was recently suspended from her job, was charging casino job applicants $3,000 each to falsify their job applications to secure employment. Agents monitored a telephone conversation between Zhou and one of her "customers," during which she instructed the individual not to say anything to DOJ agents. Zhou admitted to the witness during this conversation that she lied to the agents when they questioned her, and was admonishing everyone involved to "keep their stories straight." Zhou was arrested on charges of commercial bribery and obstructing a criminal investigation.

While LAPD Chief William Bratton said that media has been playing up the city's race problem, his counterpart at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has a completely different view.

So let me be very clear about one thing: We have a serious interracial violence problem in this county involving blacks and Latinos.

Some people deny it. They say that race is not a factor in L.A.'s gang crisis; the problem, they say, is not one of blacks versus Latinos and Latinos versus blacks but merely one of gang members killing other gang members (and yes, they acknowledge, sometimes the gangs are race-based).

But they're wrong. The truth is that, in many cases, race is at the heart of the problem. Latino gang members shoot blacks not because they're members of a rival gang but because of their skin color. Likewise, black gang members shoot Latinos because they are brown.

Here is his full editorial in the LATimes

The New York Times today has a story about how the medical marijuana law is unintentionally allowing big-time pot growers a good cover.

Good morning. Cops are looking this morning for a hit-and-run driver who killed a 9-year-old boy in East Los Angeles.

Jesus Sanchez and his family were crossing Ford Boulevard just south of Cesar Chavez Avenue at 12:04 a.m. Sunday when a vehicle going northbound at a high rate of speed struck him, CHP Officer Luis Mendoza said.

The red, late 1990s to early 2000s two-door Honda with tinted rear windows and a spoiler with brake lights did not slow or stop after hitting the boy, Mendoza said. The car then ran a light at Cesar E. Chavez Avenue at Ford and turned left.

dailynews.com

This just in, from Foothill Division ...

PACOIMA - A suspected carjacker got a taste of his own medicine Tuesday morning after stealing a GMC truck and crashing it into parked cars including a mail truck, before being beaten and detained by citizens on the street, police said.

dailynews.com

On the 40th anniversary of Robert Kennedy's slaying at a Los Angeles hotel, The San Francisco Chronicle writes about the conspiracy theories that abound in the case.

Examples:

-- Sirhan fired his .22-caliber revolver from a few feet in front of Kennedy, according to police, yet Los Angeles County coroner Thomas Noguchi reported that the fatal shot was fired less than one inch from Kennedy's head, behind his right ear. Of the four shots fired at Kennedy, all came from the rear. None of this was raised at Sirhan's trial because his defense was based on the theory that he suffered from "diminished capacity" rather than on any challenge of prosecutors' evidence.

-- Sirhan's revolver held eight rounds; a radio reporter's tape recording of the shooting has sounds of what one audio expert describes as 13 shots. Sirhan never had a chance to reload before bystanders tackled him. Two of the sounds on the tape are what forensic experts call "double shots," which means two shots so close together that they couldn't have come from the same revolver.

-- Several witnesses saw a security guard just behind Kennedy draw his revolver, and one reported seeing him fire it.

-- Over the years, Sirhan has told investigators who interviewed him in prison that he was in a hypnotic trance during the shooting and can't remember it at all. He said he could not remember writing, "RFK must die." He did not respond to an interview request for this story.

sfgate.com

Our sister paper, the Long Beach Press-Telegram analyzed arrests of juveniles in Long Beach. They find that while the country has been seeing a decline in juvenile crime, Long Beach has been steady, among other findings. I haven't gotten through it all yet, but check it out here.

NPR is taking a deep look at rising gang violence in Los Angeles, starting out in South L.A. during a ride-along with veteran LAPD Sergeant Herb Cirilo. npr.org

From the LAPD blog:

A police officer's weapon accidently discharged while attempting to pull over a vehicle with armed suspects inside on May 26, 2008.

The incident unfolded at around 6:30 p.m., when an undercover police unit working a detail to apprehend career criminals was conducting surveillance on an armed and dangerous vehicle in the 9000 block of Telfair Avenue, in Pacoima. The plain clothes unit needed uniformed officers to make the stop and summoned for a patrol unit.

After the suspect's vehicle turned into a driveway of a nearby home, Officer Claudia Avila and her partner pulled behind them exited the vehicle and drew their weapons to conduct a high-risk stop. While holding her duty weapon with her right hand, Officer Avila attempted to put the vehicle in park with her left hand and accidently discharged her weapon.

Neither the officers nor the suspects were injured. Both suspects were taken into custody and charged for a crime unrelated to the officer involved shooting.

Force Investigation Division will handle the incident. Officer Avila has been with the Department for two years and one month.

Good morning. Here's the latest plan on gang crackdowns - evicting gang members from apartments and seizing cars. Reminds me of a plan that City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo had for people who street race.

In an effort to crack down on gun violence that last year alone killed or wounded more than 2,000 Angelenos, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and top law enforcement officials unveiled a plan Thursday that would allow officers to evict gun-wielding gang members from apartments and seize their cars.

dailynews.com

Read the story I wrote in 2003 about the city's plan to seize cars of street racers.

At the top of the dailynews.com list today, Brandon has a story about officers being honored for their bravery.

It began just like any other ordinary traffic stop in North Hollywood.

Just before midnight on July 12, 2005, near Sherman Way and Woodman Avenue, Los Angeles police Officer Humberto Franco pulled over a Nissan with three people inside for driving with high beams on.

Franco saw them trying to hide something - maybe drugs or a weapon, he thought - so he flagged down a passing patrol car for backup.

When the officers ordered the three out of the car, one of the passengers pulled a gun, fired at them and ran into a busy street toward a hotel.

dailynews.com

A 32-year-old Pacoima man suspected of brazenly shooting four men he thought threw a rock at his SUV on Tuesday was charged with four counts of first-degree attempted murder, officials said Friday.

The incident was one of six shootings that within four hours left eight wounded and four dead on one of the most violent days the Valley has seen in years. At the time Deputy Chief Michel Moore commented, he couldn't recall ever seeing so many killed and wounded in such a short period.

Apparently Robert Ramon Gasca, 32, was upset over someone who pelted the window of his 1998 Ford Expedition. Later that night, he is believed to have shoot more than eight rounds into a black Honda Accord carrying the four men he thought were responsible.

The bullet ripped through the shoulder and back of the driver, gravely wounding him. It also hit three others in the car, who were not as seriously injured, and shattered the windows. Still, the seriously wounded man managed to drive him and the others to Pacifica Hospital for treatment.

Gasca is being held on $4.3 million bail. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison.

A Superior Court judge on Monday upheld the murder charge against Ara Grigoryan, the man charged in the July 2007 hit-and-run death of Elizabeth Sandoval. Grigoryan's defense team had sought to reduce the murder charge before going to trial, arguing that prosecutors made certain assumptions about the incident and had overblown the 20-year-old's prior driving infractions to infer a "wanton disregard" for human life -- a key finding for murder.

LAPD Detective Bill Longacre got the tip in December 2005: Someone had rented a storage locker and filled it with stolen guns and jewelry.

When he opened the locker, he found a bag mixed with family heirlooms and other valuables taken from across Los Angeles County. And he discovered photos and copies of a visa, all with the same name - Ignacio Del Pe a Rio.

Showing the photos to the clerk and manager of the storage facility, Longacre discovered that the man was the same one who had rented the locker.

Over the next two months, Longacre used a database that matches suspect descriptions, and he came up with a few matches for Rio, who turned out to have 35 aliases and whose real name was Roberto Caveda. Quickly, he realized he had a big case on his hands.

As Longacre closed in, Caveda made a crucial mistake on Feb. 16, 2006 - when he was caught during a burglary in Sherman Oaks.

The arrest capped a spree in which Caveda admitted to burglarizing more than 1,000 homes in two years and led police to $16 million in recovered property, some buried near the 118 Freeway in Granada Hills.

Partly because of his work on that case, Longacre, 61, was honored Thursday with the 2008 Robert Presley Institute of Criminal Investigation Investigative Excellence Award.

That's Longacre in the photo above. I interviewed him in the third floor interview room at Parker Center, the same room Charles Manson was interrogated in the 60s and later O.J. Simpson. Behind the air conditioning gauge in the room the department had a video camera set up to record confessions back in the day.

Update: Video footage of suspect and his vehicle available for download at www.lapdonline.org-"Solve a Crime" Navigation bar on home page

Los Angeles Police Department have released a sketch of a man who attempted to sexually assault two young girls in separate incidents.

The first assault occurred on April 30, 2008, at around 7:30 a.m., when a Latino man approached an 8-year-old girl walking in the 600 block of Burlington Avenue. The man lured the girl into a secluded area of an apartment building located at 625 South Burlington Avenue and attempted to sexually assault her.

On February 29, 2008, at 9:00 a.m., the same suspect approached a 9-year-old girl walking near James M. Wood Boulevard and Hoover Street. The suspect initiated a conversation with the girl and pulled her into an apartment building where he attempted to sexually assault her.

The suspect is described as Hispanic, 25-30 years of age with black spiked hair. He's about 5 feet six inches tall and weigh 170 pounds. He was last seen driving a blue unknown make and model vehicle. A composite sketch of the suspect is available through Media Relations Section.

Anyone with information is asked to call Rampart Sexual Assault Detective Sofie Toledo at (213) 207-2031 or Robbery Homicide Detective John Wong at (213) 485-2921. After hours and on weekends, please call the 24-hour Detective Information Desk at 1-877-LAW-FULL (529-3855).

Here's a few more of LA's coldest cases from the turn of the century...

July 10, 1901
Craiton, H.R., Emp. 2nd hand store, So Main St. - Returning from visit to his girl, 2 this a.m.,; front of Horace Bell's place Figueroa St., was shot at from ambush, behind shrubbery.

July 10
Compfort, L.B., Driver of milk wagon - Shot in back, while on his wagon, 21st & Toberman, abt. 3 this a.m. Taken to Cal. Hospital, 4:30 a.m.

July 14
Macchiaroli, Cano, 829 Yale St. - Shot at 8 this a.m., West Glendale by Antonio Pellegrine, living at 729 Castellar.

Aug. 21
Bachelors, Body of man, to't to be Bachelors, found in Westlake. Kelly and Quinn.

Sept. 3
Rasche, Fred, Foreman, baker, Ebingers Bakery, 3d and Spring St. - At or near 9th and Wall St., 3:30 this a.m. on way home from work, shot in right side (flesh wound). Was a non-union man. Susp. Stevan Faviamovich, union baker, arrested by Sergeant Williams.

Oct. 7
Chow Youck Toy, C----
Shot and killed, Chinatown, abt. 7 this p.m. by Wong Bing arrested at Pasadena by Ritch, this eve.

Nov. 19
Wilcox, Abram P., wife and child - Found murdered in their ranch house near Downey; probably killed night of 16th inst.

Dec. 19
Neilson, Carl, Chatsworth Park Tunnel - Held up by three men, just above S.P. yds., this evening, and compelled to lie down while they committed sodomy on him. Says his companion, W. McGrew was with him. (Captain Hensley).

Dec. 3
Sampson, John - Shot and killed his wife at 4th and Spring St. on sidewalk, this p.m. Immediately arrested by crossing officer O.T. Walker.

Feb. 19, 1902
Wiley, Mrs. H.S. - Shot at her rooming house, (about noon) At The Columbia, 512 So. Broadway by D.C. Kent. He shot her twice in right side and once in left arm, then shot himself in forehead, only making a flesh wound; then cut throat with razor. Kent was her partner in lodging house (and lover). Kent committed suicide by taking carbolic acid in receiving hospital on March 12, 1902.

Wong Ung Wong - Murdered, about 1 this a.m., at Simons Brick Yard, 825 Boyle Ave. by On Ling Sing, who was arrested in San Francisco April 4th, and returned to Los Angeles by Hawley. Hawley, Auble, Steele & Kelly on case.

Police today are going to offer a reward in conjunction with the killing of a Northridge homeless man.

At 8 a.m. at the Devonshire Community Police Station, 10250 Etiwanda Ave., Northridge, Los Angeles City Councilman Greig Smith, and Los Angeles Police Department homicide detectives will ask for the public's help to identify a suspect who accosted an elderly homeless man, causing him to suffer fatal head injuries. For additional information, contact Matt Myerhoff, Communications Director, Council District 12, Cell: (818) 613-2248. Matt.Myerhoff@lacity.org.

A Latino in his 20s punched Harold Gene Loftis, 69, at Roscoe and Reseda boulevards about 10 p.m. April 14

They're doing it one care package at a time. According to a press release put out this morning, all six Valley Bureau divisions are taking items to make care packages for troops oversees through June 28, 2008. Put the stuff in red bins in the lobbies of the stations.

In order to send items to our troops, please see the Troops Wish List below and take your items to your local Community Police Station where a Red Bin has been placed in the lobby for collections. Items will be collected until June 28, 2008 at which time the care packages will be prepared and mailed. For further information please visit www.ForTheTroops.us. Check out lapd.org for the locations of the police stations.

Wish List:

Gum

White Athletic Socks

Candy

Baby Wipes (cuz you just never know)

Nuts

Travel size board games

Potato Chips (in cylinder cans)

Computer USB Flash Drive

Trailmix

Memory Sticks

Pop Tarts

Q-Tips

Canned Tuna Fish

Pipe Cleaners

Crystal Light powder

AA and AAA Batteries

Pre-sweetened Powdered Gatorade

Letters of Appreciation

Granola and Power Bars

Movies-DVD's

Beef Jerky (No Pork, Please!)

Music -CD's

Crosswords, Word Search, Suduko Small Handheld Games

Non Prescription Medications (aspirin, Advil, eye drops, foot powder, sunblock, anti-itch cream, chapstick, and cold/allergy medications.)

Earlier we posted a story that talked about LAPD Chief William Bratton taking a consultancy job to help drop London's crime rate. Bratton responds ...

There have been several recent news articles indicating that I have been approached and accepted a position to act as an advisor to the new Mayor of London, Boris Johnson.

I have had no conversations with Mr. Johnson, I have not spoken with any members of his administration and I have not been approached to act as an advisor as it relates to matters of crime reduction.

As a law enforcement executive I am often asked to share my thoughts and opinions on reducing crime and making communities safer. I have long supported the "Broken Windows" theory of policing that by focusing on minor crimes, more serious offenses can be prevented.

In the past I have provided advice to former Mayor Ken Livingston and have consulted for both the city of London and the national government. I would certainly be willing to do so, if asked, for the new Mayor in my official capacity as Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department.

William J. Bratton
Chief of Police
Los Angeles Police Department

Gunmen killed the head of Mexico's federal police force early Thursday in a brazen hit against the man who had become the public face of the country's war on drug cartels.

What's wrong with this picture?

Police right now are holding a press conference, announcing the arrest of a child sexual predator identified as Pedro Ortiz has allegedly sexually assaulted at least two juvenile victims and investigators believe there could be others. For further information, contact LAPD Media Relations Section, (213) 485-3586. More to come.

This just in from John Balian, Glendale Police Department spokesman:

The Glendale Police Department has arrested two suspects in connection with several residential burglaries and thefts in the City of Glendale where elderly victims where targeted. After a month-long investigation, Glendale Police Detectives arrested Christopher Nicholas and Mary Dell on 05/04/08 in Riverside, CA. Nicholas and Dell would gain the confidence of elderly victims in order to gain access to the victim's home. Once inside the victim's home, one suspect would distract the victim, while the other suspect ransacked the home for cash, credit cards, jewelry and other valuables.

Both suspects are suspected of committing similar crimes in the cities of Long Beach, Pasadena, Crescenta Valley, and have ties to Las Vegas, Nevada. If you believe you may be a victim, please contact: Det. Keith James at (818) 548-2097 OR Sgt. Vahak Mardikian at (818) 548-4047.

NICHOLAS, CHRISTOPHER
A.K.A.'s:
Miller, Chris / Nichols, Christopher /
Nicholes, Christopher

DELL, MARY ANN
A.K.A.'s:
Stevens, Janet Laura / Evans, Janet /
Evans, Mary / Marks, Janet

U.S. border authorities no longer apprehend illegal immigrants only as they enter the country. Now they're catching them on the way out. At random times near the Tijuana-San Diego border, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers have been setting up checkpoints, boarding buses destined for Mexico and pulling off people who don't have proper documentation, latimes.com.

Police would soon decide whether to provide extra security at federal courthouses in light of an explosion that damaged a federal courthouse in San Diego.

Nobody was hurt in the blast, caused by a pipe bomb about 1:40 a.m. Sunday.

Los Angeles police don't yet have plans to provide extra security at federal courthouses in the city, but that could change, said Karen Smith of the Los Angeles Police Department.

I wonder where the money might come from. I know the overtime costs are huge and the city is grappling with cutbacks... We'll see.

chinaview.com

Remember the fat boy program, boot camp for military men with pork bellies? ... Well, my colleague Brandon Lowrey found the antedote to that. He writes today in the dailynews.com about the LAPD dietitian (yeah, you read that right). Yeah, a kinder gentler LAPD ... What's next, cop yoga?

The Los Angeles Times looks at the costs of adding 1,000 cops to the LAPD at a time when the economy is in the dump.

Chowhound food blog reviews the Police Academy eats ... A little lead with chowder anyone? Yeah, in addition to shooting paper targets, you can eat there too.

As I sat in the bunker-like dining room, I could see a team of men in desert camouflage uniforms eating huge portions of food. And at other tables were groups of men and women in various uniforms depicting their deployment. Gunfire rang out every so often.

This was breakfast at the LAPD Police Academy in Elysian Park.

The grounds are very bucolic, with gardens and fountains. The 1920's architecture is historically significant, and the people are friendly in an old-LA way.

The diner is not run down, per se, but certainly has not been updated recently. There's a selection of normal diner food, bacon and eggs, pancakes, etc.

chowhound

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Police Chief William Bratton will hold a news conference this morning to discuss police response to yesterday's marches in support of the rights of illegal immigrants. An estimated 10,000 people participated in the marches. Five people were arrested for various infractions.

dailynews.com
latimes.com
nytimes.com

LAPD Centurions Football, that is.

They're gearing up for a big game tomorrow against NYPD. Here's the deets:

WHAT: Charity Football Game

WHEN: Saturday, May 3, 2008

4:00 p.m.

WHERE: Salesian High School

960 S. Soto Street

Los Angeles, CA 90023

ADDITIONAL: Since 1978, the LAPD Centurions have been "playing football for kids."

This unique fraternity of Los Angeles Police Officers practice, play, and

travel on their off-duty time to raise money for the Blind Childrens' Center

of Los Angeles.

This year, the Centurions are dedicating the 2008 season to SWAT Officer

Randy Simmons who played for the team for over 10 years during the

1980s and 1990s.

The LAPD "Centurions" and NYPD's "Finest" are two of 20 law enforcement and public safety football teams that travel nationwide to play football and raise money for charity. The LAPD Centurions are proud to be a part of this organization that put so much emphasis on giving back to the community.

For additional information regarding the game, please contact

Detective Payne at 213-485-2197, or go to www.LAPDCenturions.com.

Things so far downtown during the May Day event seem to be quiet, but it's early still...

We've got a couple reporters in the field reporting on today's event. Here's what we got so far.

Jose Macias laid out a giant white poster this morning along Broadway in downtown Los Angeles with the words "The sun shines for everyone." The Brazilian immigrant, who runs his own clothing company, said he designed the logo as a small contribution toward the fight for immigration reform.

dailynews.com

Officer Ryan Whiteman is in the vanguard of a push to target hard-core gangs, not with sweeping paramilitary force but with aggressive, targeted enforcement by officers who know the players in the hood, the The Times reports.

SAN DIEGO -- Authorities say a woman who escaped from a Detroit prison 32 years ago has been arrested in San Diego, where she was a wife and mother living under a false name. U.S. Marshals say 53-year-old Susan Lefevre was taken into custody Thursday in the Carmel Valley area.

Los Angeles Police Department cops investigated more than 300 complaints of racial profiling against officers last year and found that none had merit -- a conclusion that left members of the department's oversight commission incredulous. It is at least the sixth consecutive year that all allegations of racial profiling against LAPD officers have been dismissed, according to department documents reviewed by The Times.

Facing a civilian oversight commission skeptical about LAPD's investigation of racial profiling complaints, Chief William Bratton said Tuesday he will launch a wide-ranging review of police practices, Rachel writes at dailynews.com.

For the first time in more than a decade, the proposed city budget provides the Los Angeles Police Department with more funding to cover officer overtime costs, Chief William Bratton said Monday. The chief addressed the council's Budget and Finance Committee during a daylong hearing at City Hall to discuss the $7 billion spending plan proposed for 2008-09.

knbc.com

From the LAPD. A homicide in South L.A.

On April 19, 2008, at about 4:15 a.m., 31-year-old Charles Corey was in front of his apartment building at the 3200 block of West 60th Street when a suspect in a tan, newer-model car, possibly a Toyota Corolla, drove by and fired multiple gunshots. Corley was hit several times and collapsed on the street. The vehicle and suspects proceeded eastbound on West 60th Street toward 8th Avenue.

Los Angeles Fire Department personnel responded to the incident and the victim was transported to a local hospital where he underwent surgery and was placed on life-support systems until his recent death on April 23, 2008, at 12:50 p.m.

The motive for the murder is unknown and the suspects, their vehicle and weapons remain outstanding.

Anyone with information is asked to call South Bureau Homicide Detectives Bill Ritch or Bertha Durazo at (213) 485-1383. After hours and on weekends, calls may be directed to a 24-hour detective information desk at 1-877-LAW-FULL (529-3855).

Woman kills live-in boyfriend ... This from the LAPD ...

Los Angeles police have arrested a woman who murdered her live-in boyfriend yesterday afternoon in South Los Angeles.

Just before 4:30 p.m., Reginald Wilson, 44, and Elizabeth Shields, 52, were involved in a heated argument at their residence in the 5200 block of south Van Ness Avenue. The dispute turned violent when Shields picked up a kitchen steak knife and brutally stabbed Wilson in the chest, authorities said.

After the victim staggered to the living room area where he subsequently collapsed, the suspect called 911and waited for police to arrive.

Paramedics rushed the victim to a local hospital where he died of his injuries, and Shields was taken into custody and charged with murder. Her bail was set at $1 million.

Both the victim and the suspect have been involved in an ongoing feud, investigators said.

Anyone with information is asked to call South Bureau Homicide Detectives Roger Guzman and Eric Crosson at (213) 485-1383. After hours and on weekends, please call the 24-hour Detective Information Desk at 1-877-LAW-FULL (529-3855).

This morning you read about a man who held up a McDonald's in the Valley, now we've got the great Karaoke thieves. A little robbery potpourri.

Los Angeles police are looking for two men who were caught on a surveillance camera robbing a Karaoke business at gunpoint on April 14.

The robbery occurred in broad daylight, shortly after 3 p.m. when the pair entered the DJ Karaoke Box located at 4121 West Olympic Boulevard. One of the bandits approached the counter posing as a customer and acted as a lookout. Moments later, the other bandit walked up to a female employee standing behind the counter, showed a handgun, and demanded she open the cash register and turn over the money. The cashier complied with the suspect’s orders because she feared for her life, police said. The suspect grabbed an undisclosed amount of cash, a carton of Marlboro Light cigarettes, and a personal cell phone, and placed them in a white shopping bag with handles.

After taking the personal items and cash, both suspects walked out the back door and fled in a 2002-2005 grey, four-door Nissan Altima.

The gunman was described as a 20-25 year old Korean, and was wearing a white long- sleeve shirt and black pants. The second suspect, also described as Korean, was wearing a blue flannel shirt that he used to shield his face and conceal his identity.

No shots were fired and the cashier was not injured.

Surveillance footage and still photographs of the suspects are available through Media Relations Section.

Anyone who recognizes the suspects is asked to contact Wilshire Robbery Detectives Tae Hong or Webster Wong at (213) 922-8205/8231. During weekends and off-hours, call the 24-hour toll free number at 1-877-LAWFUL (1-877-529-3855).

ENCINO - There was a robbery at a McDonald's in Encino overnight and cops were looking for the culprit who dropped some of the loot on a nearby sidewalk as he fled from the scene, authorities said.

The robbery in the 15700 block of Ventura Boulevard near Haskell Avenue was reported around 11:10 p.m. Wednesday, a sergeant from the Los Angeles Police Department's West Valley Station said.

dailynews.com

An inter-agency police auto theft task force uncovered a cache of machine guns, stolen cars and motorcycles and a hunting dog breeding operation run out of a home in Sylmar and didn't publicize it when the story broke in 2006.

Here's the story in a nutshell, given to me by the good folks from the Task Force for Regional Auto Theft Prevention (TRAP) - West Team. TRAP is a team of cops which investigates commercial vehicle theft and fraud countywide.

The case began July 27, 2006, at 9 p.m. when LAPD Mission Division patrol officers found a stolen Nissan Altima parked in front of a home in the 13000 block of Parkland Circle in Sylmar. The thief had stolen the car by stealing someone's identity from a lost wallet. And the suspects used his information to purchase vehicles.

The next day, at 8 a.m., TRAP detectives saw the suspect, identified as Don Park, leave his residence, get into a Nissan Maxima - which turned out to be stolen - remove the sun shade and back out of the driveway.

Detectives confronted Park and later determined that five other vehicles at the residence were also stolen.

Park faces auto theft, making a false financial statement and identity theft charges at a court hearing set for next month.

A search of Park's residence turned up 45 firearms, large amounts of ammunition, ballistic vests, police scanners, and 11 automatic assault weapons/machine guns in an upstairs bedroom that had been converted into a storage room.

Police found an additional cache of ammunition in the living room cabinet. Additional weapons charges were also filed against Park.

In the garage of the home, detectives discovered three stolen motorcycles, taken from a locked motorcycle dealership on Hollywood Way in Burbank. The suspects had cut the chain to a locked gate in August 2004 afterhours.

Police also found that Park had been allegedly illegally breeding hunting dogs at his residence and had previously been cited by Animal Regulation officers for the activity.

Eleven dogs were confiscated and held pending the investigation.

Park has a prior felony conviction for robbery with a gun and was sentenced to 92 months in the state prison. Park had previously been deported to Korea after completing his sentence. Park entered the country and illegally set-up residence, police said.

Cops are going to hold a press conference this afternoon to alert the public about crooks who are posing as DWP workers and ransacking houses. Today at 3:30 p.m. at Louise Park, which is on the southeast corner of Louise Avenue and Sherman Way, in Van Nuys, LAPD Deputy Chief Michel Moore, the Valley's top cop, Capt. Jim Miller, who heads Van Nuys Division, and Lt. Steve Harer, who heads detectives at Van Nuys, will join the city's aging chief, James Don, to raise awareness about the issue.

LAPD investigators want to reveal how these suspects are operating. They also hope to enlist the public’s help in apprehending them. The suspects’ mode of operation is as follows: Two men show up at the front door of a residence claiming to be from the LADWP with a need to check exterior electrical wires. As the victim and one of the suspects remain outside for the alleged wire check, the other suspect enters the victim’s home and removes property.

I wrote a story about this late last year ...

A walk through history as told through LAPD photographs ...

The Los Angeles Police Department has embarked on an ambitious plan to catalog and preserve nearly one million photographic negatives accumulated during decades of police service in the city of Los Angeles. The images constitute a visual record dating primarily from the early 1920s to the late 1960s. “Our agency has a rich heritage that parallels and reflects the history of the city,” said Mary Grady, Public Information Director for the LAPD, whose Entertainment Trademark Unit will coordinate the undertaking. lapdblog

Some people have money. Others might never have it. Here's a couple accused of stealing other people's money, going 'shopping' and then getting caught in a police sting. Now, we all pay for their stay in jail. It's the American way.

A husband-and-wife were in custody in connection with operating a organized crime ring that stole credit card information, created forged credit cards and going on a trans-continental U.S. shopping spree, buying computers, other high-tech devices and gift cards, police announced this morning.

dailynews.com

Calling around to the Mission Division yesterday, cops told me the story of a group of young gangsters who went on a robbery spree in Sylmar. The youngest suspect is 16 and he's accused of wielding the weapon during the hold-ups. It wasn't some gang initiation rite either. They were doing it for the thrill.

SYLMAR - Five suspected gang members, including a 16-year-old boy, were arrested in connection with a string of at least seven street robberies over the last couple of weeks in the Sylmar area, police said today.

Sunland residents, Miguel Ramos Jr., an 18-year-old auto bodyshop worker, and Melissa J. Graciano, also 18, were arrested April 8 after a hold-up at a Sylmar smoke shop, said Los Angeles Police Officer Christine Mondell. They are accused of stealing a vaporizer used to smoke pot, Mondell said. Both allegedly are members of the Toonerville gang, police said.

They and three others, Francisco J. Carranza, a 20-year-old gardener from Sylmar, Sylvia Medina, 21, a customer service rep from Pacoima, and an unidentified 16-year-old boy are accused of ripping off a couple thousand dollars from at least seven people at gunpoint on the streets of Sylmar over the last two weeks. The 16-year-old is accused of wielding the gun during the heists, Mondell said. He is an alleged member of an up-and-coming gang known as 2XL.

dailynews.com

All the talk recently about the thefts of classic cars and I spotted this old column from The Los Angeles Times about an unusual used car customer who wanted a custom sports coupe with Corvette engine, and he wanted it now. The Daily Mirror

The operator of two English language schools was charged Wednesday with running a scheme that allowed foreign nationals, including several Russian prostitutes, to fraudulently obtain student visas to enter and stay in the United States, The Los Angeles Times writes. Bezhad "Ben" Zaman, 50, of Beverly Hills, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Iran, was arrested by federal agents without incident in what investigators believe is the largest student visa fraud scheme ever staged on the West Coast, authorities said. He was charged with seven counts of fraud and misuse of visa, one count of conspiring to money-launder and six counts of concealment for money laundering.

Cops busted a classic car theft ring, arrested its ringleader, recovered six cars and trucks, including the Chevy, left, and exposed what looks to be a new trend. Cops accuse Jerry Thompson of stealing the vehicles, switching out the vehicle identification numbers and reselling them. They are worth 10s of thousands of dollars. One car that police recovered, a 1957 Chevy Belair, that was worth $150,000, belonged to rapper Mack 10.

There are a couple of good Web sites that address this issue. Check them out: wsati.org and livecarshows.com

There's a push to make even less law enforcement information accessible to the public and the press. Right now, when an officer is accused of misconduct, the press is banned from sitting in on the hearings. A state bill is proposing to hide police salaries.

From the

San Jose Mercury News

An amendment to a bill Monday seeks to push police salary and other basic information about officers back out of public view. The bill comes on the heels of two state Supreme Court rulings last year finding that salaries and other basic information about police officers are indeed public records. AB 1855, authored by Assemblyman Anthony J. Portantino, D-La Canada Flintridge, would declare that the salaries of police officers as well as their badge numbers and individual identities are private and cannot be publicly disclosed. The bill's sponsor is the Peace Officers Research Association of California, a group that lobbies for officers.

Here's a few headlines from the Daily News crime pages ...

• I'm chasing down some more details on a homicide from Sunday night in North Hollywood. Here's what we have so far. A man was fatally shot as he sat in the passenger seat of a car parked outside a liquor store, authorities said Monday. The shooting occurred about 9:30 p.m. Sunday at Sherman Way and Lankershim Boulevard, said Officer Sara Faden of the Los Angeles Police Department's Media Relations Section. North Hollywood has seen more than five homicides so far this year, appears to be the the highest number in the Valley. dailynews.com

• In case you missed it, I wanted to throw some props to my colleague Troy Anderson who wrote about court security problems as threats against judges and other officials has skyrocketed.

  Even as Los Angeles County's sprawling court system seeks to mete out justice, security is becoming a growing concern as the number of threats against its 600 judges, commissioners and referees has more than doubled in the past two years. Threats against court personnel surged from 99 in 2006 to 267 last year, according to court records. And as violence and threats have risen, security costs have soared from $132 million three years ago to $169 million.

  dailynews.com

• And a promotion at the LAPD ... Terry S. Hara became the highest ranking Asian- American in Los Angeles Police Department history as he was promoted to the rank of deputy chief during a ceremony at the Police Academy.

LAPD officer Manuel Tarango uses a microscope to look at a .380 bullet shell casing at the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center/LA Regional Loboratory. The shell casing comes from the gun of a suspect in a shooting in the Valley.

Rachel takes us into the offices of the LAPD's ballistics unit for a story about how cops piece together bullet fragments and shell casings found on the streets to the people responsible for pulling the trigger.

She writes that the unit is the backbone of law enforcement and can make or break cases.

dailynews.com

I just got this press release from Glendale Officer John Balian in my e-mail inbox. It is an update on the Glendale police shooting last night at Forest Lawn that left a gunman wounded.

On 4-3-08 at approximately 9:45 pm, Glendale Police Department officers were dispatched to Forest Lawn, located at 1712 South Glendale Avenue, regarding a report of possible shots fired at the location. Forest Lawn security advised the arriving officers that there was a suspicious vehicle (black Cadillac Escalade) parked at the top of the cemetery.

As officers approached the vehicle, a shot was fired in their direction. The officers were unsure if they could safely exit the area so responding officers brought the armored “Bearcat.” Officers established a perimeter around Forest Lawn Cemetery, with the assistance of LAPD.

A short time after the perimeter was established; Officers were contacted at the Forest Lawn entrance by a family friend who reported that the subject in the black Escalade was suicidal and armed with a firearm.

A team of Glendale Police Officers approached the Cadillac Escalade in the Glendale Police Bearcat (armored vehicle) and attempted to block the vehicle from being able to leave while negotiations began.

The suspect and his vehicle were in the City of Los Angeles portion of the cemetery. LAPD SWAT was requested to respond to the scene.

During the telephonic negotiations, LAPD reported that the suspect is possibly involved in a murder that occurred on 4-3-08 at approximately 8:19 pm, in the Wilshire District of LAPD.

Prior to SWAT’s arrival; the suspect drove forward and attempted to flee at a high rate of speed. Glendale Police Officers had blocked the roadway with two empty patrol vehicles, in an attempt to keep the Escalade from leaving the cemetery into the community after shooting at officers. The suspect crashed his vehicle into one of the patrol vehicles, coming to a stop. At this time, an Officer Involved Shooting took place. The suspect, who sustained a gunshot wound, was taken into custody. Los Angeles Fire Department transported the suspect to Los Angeles County Medical Center where he is in serious but stable condition. The identity of the suspect is not being released at this time. Refer all media inquiries regarding the homicide to LAPD.

Earlier 'Gangster killed by cops had fatally shot friend'

The LAPD said officers will use lessons they learned from last year's flawed crowd control plan at the May Day rally to better-police this year's march. During a City Hall briefing with journalists, police brass reviewed the problems Los Angeles police encountered - and created - during last year's May 1 rally at MacArthur Park, including poor coordination, planning and communication and too many decisions left up to individual officers.

dailynews.com

The Los Angeles Times today has a piece chronicling the life of a part of South Los Angeles reeling from violence, a neighborhood where shootings occur, where residents try to get cops to tackle the problem of mobile prostitution vans and to crack down on unscrupulous landlords who run slum apartments where many of his students live in dangerous and unsanitary conditions. One resident doesn't bother calling the cops. "No one does, she explained, not so much because the police are feared but because you will become a target yourself if you are known to have ratted out a criminal."

latimes.com

Steven L. Gomez has been named Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the Counterterrorism Division in Los Angeles. Director Robert S. Mueller, III appointed him to this position to replace Janice K. Fedarcyk, who was selected as SAC of the Philadelphia Division. Most recently, Mr. Gomez served as a Section Chief in the FBI’s Directorate of Intelligence.

fbi.gov

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Wendy Greuel held a press conference yesterday to announce that her office, local residents in the North Hollywood area and police have helped increase the number of graffiti paint outs and cut gang-related crimes as part of a year-long community empowerment plan.

"Last year our valley neighborhoods saw graffiti rise, gang crime increase and illicit activity spread," Greuel Greuel said, joined by LAPD Deputy Chief Michel Moore and local residents. "We launched an aggressive campaign to take back our streets. One year later our success is clear. Thanks to an unprecedented level of community engagement and an influx of city services, we are keeping our streets safe and clean."

Greuel noted that since March 2007 the program has helped increased graffiti removal in her district by 52 percent and kicked up the number of Neighborhood Watches by 25 percenty.

Gang-related assaults in the southeast San Fernando Valley dropped by 46 percent in the first three months of 2008 compared to the previous year, she noted, without providing the data. As part of her effort to clean up neighborhoods, Greuel has sponsored seven town-hall style meetings on public safety, that saw over 1,000 residents and a mural program for 300 elementary and middle school students.

In addition, she has led residents to adopt over 40 graffiti hotspots, sponsored, installed 100 new street lights in alleys and secured funding for 10 cameras.

Greuel kicked-off her public safety campaign after LAPD announced that gang crime had risen in the San Fernando Valley by 40 percent over the previous year and graffiti had increased 300 percent in Council District 2.

The "Broken Window" theory states that in order to fight violent crime, it is necessary to also crack down on minor crimes like vandalism. All urban blight contributes to the progressive deterioration of neighborhood safety, but no vandalism is more inherently tied to violence and gang activity than graffiti, she said.

"We know that the safest neighborhoods are the most engaged neighborhoods," said Moore, the Valley's top cop. "Councilwoman Greuel and her engaged residents have provided critical support to our police work in the Valley."

New Neighborhood Watch signs for the Teesdale Neighborhood Watch were put up. It became one of the 24 Neighborhood Watches under the effort. Since its inception in early 2007, the Teesdale Neighborhood Watch has worked with Councilwoman Greuel to purchase and install a Q-star camera in a nearby graffiti hot spot, condemn a local abandoned building, eliminate illegal dumping in local alleys and increase graffiti reporting.

"This neighborhood has really turned around in the last six months thanks to the community's work and the support of Councilwoman Greuel," said George Characky, a founding member of the Teesdale Neighborhood Watch. "We used to have huge issues with illegal dumping and graffiti. Now my wife and I drive through the neighborhood and we are just thrilled."

As part of her effort to reduce gang violence across the City of Los Angeles, Councilwoman Greuel recently introduced measures that will implement the Controller's reforms of the City's anti-gang efforts. The recommendations include institutionalizing evaluation criteria to measure the success of city-funded anti-gang programs, re-procuring all current gang prevention contracts and re-programming $19 million of City funds to more effective gang prevention programs.

For weeks, LAPD Chief William Bratton has been saying it appears none of the high profile killings/shootings this year were racially motivated. The LAPD even released a report analyzing homicides last week. The agency came to the conclusion that most killings are Latino on Latino or African-American on African-American, not inter-racial. But he and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa went off message Wednesday admitting that in Los Angeles (the city that spawned the movie "Crash") it's hard to deny there could be racial tension.

``In a city as diverse as this one, is there conflict among races? Of course. Is it increasing? It may be. But I can tell you this, it's nowhere near what we've heard, frankly, from some of the media sources when these incidents occur,'' Villaraigosa told a crowd of reporters gathered for a press conference with U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey.

Bratton followed with, ``Do I personally suspect that race might have been a factor underlying
the gang issues? I do. Can I prove it? I cannot.''

Their comments ended up being some of the most interesting during a press conference to announce the capture of a top 10 gang member, the indictment of 13 Grape Street Crips and associates who allegedly ran a PCP ring and to assure the public the feds and the city are working hard to fight gangs.

Even Mukasey jumped in.

``When somebody is murdered, whether they're African-American or Caucasian or Asian or Hispanic, that is a tragedy and it's a tragedy we don't want to suffer," he said.

From yesterday's LAPD incident report, a man jewelry carrier was robbed yesterday at 3:45 p.m. at Ventura Boulevard and Matilija Avenue in Sherman Oaks as he was walking from an unknown store to his car when two men - no descriptions were immediately available - drove, simulated a handgun, smashed his rear window and took jewelry that was in backpacks before disappearing.

Detective Dan Nee, who specializes in these kinds of heists tells me that could be part of an ongoing trend of Colombians and others from South America who have been targeting jewelry salesmen and stealing their jewelry. Nee said it appears to be the same M.O. although he will need to see the crime report before he can make a more educated guess.

Nee is investigating at least two other recent incidents nearby, one in Studio City and one in North Hollywood. I wrote about them earlier this year.

NORTH HOLLYWOOD - A burglary from a car recently at a gas station in North Hollywood has been tied to a South American jewelry theft ring that has been targeting the San Fernando, San Gabriel valleys and Los Angeles areas in recent years, a detective said today.

The latest incident took place just before 11 a.m. on Jan. 31 at a gas station in the 12500 block of Ventura Boulevard, said Los Angeles Police Detective Dan Nee. Two men, described as Latino, and one wearing a hat pulled low on his head, smashed through a vehicle window and stole from the backseat a case containing between $40,0000 and $50,000 in finished gold jewelry.

They had likely targeted the jewelry salesman and followed him from his home as he set out on his sales calls in the downtown Los Angeles Jewelry Mart for the day, Nee said. It wasn't the first time the victim had been targeted. Last year about the same time, thieves stole about the same amount of jewelry from him, Nee said.

"As a result, he's retiring from the business," said Nee.

No suspects have been arrested. A surveillance video from the gas station caught two suspects in a late 90s Nissan Maxima with no license plates.

Nee said he believes the thieves are among one of several crews from Colombia targeting the San Fernando Valley. Trained as pick-pockets in their home country, then graduating to jewelry thefts, Nee said he has seen several groups follow jewelry salesmen from their homes then rob them for 10s of thousands of dollars in loot.

A jewelry salesman was robbed in December outside a Starbucks in the 12800 block of Ventura Boulevard in Studio City.

I wrote this morning about a website that allows you to rate cops but what I failed to report is how much people actually like the LAPD.....The site's average rating is 3.7 for officers, the LAPD's average is 3.8 or 3.9.

CULVER CITY - Armed with a laptop and the names of tens of thousands of police officers across the country, a Southland entrepreneur is raising the ire of law enforcement with an online, five-star rating system similar to those used for teachers.

Less than a month old, RateMyCop.com has gotten 100,000 hits a day, with users leaving comments - good and bad - about their interactions with cops, founder Gino Sesto said. Read the story.

Here's the video of Sgt. Wayne Guillary, one of the officers with a top rating on ratemycop.com.

If you want to know what's going on crimewise in the South Bay, check out our partners in crime at the Daily Breeze, our sister paper's new crime and courts blog. The bloggers are staff writers for the Daily Breeze veterans Denise Nix and Larry Altman. Nix has spent most of the last dozen years in the courtroom. Altman has covered crime in the South Bay since 1990. Glad to have them as our partners in crime. Welcome to the world of blogging.

My colleague at the LA Times got the story that there would be significant changes in the selection process of SWAT officers. The changes come about because of a still unreleased report the LAPD did after the Susie Pena incident, where SWAT officers killed a 2-year-old girl. They had been in a shootout with her father who used her as a human shield.

The report recommends SWAT tone down the physically rigorous entrance tests. That angered wives who say it could put their husbands in danger. Here is the email one wife sent to the mayor, the police commission and city attorney.

Recently a group of LAPD SWAT wives gathered to learn how to support our husbands and deal with our redefined roles after the death of the first SWAT officer. This has had an enormous ripple effect through the SWAT families. The reality of how easily that could have been our husband. And although it wasn't we have been consumed with guilt and grief for the family that was affected.

Now we have heard there are actions being taken to lower the hiring standard for getting into SWAT. Although I can't speak for everyone the majority of us are offended that at this time of grieving that anyone would do this to these officers. We are concerned with the safety of our husbands, the father of our children if they are expected to go into these highly dangerous situations with someone who got in under a compromised standard. Of the 60 men on SWAT 52 are married.

It is widely believed this is an attempt to be politically correct and allow a female officer on the team. We do not begrudge a female making it on the team. And from what I understand neither do the men of SWAT. However, she needs to meet the same criteria. The motto of the SWAT team is "Uncompromised Duty Honor and Valor" this is compromising all those. You do not see the NFL, NHL, MLB lowering their standard to allow females to get to play. And those are entertainment organizations for profit. It defies common sense that a life saving organization would be willing to.

The SWAT selection certification process has been tried and tested. It has been in place for 20 years and it was approved by the city. If you watched Randy Simmons funeral or if you know any of the members of this elite division of law enforcement you would know it is working. Their record proves it. It doesn't require change. Change is only good when something is not working.

We will not sit quietly by and allow you to compromise our husbands’ safety.

I've had my share of gut-wrenching nightmares about finding an empty parking space where my car's supposed to be.

But imagine how a Saugus woman felt tonight when, while she was on her way home from reporting her 1996 Acura stolen at the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's Station, she realized she was stopped at a light behind her stolen car.

She used her cell phone to call the sheriff's station, giving updates as she trailed the car thief to a nearby Best Buy, said sheriff's Lt. Larry Gump.

"We're just surmising that (the car thief) heard the approaching sirens, because he just ditched it in the parking lot and ran off on foot," Gump said.

He didn't get very far.

Deputies arrested Jonathon Blankenship, a 26-year-old Newhall resident, at about 6:55 p.m., only about 20 minutes after the car was reported stolen, Gump said.

And the kicker: Deputies found a bunch of other stolen items - including electronics and a woman's purse - leading them to believe Blankenship used the stolen car to burglarize a house.

It was an oddly eventful Saturday night in suburban Santa Clarita - in less amusing news, a man was shot in the chest at a Canyon Country trailer park. The man, whose identity and condition were not immediately available, was rushed to a local hospital.

SCV deputies are looking for two suspects - one of whom is a 16-year-old Hispanic boy - who fled in a gray, four-door 1989 Honda Civic. It could be gang-related.

For more on that, see the news story.

If you have any info on this, call the SCV sheriff's station at (661) 255-1121.

CLARIFICATION: The SCV deputies sent out a press release that may have caused a bit of confusion. Actually, a male and female who co-owned the car and lived together came to the sheriff's station and filled out a report. The two of them then spotted the car after leaving, and the man was the one who made the call.

And a second commander in the San Fernando Valley, but more on that later.

LAPD Chief William Bratton, who has prided himself on diversifying the force, announced Wednesday the promotion of the first Latina captain. Southern California native Tina Nieto will be assigned to the patrol unit in Hollenbeck Division.

At least once a year Bratton comes out with this reassignment and promotion list. Inside the department, they are a super big deal since it can mean a step up in the department ladder -- at least in some cases -- and sometimes a significant reorganization.
This time around, there is lots of shifting in top command downtown but also some real changes in the Valley.

First off, Mission station's patrol Capt. Bill Scott is slated to leave for Operations Bureau but will get replaced by 20-year veteran Lt. Duane Hayakawa.

Van Nuys patrol Capt. Steven Ruiz is transferring to Devonshire and replacing Capt. Beatrice Girmala, who will go to the Hollywood station.

Then.. and here comes the new commander part.... apparently, the Valley, which is adding another station at the end of the year, is getting a second commander.

Assistant commanding officer of Detective Bureau Harlan Ward is coming to the Valley. I am not quite sure what the switch means, but I am told it's to handle the Valley's growth. I will keep you posted.

This all takes effect on April Fool's Day, and I'm sure the LAPD meant nothing by that.
Here's the press release.
****Thanks to a comment left by a reader, I corrected my earlier post that said the bureau would add a second station, I meant another station

LAPD Chief William Bratton opened the National Counter-Terrorism Academy, where experts will train local law enforcement about the roots of terrorism and how to combat it nationally.

dailynews.com

So it appears the activities of the Green Skeleton Bandit come to an end. Cops say a U.S. marshal shot him as he was running out of an AutoZone. The marshal was escorting a Central American official in town for a gang summit and who happened in on the shop when the heist occurred. Weird timing, huh?

NORTH HOLLYWOOD - A United States marshal shot and killed a man believed to be the "Green Skeleton Bandit," responsible for six robberies in the North Hollywood area since Feb. 28, police said this morning.

The man happened to be fleeing the scene of a robbery holding a knife and $600 cash Tuesday evening when he was shot by a marshal who was escorting a South American official into an auto parts store, police said.

The man, who has not been identified, was taken to a local hospital with unspecified injuries where he later died, police said.

The marshal was one of two U.S. marshals escorting a police official from the Central American country of Belize who was in town for a gang summit.

They stopped in at the AutoZone, in the 5100 block of Vineland Avenue, about 5:45 p.m. because the Belize official wanted to shop there.

"Basically, he walked into a robbery," Harding said of the marshal. "He sees a man walking out with a large amount of cash and a butcher knife."

A source close to the investigation said the man was the "Green Skeleton Bandit" who robbed North Hollywood fast food restaurants and mini-markets since Feb. 28. He was responsible for taking possibly as much as $689. In one heist, the source said, he took $9 from an H&K Mini Market on Sherman Way. In two others, he wasnt' able to get anything because the clerks could not get the cash registers to open, the source said.

He was dubbed the "Green Skeleton Bandit" because he was seen on at least one surveillance camera with a sweatsuit with a green skeleton outline on front and back and a hood with an outline of a green skull that zipped up to conceal his face.

dailynews.com

This is one of two homicides that were recorded over the weekend in North Hollywood. The total number of homicides in North Hollywood so far is five. One is solved.

NORTH HOLLYWOOD - Police continued this morning to search for the men responsible for a weekend Hollywood Freeway road rage shooting that left a 26-year-old man dead.

Police said the incident started about 2 a.m. Saturday on Hollywood Boulevard near the Hollywood Freeway when a group of men in a black Chevrolet Monte Carlos asked a group of Asians in a Honda, "Where's the party, boys?"

One of the males in the Honda, accused of being drunk, responded by shouting profanities at the men in the Monte Carlo and the Monte Carlo began tailgating the Honda.

The Monte Carlo followed the Honda onto the northbound 101 Freeway, driving onto one side of the car, then another, before getting in front of the Honda, forcing it to pull off to the shoulder near Barham Boulevard, said Los Angeles Police Detective Rich Wheeler.

Once the cars pulled over, the Honda then went around the Monte Carlo and tried to drive away. The Monte Carlo followed again. As the Monte Carlo pulled alongside the Honda's driver's side, someone inside the Monte Carlo fired a shot, shattering the left-rear passenger's side window.

A bullet struck Bunthan Roeung in the upper left back, Wheeler said. The passenger sitting on his right was cut by glass.

The victims in the Honda did not see where the Monte Carlo went. They pulled off the freeway at Lankershim Boulevard and drove to Hesby Street, where they called paramedics.

Roeung was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center where he died at 2:29
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a.m.

At the time of the 911 call, Wheeler said, the friends of Roeung thought he was going to be OK. He was talking and coherent. Wheeler commented that the case was extremely unfortunate because the person who instigated it was in the victim's car and was not the person who ultimately paid the price.

"This is another wasted life, a needless homicide," Wheeler said.

Initially, police believed the four black men they were looking for were in a newer Chevy Impala. Now police say the car is a black 2005 Chevrolet Monte Carlo.

Anyone with information is asked to call North Hollywood homicide detectives at (818) 623-4075.

Former California Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush, who resigned the California post amid corruption allegations and is now a Florida sheriff's deputy. He is accused of shooting and critically injuring a man while attempting an arrest.

latimes.com

We have the scoop this morning from the LAPD's North Hollywood Division about a series of raids on Vineland Boys gang members, the ones you may recall were responsible for the shootout in 2003 that left rookie Burbank Officer Matthew Pavelka dead and wounded his partner Gregory Campbell. I bet the gangsters are wishing they had chosen a lower-profile enterprise.

NORTH HOLLYWOOD - Nearly 200 cops blitzed the North Hollywood area this morning, arresting nine suspected members of the Vineland Boys gang on narcotics and gun possession charges in an operation dubbed 'Wild Card,' a detective said this morning.

LAPD Metro officers, gang cops, and school police fanned out during pre-dawn raids at 15 homes mostly in the North Hollywood area where the Vineland Boys claim as their turf, police said.

Wild Card is the police department's effort to challenge a particularly active and violent clique of Vineland known as the Jokers, police said.

dailynews.com

A year after Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and LAPD Chief William Bratton declared gangs public enemy No.1, crime has plummeted, homicides are at 30-year lows, and for the first time cops are working with hard-core gang interventionists to quell rivalries. Despite the gains, though, some of the boldest initiatives of Villaraigosa's anti-gang plan are barely getting off the ground, while other efforts that have been touted as "successes" aren't so clear-cut. A gang czar appointed in June who was supposed to bring the problems into sharper citywide focus so far has little power.

dailynews.com

Wilfredo Rivera holds a press conference in downtown Los Angeles, where he apologized on behalf of his family for the death of Los Angeles Police SWAT Officer Randal Simmons and the injuries to James Veenstra during a raid on the Riveras' home in Winnetka earlier this month.

NORTH HOLLYWOOD - A burglary from a car recently at a gas station in North Hollywood has been tied to a South American jewelry theft ring that has been targeting the San Fernando, San Gabriel valleys and Los Angeles areas in recent years, a detective said today.

The latest incident took place just before 11 a.m. on Jan. 31 at a gas station in the 12500 block of Ventura Boulevard, said Los Angeles Police Detective Dan Nee. Two men, described as Latino, and one wearing a hat pulled low on his head, smashed through a vehicle window and stole from the backseat a case containing between $40,0000 and $50,000 in finished gold jewelry.

They had likely targeted the jewelry salesman and followed him from his home as he set out on his sales calls in the downtown Los Angeles Jewelry Mart for the day, Nee said. It wasn't the first time the victim had been targeted. Last year about the same time, thieves stole about the same amount of jewelry from him, Nee said.

"As a result, he's retiring from the business," said Nee.

No suspects have been arrested. A surveillance video from the gas station caught two suspects in a late 90s Nissan Maxima with no license plates.

Nee said he believes the thieves are among one of several crews from Colombia targeting the San Fernando Valley. Trained as pick-pockets in their home country, then graduating to jewelry thefts, Nee said he has seen several groups follow jewelry salesmen from their homes then rob them for 10s of thousands of
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dollars in loot.

A jewelry salesman was robbed in December outside a Starbucks in the 12800 block of Ventura Boulevard in Studio City.

dailynews.com

A purse snatcher is now a attempted killer after he squirted pepper spray at her in Westminster. She's on life support. at a hospital and police are looking for the culprit, a woman about 20 wearing a gray sweater or sweatshirt.

The victim at first seemed OK, police said, then she had a stroke.

On top of it all, the would-be purse snatcher grabbed a bag that contained the woman's lunch.

Anyone with more information was asked to call Detective Kevin MacCormick at (714) 898-3315, ext. 340.

dailynews.com

A violent roller coaster ride with injuries today for one LAPD cop in Pacoima.

A police sergeant was hospitalized after his patrol car was struck by a suspected drunk driver making an illegal U-turn near the LAPD station in Pacoima, a lieutenant said today.

The crash occurred on San Fernando Road, just north of Osborne Street, about 10:30 p.m. yesterday, said Lt. Ingrid Braun of the Los Angeles Police Department's Foothill Station, located on the corner of San Fernando and Osborne.

The LAPD sergeant, whose identity was withheld by the department, was traveling northbound on San Fernando when his patrol car was hit head on by a compact car with the headlights off. The collision forced the officer's vehicle into two parked cars, Braun said.

The driver of the other auto, a man 25-30 years old, had just made an illegal U-turn mid-block, she said.

The sergeant -- the sole occupant of the patrol car -- was transported to a local hospital with a bruised leg, Braun said, adding that the other driver was also transported after complaining of back pain. The unidentified driver was treated at the hospital and then released.

He was then transported to the LAPD's Foothill Station, where he failed a sobriety test. He was expected to be booked for felony DUI, Braun said.

The suspected drunk driver also had two other passengers in his car at the time of the accident. But Braun said the other two people were not injured.

dailynews.com

Simmons' former partner, SWAT Officer James Hart, who worked with Simmons for eight years, shared a number of personal, on- and off-duty memories.

dailynews.com

Update at 12:03 p.m.

Holding back tears, LAPD Chief William Bratton spoke at length about Simmons' tireless contribution to the LAPD, the community, church life and especially to children.

"He had been given the opportunity to make his life as a cop count and he has succeeded far beyond anyone's expectations," Bratton said.

Bratton praised Simmons' extensive involvement with at-risk youth, including taking inner city kids on horseback riding outings for their first time.

"It is said no man stands so tall as when he stoops to help a child. If that's so, then Randy was truly a giant.

"No man ever brought so many childten to God. That was his true passion in life.

dailynews.com

Police, friends and others pay their respects for LAPD Officer Randy Simmons today at the Glory Christian Fellowship International Church in Carson.

dailynews.com

My competitor over at The Times, Richard Winton, a prolific writer and stand-up all around guy, wrote a story today about a raid in which Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies nabbed a prolific tagger said to be responsible for over $100,000 in vandalism. In this photo above is Sheriff‘s Deputy James Johnson leading Gustavo Romero, 23, to a patrol car. The arrest warrant named Romero in 72 acts of vandalism, resulting in $108,000 of property damage.

latimes.com

Coca went out last night to cover an event at the West Valley Division in Reseda at which Chief William Bratton and the mayor praised the work of officers during last week's deadly SWAT raid in Winnetka.

RESEDA - Police Chief William Bratton and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa thanked Los Angeles police officers from the West Valley station Tuesday for their heroism during last week's bloody shootout in Winnetka that left five dead, including one SWAT officer.

At a somber roll call attended by about 30 LAPD officers and a handful of Los Angeles Fire Department officers, Bratton praised their response.

"So many of you the other night contributed so much - bravery, heroism. ... Thank you for all you did that night and thank you for all you do day in and day out."

dailynews.com

At 9 p.m. last Wednesday, the clapping of a helicopter could be heard circling over Welby Way in Winnetka. The house across from Roxana's was awash in lights. Over a loudspeaker, she heard voices, saying something she couldn't make out.

She didn't pay much attention at first, instead focused on cooking quesadillas for her daughter. Later she went to her room to go to sleep. The house was quiet. Then she heard a helicopter again and the loudspeaker more clearly - "This is LAPD. Edwin come out. We're trying to help you."

It was the early stages of last week's predawn raid that left five people dead, including SWAT Officer Randal Simmons and Edwin Rivera who had called police out to his home saying he had killed several members of his family and to "Come get me."

Neighbors were under seige. One of them, Roxana, agreed yesterday to talk with me with the understanding that I'd not use her last name. She's still afraid.

As she tried to sleep, figuring the police would take care of the problem across the street, she was annoyed at the helicopter that never stopped circling. She looked out the window and didn't see police cars, but the house was awash in bright light.

She got out of bed and went to the living room window that looks directly on the street. She saw police with guns drawn and aimed at the house.

"Then I got really scared," She said. "There was a hostage situation and it was close to home, too close."

She told her brother-in-law to lock his door. She checked the doors and front and back windows to make sure they were closed.

"I was thinking maybe someone was inside the house," she said, recalling a case about a year ago in which cops came to the neighborhood to quell a neighborhood disturbance.

She went to check on her son. He appeared to be asleep. She took her young daughter into her room. "Everybody was OK. So I went back to bed ... Then, 'Oh my God, here we go again."

Daughter slept with Mom. Then mom began to worry about bullets coming through her walls, but she was hopeful police would break it up before it went that far. But just in case, she put herself between the wall and her daughter in case bullets came flying through.

They tried to sleep. The helicopter pounded. The police kept telling Edwin to come out, to answer his phone, to release the hostages. They wanted to help injured people. Over and over again the helicopter. Roxana tried to close her eyes.

11 p.m. she looked through her bedroom window. Police were still there, standoff.

She dozed off a little while.

At midnight, noise woke her up. Looking through her bedroom window again, she saw SWAT all in black from head to toe.

"Thank God the SWAT team's here," she said, "so they could stop this."

She saw more police. Two officers ran back and forth in the street. She saw SWAT in the rear side of her house. In the doorway of the house across the street, officers prepared to enter the house, one on one side of the door, another on the other side.

Some of them stood by the side of the house by a window, with guns drawn. One of them kicked the door open. One of them went inside. Gunshots.

"I grabbed my daughter and rolled over the bed and onto the floor and I was hugging my daughter, trying to crawl out of the room, thinking that bullets were going to come through my room."

More gunshots - "Pop pop, "really ugly, really bad."

She checked herself and her daughter for bullet wounds.

"She was hugging me so tightly, clinging to my shoulders, hugging me really tight."

When it stopped, she went to her son's room to check on him. He was quiet. She checked walls for holes. She heard an ambulance.

"Thank God it was over."

She went back to bed and tried to get her daughter to bed.

2 a.m., helicopter. She checked the window. Police were still there.

She went to sleep.

Gunfire awoke her at 5 - pop, pop, pop, pop. She grabbed her daughter, and threw themselves onto the floor, crawling out from the room.

Back to her son's room. All three climbed into bed.

The brother-in-law tried to go to work, but cops blocked off the street.

"Mommy, did you hear that? Bombs," her daughter said.

7 a.m., things quieted down. But the house across the way was on fire.

And it would be the beginning of a lengthy investigation and the extensive coverage by a long line of media crews that would descend on Welby Way.

Today, officers are gone and the yellow police tape has been removed. The tree-lined street began returning to normal, five days after the 10-hour standoff left three people wounded and five dead.

dailynews.com

As we get closer to the date of Officer Randal Simmon's funeral set for Friday, check the blog as we are talking with SWAT officers and others who knew the selfless veteran cop and use this space for remembrances. On Friday I talked with retired SWAT Officer Rick Massa who recalls the day back in 1988 or so when he first saw the man come through the door at Elysian Park for his first day on the SWAT team after having been transfered from the South side of Los Angeles.

Massa was in awe of Simmons the first time he saw him.

He had come to SWAT from patrolling the Southside of Los Angeles. The former football player was a weight lifter, a muscle builder. He was well defined, fast, athletic, the perfect fit for the rigors of SWAT.

“We used to talk football from day one,” Massa said last week recalling his friend over the phone. “We immediately clicked.”

He was always there, always wanted to do more, always wanted to put time in.

Not only was he physical, but he also could shoot well and was mentally tough.

“When I say he's well-rounded, Randy was it.”

Tense times for LAPD out there. We're still piecing together stories as quickly as we can get them going about the death of Officer Randal Simmons and the wounding of his partner James Veenstra. Meanwhile, check out these comments coming in from across the country, paying tribute.

Daily News readers from across the country expressed their appreciation and their sorrow for SWAT Officer Randal Simmons' death on the newspaper's Web site.

"Randy Simmons is a hero to all of us in this community," wrote Nasiha, a Winnetka resident. "I live across the street from the crime scene and I cannot express my gratitude and my sincere condolences to his family and fellow SWAT team members.

"God bless Randy Simmons. May he be blessed and rewarded in Paradise for his sacrifice."

Michele Gardiner, another Winnetka resident, sent her appreciation and her sympathy.

"I want to thank Officer Randy Simmons for his unique bravery - over 20 years of dangerous duty until the end, when he risked (and gave) his life to save others," she wrote. "This sort of courage is needed more than ever these days.

"As someone who lives in the very community he helped to defend, I want his family and fellow officers to know he and his service will be greatly missed."

Other tributes came from Escondido, Calabasas, Inglewood, Moorpark, Brea, Victorville, Downey, Tehachapi, Cypress, Lytle Creek and other California communities, and even from as far away as San Antonio, Texas, and St. Louis, Mo.

"Thank you for protecting and serving my community I used to live in," wrote Frank Reyes, who now lives in Texas. "God bless you."

"I read that (Simmons) ministered (to) youths and I cried," wrote Kevin Childress of Inglewood. "We try to make sense that he was doing the
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Lord's will and (he) should be here now, but everything is in God's divine plan and he was needed in the 'Upper Room.' May God bless his family and comfort them in this tragic time."

"While I did not have the honor to ever meet Randy Simmons, he is a true hero and I thank him for all his work in this community and giving his life to make the streets safer for us," wrote Michele Willer-Allred of Moorpark. "He will not be forgotten."

Some writers addressed Simmons directly.

"Thank you, sir, for a job well done," wrote Jeff Klepp of Calabasas. May God comfort your family, friends and fellow officers. Our world needs more people like you."

"This is never a good time when we lose a hero," wrote Terry Riestra of Lytle Creek. "You touched many lives; it's time to rest."

Leave a tribute.

dailynews.com

A SWAT officer was killed and a second was injured in a gunbattle with a barricaded suspect this morning in Winnetka. We're following this one closely. We've got a photographer at the hospital where cops are gathered and a reporter is heading out to the scene of the home where we're hearing that the suspect is still inside the home. Don't know if he's dead or alive. We'll keep you posted.

WINNETKA - A man who had telephoned authorities to say he had killed three family members shot to death an LAPD SWAT officer today and wounded another during a gunbattle inside a Winnetka home, police said.

It was the first fatality in the history of the elite LAPD SWAT team, which was created in 1967.

Officer Randy Simmons died at 1 a.m. James Veenstra was injured, police said this morning. Both worked on the SWAT team for 20 years.

At 5 a.m., the man remained barricaded inside the home in 19800 block Welby Way, First-Assistant police Chief Jim McDonnell said in a briefing outside Northridge Medical Center on Roscoe Blvd. in Northridge.

Some 200 officers, included SWAT team members, surrounded the residence in a standoff that McDonnell referred to as an ongoing "dynamic tactical situation." An armored SWAT vehicle was at the scene and helicopters circled overhead.

Police did not immediately confirm that three civilians had been killed, as the suspect said when he called police last night, but people familiar with the operation told camera crews at the scene that two bodies were inside the residence in addition to the one that could be seen on the front lawn.

McDonnell said SWAT officers entered the residence shortly after 12:30 a.m., triggering an exchange in which two veteran officers were wounded. One died at Northridge Medical Center shortly after 1 this morning, and the other was in surgery as of 5 a.m., he said in a briefing also attended by Los
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Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Each of the two officers who was shot spent more than 25 years in the Los Angeles Police Department, more than 20 in the SWAT team, McDonnell said.

Even though the SWAT team has been involved in thousands of incidents, this was the first to have claimed the life of one of the unit's members, he said.

"I want to say how deeply saddened we are this morning that we lost a member of our LAPD family," McDonnell said. "Our hearts and prayers go out to these families at this tough time."

Villaraigosa said the officer's death was a reminder of how perilous the work performed by police.

The incident began around 9 p.m. yesterday when a man locked himself up inside a home near Vanowen Street and Oakdale Avenue, according to an officer at the Los Angeles Police Department's West Valley Station.

dailynews.com

This one could go under the heading, "Stupid Crooks Stories:"

The guy pictured is accused of impersonating a cop, and of all things, falsely pulling over a motorist who turned out to be a real cop.

"That one-in-a-million scenario actually occurred over the weekend, Fairfax County police said yesterday, resulting in the arrest of a 19-year-old man at his Annandale home and relocation to the Fairfax jail with no bond and no court date for two months."

washingtonpost.com

We've had our own cop impersonators:

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that when you have pot and cash at unsecured businesses - pot clinics - you're going to have a cottage industry of takeover robberies. The violence is making life hell for pot clinic employees, giving police more work, and in return forcing taxpayers to fork over more money to combat the problem. Talking with Joe Esquivel, a LAPD North Hollywood Division robbery detective, this morning, he gave me the tip about this latest pot clinic heist in Studio City.

STUDIO CITY - Police today were searching for two men involved in an armed takeover robbery of a Studio City medical marijuana dispensary that netted the crooks $4,500 in cash and an unknown amount of pot, police said this morning.

Two men, described as African American, one armed with a shotgun, the other with a pistol, entered Wellness Caregivers on Ventura Boulevard about 1:30 yesterday, and ordered three employees to the floor, said Los Angeles Police Detective Joe Esquivel. One gunman tied up two employees with duct tape and locked them in a back room, while the second gunman took the manager room-to-room, seizing cash and pot, before taking off, Esquivel said.

No one was injured in the heist and no description of the gunmen was available. Nobody saw a getaway car. Police were hoping to retrieve surveillance video today.

dailynews.com

Before being transferred to LAPD's Central Division where he now supervises the detectives, Lt. Paul Vernon used to help run the show for the LAPD media.

Vernon's also the only cop who actually talked to Cardinal Roger Mahony after I wrote a story about Mahony saying he was beaten in a summertime attack. (story link is not an endorsement of any particular organization - our link has expired)

Alas, Vernon -- well-respected in this newsroom for being approachable and a fairly straight-shooter during his time with the media department -- knows a good (funny?) story when he sees one. You decide –

from LAPD MEDIA

January 31, 2008

Los Angeles. Two Los Angeles police officers arrested two men yesterday who are suspected in a spree of burglaries since last August. The burglars had been breaking into apartments at the Orsini, located at 550 N. Figueroa in China Town.

Senior Lead Officers Ken Lew and Tim Nambu went to the apartments on Jan. 30, 2008, to inspect the security systems there and determine how one or more suspects were getting into the building.

Nine different apartments had been broken into since last August, six in the Orsini I building, and three more in the Orsini II, across the street. The last burglary had occurred earlier that day, before the officers arrived.

"While we were looking things over, we heard a car crash outside," said Officer Ken Lew, who is one of two Senior Lead Officers in China Town. "When Tim and I went to help at the accident, we noticed all this furniture in one car. It looked odd, and resembled the same stuff taken from the apartments."

Lew and Nambu detained two men, Art Artanesyan, 22, and Joshua Carrillo, 30, at the scene. The officers verified the furniture had come from the Orsini burglary, then they realized Artanesyan actually lived in the Orsini. Carrillo was his friend and lives in El Monte.

"Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good," said Lieutenant Paul Vernon, head of the Central Detective Division. "But in this case, Officers Lew and Nambu made their luck by doing their job and being in the right place at the right time."

Detectives found dozens of stolen furnishings taken from model apartments in the Orsini. "Apparently, the suspects were 'wannabe' room designers, furnishing their own apartment with other persons' lamps and sofas," Vernon said.

Detectives encourage all property owners to invest in high-resolution security cameras, which are becoming less expensive and higher quality every day. While the Orsini had several cameras on the exterior, the suspects were able to act unseen because they had legitimate access to the building.

Artanesyan and Carrillo were booked for residential burglary. Their bail was set at $50,000. Detectives will work at returning the stolen items to their rightful owners.

Anyone with information related to this burglary spree should call Detective Hyung Cho
at (213) 972-1230, or call the LAPD Hotline any time at 1-877-LAWFULL (529-3855).

Photographs of some of the stolen furnishings are available from Media Relations Section.

This has been a case that I've been tracking for a while. Talking with the robbery detectives over at the North Hollywood division this morning looking for news, I got the tip that arrests were made in a violent robbery that left a jewelry store owner injured in October. The male and female suspects are from South Los Angeles and came up to the Valley allegedly to commit their crime. They are now facing robbery and assault charges. The female suspect apparently told cops that her male accomplice recruited her into the scheme. Here's the story in full today.

STUDIO CITY - A male and female duo from South Los Angeles were in custody this morning in connection with a violent jewelry store robbery that left the owner injured and the suspects with $30,000, police said this morning.

Eric Jackson, a 37-year-old convicted robber, and Tranika Rispress, 20, were being held on robbery and assault charges at the Los Angeles County Jail.

They are believed responsible for the Oct. 11 robbery at Dana Kathryn Jewelry on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City, police said.

The suspects allegedly entered the store about 4:30 p.m. and began to browse and ask questions about jewelry inside the cases, police said. Five minutes later, the male suspect pulled out a blue steel pistol and pointed it at the face of the 17-year-old son of the owner while the female suspect grabbed his arm and pushed him against the wall, according to a police report.

The suspected gunman then ran behind the jewelry case and began punching and kicking the female owner in the face and neck, knocking her down, after she tried to trigger the silent alarm, police said. He then hopped the case, used the butt of the gun to smash it, and took a bracelet from inside, police said.

Both suspects then ran to the back of the store, grabbed a box of jewelry, ran out the front door and across Ventura to a Staples parking lot. There, they were seen getting into a silver Dodge Charger with tinted windows and after-market rims, police said.

The 46-year-old female store owner suffered injuries to her head and neck and was taken to a hospital. She has since recovered, police said.

In early November, police put out images from surveillance video taken at the store to the news media. In December, an anonymous caller identified the suspects, said Los Angeles Police Department Detective Mark O'Donnell.

Rispress was arrested at her home Thursday. She told police she grew up in the same neighborhood as Jackson and he recruited her to participate in the scheme, O'Donnell said.

Jackson was already in custody Jan. 26 in connection with violating terms of his parole in connection with an earlier robbery conviction when police served him with a warrant in connection with the Studio City robbery, O'Donnell said.

Police in Glendale and Whittier are combing through robbery reports to see whether these two were involved in other similar cases, O'Donnell said.

dailynews.com

There was a gang-related homicide in North Hollywood Friday night. I just spoke with Detective Rich Wheeler, a supervisor over at the Los Angeles Police Department's North Hollywood station about it. No arrests have been made. Here's what I've got so far.

NORTH HOLLYWOOD - A 31-year-old man with no apparent gang ties was fatally wounded Friday night in a drive-by shooting two blocks away from his North Hollywood home, police said.

Alvaro Ely Calderon was on his way home from an am/pm mini market with a 40-ounce bottle of Miller Lite when somone inside a white vehicle fired shots, striking him at least four times before 11:40 p.m. on Bellaire Avenue near Blythe Street, said Los Angeles police Detective Rich Wheeler.

Calderon died later at a local hospital.

The gunman was inside possibly a Honda or Nissan car with as many as four people in it, Wheeler said.

Calderon, who is divorced and has a child has no known gang ties, nor any gang-related arrests, Wheeler said. He was living with his mother and father who were asleep at home at the time their son was shot.

"This is a murder you hate to get," Wheeler said. "There's not a lot of good, juicy clues to follow up on."

Anyone with information is asked to call Wheeler or Detective Martin Pinner at (818) 623-4075.

dailynews.com

I got this story late Friday and expect to be checking with the District Attorney's Office today to see whether or not charges are being filed. Stay tuned.

NORTH HILLS - A former employee with the Penny Lane Family Center in North Hills has been arrested in connection with having unlawful sex with a 16-year-old girl, police said this evening.

Eugene Portis Jr., 37, of Victorville, was arrested Jan. 15 at the North Hollywood Division police station in the 11600 block of Burbank Boulevard, according to the arrest blotter. Details about the arrest were not immediately available.

Portis was booked into the Los Angeles County Jail on suspicion of having unlawful sex with a minor and has since bailed out of jail after posting $20,000 bond. No charges have yet been filed, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman with the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. But they could come before his sheduled court appearance on Feb. 5, Gibbons said. Since he has bailed out of jail, she said, police have more time to file their case with the D.A.

In a press release released Friday night, police said that Portis was previously employed by Penny Lane's Foster Care/Foster Family Agency. A 16-year-old Latina reported to police that while seeking drug counseling, Portis engaged in a sexual relationship with her, said Los Angeles Police Detective Karen Crawford. No other details were immediately available.

No one answered calls to Penny Lane late Friday.

It appeared Portis had been working at Penny Lane for about three years, according to a spring 2005 Penny Lane online newletter.

Police are asking that anyone who has information about Portis to call LAPD detectives Makarenko or Kimrey at (818) 623-4090.

dailynews.com

For any of you who have no clue what I am talking about when I say "financial disclosure," it's basically the LAPD's anti-corruption plan as required by the feds who after the Rampart Scandal demanded the
department undertake major reforms.

The LAPD wants the department's 600 gang and narcotic officers to provide detailed reports of their bank accounts, major debts and other properties they own both jointly and by themselves. The idea is that if any rogue cops are squirreling away money in these accounts, these reports will be red flags for auditors. So last year, the civilian Police Commission voted to implement the program.

Only problem is that the union, District Attorney Steve Cooley and even Sheriff Lee Baca oppose the plan, saying it won't root out corruption and could leave cops vulnerable to identity theft. Worse is that 600 officers are threatening to walk away from their positions in gangs and narcotics if they are forced to do this.

But Councilman Jack Weiss (head of the City Council's Public Safety Commitee) argued the council should have jurisdiction over it, and on Thursday brought it to his committee to decide whether the LAPD should
move forward with the plan.

A nod to laobserved for catching this one. Los Angeles Police Chief Wililam Bratton is touted as "the most influential crime fighter in recent history" in the February issue of Playboy, on sale starting today.

Joe Domanick, a long-time chronicler of the nation's second-largest police force in the nation, pens the piece with the headline "Supercop."

Bratton is rumored to be on the short list to head the Department of Homeland Security or the FBI in a Hillary Clinton administration. He’s so influential that his archnemesis, former New York City mayor and now Republican presidential hopeful Rudolph Giuliani—the man who fired him—twice made pilgrimages to L.A. last year in thinly veiled attempts to neutralize Bratton in the 2008 elections. laobserved.com

In 2004, I shadowed Bratton for a story of the 12-hour day in the life of the celebrity chief.

The day started at 7:45 a.m. at KTLA studios where Bratton was making a pitch for the half cent sales tax for more cops. Here's an excerpt from that piece, a look inside the chief's office at Parker Center:

His sixth-floor office in Parker Center is filled with police memorabilia: shiny New York City police badges displayed in boxes; baseball caps; British police-style bobby hats; toy police cars.

Bratton picks up a 1954 book called ``Your Police,'' about the New York Police Department. He used to check the book out from the Boston Library as a kid. Now a tattered copy sits on a shelf next to his meeting table. It cemented his views about becoming a cop.

On the floor next to a leather executive sofa sit several framed magazine covers such as Time and other general interest newsmagazines and assorted trade magazines that feature him on the cover. Assorted books about crime fighting line the shelves, along with pictures of Theodore Roosevelt.

On one wall is a shadow box with a photo of Theodore Roosevelt and a quote, ``The Best Executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling.''

On another shelf are photos of Bratton shaking hands with FBI Director Robert Mueller. Bratton with the elder President Bush. Photos of his wife, trial attorney and Court TV anchor Rikki Klieman, hang prominently above his desk.

There will likely be a lot of fireworks in this one. We'll be watching this closely.

Looks like the City Council will get into an arm wresting match with those involved in the federal consent decree set up to prevent the same abuses of those cops in the Rampart Division years ago.

Our veteran expert downtown, Rick Orlov, today writes ... In a showdown that could determine the fate of a federal consent decree governing the Los Angeles Police Department, the City Council today will consider overturning a rule requiring officers in critical units to disclose information about their personal finances.

Councilman Jack Weiss, with backing from the Los Angeles Police Protective League, has asked the council to overturn a Police Commission recommendation that officers assigned to anti-gang and narcotics units file financial disclosure statements as part of an effort to comply with the consent decree.

"I have been one of the biggest supporters of the consent decree, but I have a lot of concerns about this," Weiss said.

"I don't know how the vote will come out ... but I do believe a number of council members have questions about whether this proposed policy will in fact track down dirty cops.

dailynews.com

Here's an update to an earlier post from last week.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office declined to file murder charges against a 20-year-old man who was arrested in connection with a suspected gang-related shooting that left a 31-year-old man dead and wounded another man this summer.

dailynews.com

Beleaguered Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona signs off ...

With a heavy heart, I therefore announce my retirement as Sheriff, effective today. Although this is one of the most difficult decisions I have ever made, my family, my staff and my lawyers all believe that this is the right time to take my retirement. This action will permit me to focus on vindicating my name and refuting the false charges which have been made against me and my wife.

Carona sign off

Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona will make his announcement on the department's Web site, saying he will retire for the good of the department because he doesn't want to be distracted while preparing for a June trial.

ocregister.com

Two cops this morning saved a baby from the clutches of a man high on meth who dangled her over a railing. This is the kind of thing cops tell me all the time that they get into policing for in the first place.

SYLMAR - Officers Jake Fernandez and Ruben Gonzalez were patrolling the south end of the Mission Division early this morning when a call of a kidnapping attempt in progress came out at 1:05 a.m. up in Sylmar.

Initially the two officers didn't think much of it. Routine call. They get them all the time.

But then they read over their squad car computer that the suspect was dangling a baby over a railing and the call took a more ominous tone.

"This is going to be more serious than we thought," said Gonzalez, four months on the job.

Fernandez, a training officer, prepped Gonzalez on what to expect. Taser ready, they were the first ones to arrive at the scene, the Del Monico Motel, 13055 San Fernando Road, six minutes after the call came out.

On a second-floor balcony was a man wearing only boxers and possibly high on meth, Gonzalez said. He was dangling over the railing an 18-month-old baby girl wearing a pink jumper, the officer said.

dailynews.com

A Los Angeles police officer slipped and fell, accidentally discharging one round from his weapon as he attempted to stand during a search for a suspected burglar in the backyard of a home on Sarbonne Road. The incident went down Saturday, January 5, at 10 p.m. Officer Jorge Barrientos and his partner responded to a possible burglary call in the 700 block of Sarbonne Road. While searching the backyard, Barrientos slipped. A bullet struck a wooden balcony and there were no injuries.

lapdblog.com

Pretty fluid situation right now. I think the cops do now have someone in custody on this one. Stay tuned and I'll update you later.

Here's how the case began:

A rookie LAPD officer twisted or broke his ankle this morning during a confrontation with an indecent exposure suspect who disappeared somewhere in the wash of the Los Angeles River, prompting a search on the streets around the Ventura Freeway near Woodman Avenue, police said.

The drama began before 9 a.m. as the probationary officer and his partner responded to a call of a man described as a heavyset Latino in a blue jacket at Stern Avenue and Valleyheart Drive, which abutts the L.A. River.

The man resisted, and somehow the officer twisted his ankle on a fence, prompting a call for paramedics. The officer was taken to a local hospital. Police didn't immediately know the status of his ankle.

dailynews.com

Good morning. Here are a few early headlines this morning.

Body found in car at tow yard
Paramedics and traffic officers apparently overlooked the body of a woman who was found in a car at a tow yard over the weekend, a day after the the vehicle was involved in a crash. dailynews.com

Glendale homicide
A woman's body was discovered at a home in Glendale. dailynews.com

Pellicano back in court
Disgraced private eye Anthony Pellicano and noted entertainment lawyer Terry Christensen are seeking to have a Los Angeles judge dismiss key evidence or the entire federal case against them today. dailynews.com

Doing my routine checks of all the arrests from overnight around the city, I got the story of a drug rip off crew with a back story that gets real murky and involves a drug sale to a teen girl who overdosed this summer. This is the top of the story.

Three men have been charged and a fourth was being sought in connection with a semi organized dope-rip off ring that targeted dealers in the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood.

The latest arrest came Wednesday when one of the suspects, Fatshi A. Touresian, a 21-year-old North Hollywood salesman, showed up in a Van Nuys courtroom to appear on an earlier case of vehicle tampering. He was booked into the Los Angeles County Jail on charges stemming from a pot rip off in April at Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Mulholland Drive that went bad when Jeffrey Jenkins, 25, was shot in the neck and survived, said Los Angeles Police Detective Martin Pinner. Bail was set at $626,570.

dailynews.com

John Balian, the spokesman for Glendale Police Department, was kind enough to e-mail the following press release over to me today.

On Wednesday, Dec. 19, Target in the Galleria together with DPU and Cops for Kids, is sponsoring a “Shop with a Cop” event to assist needy families during the holiday season. We have identified 5 families and invited them to come into Target before the store opens for business and have breakfast with officers from the DPU and Targets management team. After breakfast, each family will be paired up with a DPU officer who will escort them through the store (possibly on a T3) on a holiday shopping spree.

Location Target in the Glendale Galleria
Date December 19, 2007
Time 0700
Contact Sgt. Ruiz

This is the big story this morning. Out of North Hollywood, an 11-month old was allegedly kidnapped from a North Hollywood home by her 28-year-old father, a fugitive recently profiled on America's Most Wanted and being sought for alleged spousal abuse, rape, kidnapping and torture, authorities said today. Shortly after 9 last night, Raul Carillo Alderete took the child from the home of his ex-girlfriend -- the infant's mother -- near Sherman Way and Lankershim Boulevard, said Sgt. Kenneth Henkle of the Los Angeles Police Department's North Hollywood Station.

dailynews.com

NORTH HILLS - Leaning against her rake in her front yard, Augustina Cervantes peered toward the end of the block across from North Hills Park, where just a few months ago heroin addicts roamed like zombies looking for a fix and violent brawls were commonplace as children played. Now Cervantes feels safe enough to come out at 10 p.m. and rake leaves in front of her small house festooned with Christmas lights. Crime dropped 29 percent. dailynews.com

Wally Fay over at In The Hat, has a good editorial today about the lack of outrage over the recent killing of a Mexican deputy police chief by drug gangs in a case he goes out on a limb to say qualifies as terrorism. And that if we continue to turn a blind eye toward what's happening south of the border, we could be facing bigger problems than just street and prison gang crime.

I've always been cautious about using the T word. And I'll still refrain from applying it to U.S. based street gangs and their associates in organized criminal enterprises. But what's happening south of the border absolutely qualifies as terrorism.

The difference between us and them isn't subtle. Criminal gangs and organized groups in the U.S. generally speaking are not trying to change institutions like LE agencies, the media and the authorized civilian authorities. There are exceptions like Cudahy that still need to be addressed.

The latest proof of the criminal cartels' intent of literally destroying civilian authority is the machine gunning of Tecate's recently appointed deputy chief of police, Jose Juan Soriano Pereira. He was shot fifty times while asleep in bed next to his wife. This is just one more step in Mexico's suicide spiral into total anarchy. When a dope dealer kills another dealer, it's just business. When they start killing cops, newspaper editors and writers, priests and entire families it's not just business anymore. It's an attempt to destabilize the entire edifice of civil order.

Check out the rest of it here.

GLENDALE - A man enraged at a group of men who were looking at his female relative tried to run them down with his van during a soccer game at a Glendale sports complex, police said today.

Seroj Zadorian, a 53-year-old plumber, is accused of trying to run down four Armenian men, ages 25 to 40, who were standing on the sidelines of a game at The Glendale Sports Complex in the 2800 block of Fern Lane, said Glendale Police Officer John Balian.

They were among a group of up to 70 spectators who scattered as Zadorian's white plumbing van, complete with a Sergio's Plumbing sticker affixed, began lumbering toward them on Tuesday, Balian said. No one was hit.

After trying to run the men over, Zadorian drove off, Balian said. Police were summoned and when they found the van, it stopped and the suspect tried to hide in some bushes before he was arrested without a fight, Balian said.

He is expected to appear at a Dec. 20 arraignment hearing where he will face charges of two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

dailynews.com

Unfortunately, these kinds of things can turn out badly. This one turned out OK, despite the fact that the one of the guys was stabbed. He's expected to survive. This one comes from out Simi way.

SIMI VALLEY - A 36-year-old Simi Valley man was stabbed eight times and survived in a bar fight at Judge Roy Beans bar.

Sean Swearinger was stabbed at about 20 minutes after midnight this morning at the bar at 2780 Tapo Canyon Road.

He was taken to a local hospital where he was expected to survive. Police believe there were up to five individuals involved in the fight, but no arrests have been made.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Simi Valley Police Department at (805) 583-6929.

dailynews.com

24-year-old Yuliya Kalinina turned to the Internet in search of a husband, she made it absolutely clear what she was looking for in a relationship: "Green Card Marriage -- Will pay $300/month. Total $15,000," the Russian national living in Los Angeles wrote in an ad placed on the Craigslist website. "This is strictly platonic business offer, sex not involved." She and her husband were arrested in connection with a federal case of sham marriage. Scott Glover in the Los Angeles Times

GLENDALE - A pre-Christmas shopping spree ended with the arrests of two men accused in a case of trying to buy $70,000 in Rolex watches from a Ben Bridge Jeweler at the Glendale Galleria using phony credit cards and stolen IDs, police said this morning.ht (Nazaryan is the one of the left. Vlasov is on the rig.)

Pavel V. Vlasov, 23, of Tarzana (the one in the photo to the right) and Zekar Nazaryan, 24, who gave police a P.O. box address, were arrested Tuesday at the Galleria's Ben Bridge Jeweler on Central Avenue in Glendale, said Glendale Police Officer John Balian. Both were being held on charges including burglary, ID theft, credit card theft, and forgery, Balian said. Bail for both men was set at $50,000.

The men allegedly used a ficticious identity to create at least three phony credit cards in the last several months and went on a shopping spree, Balian said.

The name on the cards matched the name on the driver's license, Balian said.

They allegedly tried to buy two Rolex watches worth a total of $70,000, including a $50,000 18 karat platinum Daytona, Balian said. They happened to be in the store returning another watch, worth $2,800, that they allegedly purchased earlier using the phony card, Balian said. They were arrested after a clerk became suspicious and notified mall security.

"They didn't get far," Balian said. "They got arrested."

Police were looking into the possibility that the suspects committed other similar heists around the area, Balian said.

"They were going for high-end, quick money items," Balian said.

Summertime is traditionally what cops call the killing season, when kids are out of school, temperatures are hot and things get a little buggy in the big city. But last night there was a double killing in Van Nuys. Not a whole lot of details yet, but stay tuned. So far here's the skinny:

VAN NUYS - Police sought the public's help today in the search for whoever fatally shot two men on a sidewalk near an apartment building in Van Nuys.

The shooting occurred last night in the 7000 block of Hazeltine Avenue, just south of Sherman Way, said Capt. Jim Miller of the Los Angeles Police Department's Van Nuys Station.

Police received calls around 10:15 last night reporting that shots had been fired near Sherman Way and Hazeltine Avenue, but officers dispatched to the area could find no evidence of a shooting, he said.

About 10 minutes later, however, a caller reported two males on the ground in the 7000 block of Hazeltine Avenue, and there - on the grass by a sidewalk adjacent to an apartment building - the officers found two victims with gunshot wounds to the upper body, he said.

One victim was pronounced dead at the scene, and the second died later at a hospital, he said, adding that both victims appeared to be adults. Their identities were not immediately released because family members had not been notified, said Los Angeles Police Detective Mike Coblentz.

"We have no witnesses to the shooting so we are asking for the public's help," Miller said.

"It's just a whodunit," Coblentz said.

dailynews.com

Hey folks,

After a few weeks of sporadic posts, I wanted to let you know that I'm moving back into the fulltime general assignment pool of reporters. While I'll miss pitching in on the crime beat, you're in very capable hands with Jason, Rachel and Rick. It's been a pleasure blogging here and I hope you've found it interesting and informative. I know I certainly had a blast.

So thanks for reading and keep those tips coming-- there's never a shortage of skullduggery, troublemaking, or people who find a way to fight back against that cycle. I'll look forward to seeing what the team and you readers come up with.

Adios,
Brent

The San Fernando PD caught a rapist Sunday night because of an odd clue he left behind at the crime scene: ladies' fashion magazines.

SAN FERNANDO - Richard Ruelas allegedly almost got away with rape, but police said his fondness for graffiti and ladies' fashion magazines landed him in jail.

Around 4:45 a.m. Saturday, police received a call from a man who'd been talking to a friend who was on her way home from a party. She suddenly screamed and the line went dead. The caller, then the police dispatcher, tried reaching the woman, to no avail.

If you read on, you'll run across Nichole Hanchett, who showed up on It's a Crime back when she made sergeant a few months back. She helped Vairo and the others link Richard Ruelas to the previous tagging arrest and the theft of the magazines.

She was describing the scene where they actually showed up at the suspect's house, with Lt. Jeff Eley drawing down on Ruelas and her grabbing and hooking him. As I pointed out to her, that must have been a weird, weird sight to see.

Eley, recently promoted to take Lt. Tony Ruelas' spot when the l-t moved to patrol (and yes, the similarity in last names between the lieutenant and the suspect is purely coincidental), is a gigantic guy with a football player's build.

So the suspect sees this bear of a cop with a gun and a 6-foot-tall, red-haired female sergeant racing toward him. He gave up.

"Walking him down the street to the car was quite gratifying," Hanchett said.

More than half of rapes go unreported, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, and more than a quarter of them come from strangers to the victim, like Mr. Ruelas. Thankfully, due to his strange fixation with tagging and magazines, the victim can have some small measure of closure.

LAPD Officer Will Beall, homicide investigator, LA Rex author and sometime source trades his usual commentary on gangs and crime for a hilarious piece on the late Evel Knievel in today's Times.

Growing up in the '70s, I had an Evel Knievel lunchbox, an Evel Knievel action figure with a working stunt cycle, Evel Knievel comic books featuring "Evel Knievel and the Perilous Traps of Mr. Danger" and "Evel Knievel versus Ghost Rider." I was even Evel Knievel myself for Halloween one year. Larger than life doesn't begin to cover it. The guy was a walking, talking, honest-to-God superhero.

Working-class heroes were still real in the proletarian neighborhood where I grew up in the 1970s, and no one could beat Evel Knievel, a former small-time criminal from a broken home in Butte, Mont. Even Carl, the swarthy auto mechanic who lived at the end of our block, was a romantic figure to me. A kid in my class, whose father was a deputy district attorney, lied and told us his dad was a trucker.

It definitely makes for an amusing, even thought-provoking read, even when he gets all preachy at the end.

We've since devolved into a nation of neuters and babies. Our own safety has become our obsession. We cower in gated communities and fret about the West Nile virus. Infantilized, we have little use for the freedoms we once cherished, and we're happy to trade them for personal safety.

Today, as we verge on destroying everything beautiful about this nation in the name of our own safety, we should remember Evel Knievel, who taught us that liberty -- not safety -- is what's worth dying for.

A polygraph machine used in the 1950's by the Los Angeles Police Department is on display at Parker Center. (Tina Burch/Staff Photographer)

When leads dry up or the truth is murky, LAPD detectives end up here, on the fourth floor of downtown's Parker Center, headquarters of the Polygraph Unit. In these tattered 10-by-10-foot rooms, lies were exposed that cracked a Manson murder case and opened a trail to a stolen $3.5million Stradivarius cello. dailynews.com

The Los Angeles Police Department is hosting a blood drive
today on behalf of Officer Tony Salazar, who was hit by a car
during an undercover drug investigation in Boyle Heights last week.
The drive will take place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the LAPD’s Parker
Center, 150 N. Los Angeles St. downtown.

The donation will benefit Salazar as well as other patients at USC
University Hospital, Kenneth Norris Cancer Center and USC Medical
Center. Blood donations this time of year are critically low.

Salazar broke both legs when he was hit by a car driven by Joe G. Ortiz,
23, of Boyle Heights. Ortiz later turned himself in. Salazar remains
hospitalized.

For more information on the blood drive, call Patty Hunt at 818-451-9212.

Notorious BIG's family has long maintained that the LAPD covered up key evidence in his murder. And yesterday the U.S. District Court Judge Florence-Marie Cooper ruled that Detectives Stanley Nalywaiko and Stuart Maislin of the Los Angeles Police Department's Risk Management Group, along with Detective Steven Katz can be added as defendants in the Wallace family's wrongful death lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles.

"Judge Cooper's ruling today gives the family a chance to prove to the world that police were involved in the murder -- and that high officials have covered up for those officers," said Wallace family's lead attorney, Perry R. Sanders, Jr.

The estate of Christopher Wallace, A.K.A Biggie Smalls sent out a press release.

Whatever way it ends up, it's a shame that such a great voice was lost. It's just one of hundreds of violent murders that occur everyday in the streets but so many of those stories don't get told.

Here's a little tribute to Biggie. And one of his most memorable songs, Big Poppa.

"If you got a gun up in your waist please don't shoot up the place
Cause I see some ladies tonight who should be havin' my baby
Bay-bee" _ lyrics from Big Poppa

I ran across this late on Dailynews.com.

TOLUCA LAKE -Two Los Angeles police officers remained hospitalized tonight after their patrol car collided with another vehicle in Toluca Lake while they were responding to a burglary call, authorities said.

An investigation into the collision is continuing.

No details yet, but it definitely sounds like an unfortunate evening. Hopefully, all involved will end up OK.

Something looked unusual as LAPD Sgt. Christopher Crosby swung 19 George 80 down Nordhoff Street onto Columbus Avenue. The streets once prowled by homeboys were now walked by women, strolling unaccompanied down the street with groceries and strollers.

"Man, look at that -- ladies walking their dogs," Crosby marveled. "You never used to see that."

Long a problem area, even with the federal and city-funded Safer City Initiative officers on patrol, North Hills was quiet Tuesday night. Crime rates leaped earlier this year in spite of the dozens of extra officers, but as Crosby pointed the Crown Victoria left on Rayen Street, then right on Kester Avenue, things looked downright placid.

"We came by here," he said, pointing at the Sepulveda Recreation Center, "late last night, around 2, and people were playing tennis. Tennis! But if we don't keep it up, the gangs will come right back."

Crosby, a surfer, martial artist and dog enthusiast, serves as the Mission Division's gang sergeant. He's friendly, laid-back and looks pretty much like you'd expect a cop to look.

As a kid, he was a trim baseball player, but at 18, he grew five inches to his present 6-foot-3 and hit the weight room. He topped out at 285 pounds and in his vest, gunbelt and blues, he cuts an imposing figure.

The streets were pretty empty and the radio was all but silent as Crosby eyed dark streets and peered into cars. Shrugging off the cold that blanketed the late November air, he stopped for a cup of coffee.

"I'm gonna order the manliest drink there is," he said, voice dropping an octave.

A few minutes later, he had his peppermint Frappuccino, with extra mint and whipped cream, in hand and his slick-top was headed northeast toward Sylmar. He called out the demarcation between Astoria Garden Locos and San Fer territory along the way, pointing out the liquor stores and motels they use to meet and scheme.

There was a call of a 459 Hot Prowl on the outer edge of the 28-square-mile division and the gang units headed up to see what was afoot. Turned out to be nothing. As did a door knock on a Paca with a drug charge who wasn't home. Up and down the streets, all around the territory, everything was sleepy.

By 10:15 p.m., the soccer games back on Columbus had died down, but the cars kept churning, looking for anything suspicious. A few gaunt, wild-eyed men scurried around, couples kissed goodnight and men tried to jump start their cars back into working order.

Eventually, a Valerio Street gangster turned up on Kester and Rayen. He was 19 and skinny, known as Silent. He wore a Saints jersey, Raiders jacket, baggy jeans and low-top Reeboks. A pair of young gang officers, just off their probation in 77th, had him hooked on the edge of the soccer field. Everyone was calm.

"So what's going on, man?" Crosby asked.

"Nothin'," Silent said. "Just tryin' to visit my kid."

His high school girlfriend and baby son lived across the street. He'd run from the cops before and they'd busted him for meth possession in the past.

"Are you on probation?" one officer asked him.

"Not that I know of," Silent replied.

"You don't recognize us?" the cop said. "That hurts."

"Man, and we were the ones who arrested you, too," his partner said.

"Your name's all over the neighborhood," Crosby chimed in. "Why do we see 'Silent' on the walls?"

"I don't do that no more," Silent said. "Since I got out. Since my son was born."

"Oh, well is there another Silent?" Crosby asked. "A Big Silent? A Little Silent? How about Very Silent?"

While awaiting for a probation officer attached to the unit to arrive, Crosby shot the breeze with the gangster, advising him to go back to school and find a career. He slipped in questions about VST's activities, asking who was beefing with who and who was friendly. Silent did not live up to his name.

"If you guys were to take me in for some reason, could you take me to say goodbye to my girl and my son?" he asked.

"Absolutely," Crosby told him.

Silent shifted and yawned nervously in the cold, his eyes a little watery. The gangster's cell phone rang and his girlfriend wondered why he was taking so long. But he came up clean, with no outstanding warrants or drugs in his pockets, so they searched him and Crosby wished him a good night.

A couple blocks later, the unit pulled over a couple more gangsters. They claimed they were on their way to church, but, given the fact that the clock was close to midnight, it seemed rather unlikely. One ended up in a squad car and by the time the cops and probation searched his home for a weapon, his father was very, very disappointed in the way his son's evening finished out.

By the time the unit circled back to the station, things were even slower. No shootings, no foot pursuits, barely even any lawbreakers out on the streets. And that seemed just fine with all involved.

Photos by Hans Gutknecht, staff photographer

Mr. Becerra at our downtown competitor went cruising with the South Bureau gang unit in Southeast division.

Saturday night, July 21, and it's been slow in South Los Angeles, scary slow. Two Los Angeles police officers stop a pair of young gang members for jaywalking, a good excuse to ask some questions.

The gang member, a lanky 20-year-old who goes by the name Mally, chews coolly on a toothpick. A large gilded crucifix dangles from his neck as he and a friend slouch, handcuffed, against a rusting gate on a street corner just west of the Nickerson Gardens projects.

Much like the night itself, the full story starts slowly and builds in dramatic intensity when violence breaks out. It's a great piece, well worth the time to read the whole thing. Rick Loomis compliments the words nicely with some great photos.

The most chilling moment to me didn't come during the actual shooting, however, but when a 14-year-old tries to confess to possessing a gun, so his big homie won't get arrested. I always want to believe in people's ability to turn themselves around, but if you're volunteering to pick up a case at an age where you should be still learning algebra, the future does not look bright.

And Mr. Becerra does a great job of showing exactly that.

Hans and I spent some time in the Southside while working on our series on Kristina Ripatti and Tim Pearce and Mr. Becerra's account rings true on many levels.

There are a lot of guns and there's a lot of anger down there. It's not surprising. When you're stacked into rundown apartments and your neighbors were shooting at you, it's not hard to see why you might be tempted to pick up a gun. Then a fight breaks out, another young kid who happens to be walking past gets killed and the cycle begins anew.

The thing that's most striking is the crowds that gather 'round. The story and its companion slideshow capture that really well. Cops wade into these disputes, sometimes with a kid bleeding his life away in the middle, and they're surrounded by dozens and dozens of onlookers.

Some are just curious, some have more malicious intents. Even on minor traffic stops, you can have 50 people clustered around, watching and offering commentary. And yet, when it comes time to ask who pulled the trigger, miraculously, no one saw nothin'. Some other mother's son goes to the morgue and everyone else goes on with their lives.

Three Pacoima gangsters have been charged and a fourth person was being sought in connection with an hours-long carjack and robbery spree that spanned the northern part of the San Fernando Valley, police said this morning.

The case began Nov. 3 when the suspects took a car at gunpoint in the 16900 block of Devonshire Street in Granada Hills, then crashed it, police said. They then tried to steal another car, but failed and instead robbed the victim, said Los Angeles Police Department Detective Dave Peteque. They then robbed somone else before going to a gas station where they approached three women in a Mitsubishi Montero, and asked them if they wanted to party before ordering them at gunpoint them to drive to another location where they picked up a friend, Peteque said.

dailynews.com

An editor once told me "dogs on the front page sell newspapers." He was referring to cute puppies playing, not the slobbering, homicidal type, but judging from Dailynews.com today, people love pit bull stories, too. Here's one I'm about to post:

SAN FERNANDO — A nearly indestructible pit bull menaced a pumpkin patch, claiming the lives of an innocent cat and rabbit, before police overpowered it with brute force, authorities said today.
Shortly before 11 Monday morning, the San Fernando Police Department responded to a call for help in the 1300 block of San Fernando Road. Two officers and a sergeant found the corpses of the two animals and the pit bull in a snarling match with two other dogs.
After it attempted to attack two employees, police cornered the dog and called the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control. An officer arrived and tried to ensnare the pit bull with a leash, but it knocked her over and bolted down Celis Street.
The cops piled into their squad cars and gave chase as the dog wove in and out of pedestrians, approaching a laundromat.
“It became evident that the Animal Control officer was unable to recover from her fall and that the officers were forced to take immediate action,” the police report read.
The officers elected to ram the dog, running over it three times before it gave up. Animal Control appeared on scene and contained the dog, which sustained injuries to two legs. The pumpkin patch manager expressed profound thanks.

I like dogs-- a lot. I prefer dogs to many humans I've run across. But it sounds like this one had some issues, but it's a shame it had to come to this.

Here's something that gets me, though: how many times have we all heard this story? "Vicious" dog gets loose, roams neighborhood, threatens citizenry, attacks something, gets killed. It's certainly your right to have a big, scary dog, but if you want to own something that's been bred to be aggressive and combative, keep it locked up, dammit.

For literary readers of It's a Crime who are into dogs, check out Malcolm Gladwell's take on The Dog Whisperer and pit bulls.

I was traipsing through the Internet this morning, looking for a phone number for Operations Valley Bureau, when I found it turned up in a very odd place. Lt. Gary Nanson, who coordinates gang efforts for OVB, showed up in an article in a Canadian newspaper, criticizing his north-of-the-border counterparts' handling of a homicide.

"They're using traditional ways of solving a homicide," said Lt. Gary Nanson, head of the LAPD's Valley Gang unit. "They're actually embarrassing themselves."

(Cpl. Dale Carr, spokesman for the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team) took exception to the comment, saying Nanson "has absolutely no basis to make a comment like that. That's an uninformed, unresponsible quote from him."

Nanson seems to have either really ticked off the Canucks or inspired equal agreement that they don't know what they're doing.

I've interviewed the lieutenant a few times and it sounds exactly like something he'd say. He's an intense, outspoken guy who will go on at length about what he sees as the failures of law enforcement to respond to gang violence. He foresees a future where gangs will evolve into sophisticated, more organized operations relying on financial crime, rather than traditional stuff on the street. As such, he'd like to see more gang intelligence and detectives, rather than uniformed officers doing suppression.

My only question is: how the hell did the newspaper find him? Whatever the case, the veteran cop probably won't be enjoying any Labatts courtesy of the IHIT next time he's up in Surrey.

The ranks of law enforcement are heavily populated with men and women who bore arms for their country, trading the squabbles of the street for faraway battlefields. As many folks enjoy Veterans Day by not showing up to work, here are three remarkable tales of guys who sacrificed tremendously for the rest of us.

First, our own Dennis McCarthy delivers his usual masterful take on veterans' affairs with a visit to Charlie Mykietyn's poker game.

And across town, Steve Lopez writes about Sgt. Major Jesse Acosta, who lost his eyes in Iraq and is now adjusting to a life in darkness.

Finally, take some time and check out a surprising two-part tale by photographer Luis Sinco about Lance Cpl. James Blake Miller, the Marlboro Marine. Sinco took the iconic shot of Miller in Fallouja three years ago. It was a great shot, one of those Flags of our Fathers types that everyone remembers and takes on greater meaning to each viewer. Like most people, I saw it, thought it was great, then moved on, never really wondering who the guy really was.

Luckily, Sinco didn't leave it at that. He kept up with Miller, watched him come home, get married and fall down, damaged by the things he'd seen and done. And he cared. He stepped out of the journalist's normal role of observer and reached out to a man in need. It's a brilliant, painful piece of journalism, amazingly photographed and written. Part one and Part two.

Our blogging counterpart, Mr. Girardot at Crime Scene got a story on a terrible murder-suicide in Monrovia last week. I'd heard about this third-hand and asked him on Friday-- turned out to be true and worse than I'd thought.

MONROVIA - A man shot and killed his girlfriend in front of her children minutes before killing himself in the woman's apartment, authorities said Friday.

"We have a personal connection to this case," Lee said.

Read the whole thing here. It's really, really sad.

Officer Deon Joseph
Rick's got a good piece on Senior Lead Officer Deon Joseph, who walks the beat on Skid Row. While the cops and the city have tried to clean up this grim swath of downtown, it's still another world to most of us. Officer Joseph, however, thinks it's still worth defending. His dedication to the area has not gone unnoticed.

LAPD Officer Deon Joseph strides the streets of downtown's Skid Row, alternating between his role as friend and enforcer - offering temporary housing tips to those seeking help and pouring out the cheap booze of those who refuse it.

The 12-year veteran and married father of three was one of only 14 officers honored nationwide at the annual ceremony.

Read the whole thing here.

Just about every bomb scare plays out like this: suspicious package turns up, people freak out, the bomb squad comes out, then someone's gym bag/backpack/briefcase gets examined or blown up. Most turn out to be nothing, thank goodness. And, given the stakes if you get it wrong, I'm all for an overabundance of caution-- better to have a laugh about the "bomb" that turned out to be someone's dirty laundry rather than the "dirty laundry" that turned out to be a bomb.

With that in mind, this was really pretty funny.

SAN FERNANDO - A forgotten sandwich, an alleged Sylmar explosives maker and an anonymous bomb threat brought the San Fernando Courthouse to a halt, police said Friday.

Just in case y'all aren't devoted readers of Governing Magazine, the LAPD wants you to know that the publication named Chief Bratton one of its public officials of the year at its gala celebration today. I know I certainly count the days each month until my fresh copy of Governing appears in the mailbox, but in the off chance you don't subscribe, here's the link to the story.

It's a pretty short story and MacArthur Park, Bratton's biggest headache this year, gets only a sentence. But it's got some interesting color, such as this passage:

For Bill Bratton, taking risks comes naturally.

Just how natural became apparent one day in 1975 when Bratton, a rookie sergeant with the Boston Police Department, got a call that would have made a veteran blanch: bank holdup; shot fired; possible hostage situation. En route to the scene, Bratton encountered the gunman — a 6-foot-2-inch man in a red leisure suit dragging a woman across a bridge, away from agitated bystanders. Bratton parked and advanced through the crowd — and suddenly found himself standing five yards from the gunman, weapon drawn. At that point, Bratton violated the first rule of hostage negotiations (never give up your cover): He lowered his firearm and, looking into the barrel of the other man's gun, asked the robber to put down his gun, too. He did, and Bratton had a new reputation as someone who was either very brave — or very foolhardy.

This does beg a question, however. Who the hell puts on a red leisure suit to rob a bank?

At the end of September, we had the sad story about Canoga Park High School teacher Hadas Winnick, who was allegedly stabbed and killed by her son, Jesse. We set up a Reader Reaction blog to allow people to share their memories. Most were kind words from former colleagues and students, but we got an unexpected post from Amy Winnick, Hadas' daughter, the other day.

I doubt anyone will read this since it's "old news" at this point - but it will never be old news to me. This was my family. Jesse and my mom were my best friends. Because of his savage, idiotic, selfish, disgusting act of violence, I no longer have either of them. There is no excuse. My mom was not brutal. Opinionated, yes. But perhaps the fact that Jesse told her she was fat, ugly, worthless, pathetic, deserved to die, was the reason she was so sad? Can you imagine having to go through that every day, whenever Jesse had a bad day or just felt like dumping on her? She was a beautiful woman, dedicated beyond belief to her children, students, and friends. She was the best mother she could have ever been. I wake up missing her more and more each day, but also thank God more and more each day for the time I did get to spend with her. So, to you, SKT - I pity your close-minded, ignorant views. And to everyone else, especially Paula, thank you. Mom and I love you dearly.

I can't imagine how painful it must have been to write those words. Our hearts go out to you, Amy, and to everyone else touched by your mom's life. Hang in there and good luck.

A framed photograph of Undersheriff Jo Ann Galisky, left, and Sheriff Michael Carona, is seen in Galisky's office, in Santa Ana, Calif, on Nov. 6. Galisky, will take over duties for Carona who is fighting federal corruption charges alleging he and others took nearly $700,000 in bribes and kickbacks. (AP Photo/The Orange County Register, Cindy Yamanaka)

Sheriff Carona is taking a two-month paid leave while he handles the federal corruption case against him. Undersheriff Jo Ann Galisky will take over while he is out. Check out the photo in The Times. Why is Carona's wife' s also named in the indictment, smiling? ocregister.com latimes.com

Check out this post by Wally Fay over at the crime and gang blog, In The Hat. He calls for Carona's resignation.

Anything less than resignation, or dismissal if he refuses to step down, will make the department and Orange County look like some Third World rogue republic where you can't tell the difference between the good guys and the criminals.

It's rare that Ozzy Osbourne and/or North Dakota make appearances in It's a Crime, but when they do, it's certainly memorable. Enjoy, dear readers, this little tale that's going around the Internet like mad.

Ozzy Osbourne was @£$%&* annoyed. When police in North Dakota were hunting around for a way of bringing in hundreds of petty criminals on outstanding arrest warrants, they hit on the novel idea of inviting them to a fake party the night the rocker was due to play a local arena.

More than 30 people turned up at the nightclub in Fargo hoping to meet the former Black Sabbath frontman and reality television star. They were promptly arrested.

Apparently, Ozzy was not amused that his good name was associated with common criminals (or, perhaps, just with very foolish ones like the guys headed off to the pokey). He's demanding that Sheriff Paul Laney apologize. Sheriff Laney says he meant no disrespect.

Read the whole thing here.

Normally, I don't pay a whole lot of attention to the arguments in newspaper opinion pages. While I think we've got a good crew over at Friendly Fire (and I think Mr. O'Connor's blog is really, really cool), in most publications, the opinion page is a snapshot of what's wrong with political discourse today.

Generally, the columns and the letters to the editor on any subject, from taxes to the war to immigration, are just variations on "Conservatives are good and liberals are bad!" with "Liberals are good and
conservatives are bad!" as the counterpoint. Whatever the issue, it seems to inevitably devolve into a war of bumper sticker slogans where conservatives tell us that Bill Clinton was a pervert, while liberals will counter with the claim that George W. Bush either isn't very smart or he's a liar. Both sides point fingers, play loose with the facts and generally seem uninterested in actually fixing whatever the dispute is, preferring instead to belittle anyone who doesn't agree with them. And that gets us absolutely nowhere.

This is all a long-winded way of setting myself up to get sucked into the same nasty game.

This morning, while enjoying some peppers and eggs, I happened across a column in our own pages by Doug McIntyre, normally a radio host for KABC.com. The headline "Gangs have our libraries under siege" caught my eye, so I continued on.

First, let me say that I'm not a talk radio listener, so I don't know a whole lot about Mr. McIntyre or his show. Judging from his biography and some of the things he has posted on his Web site, it sounds like we agree on some issues and part ways on others. I will give him credit for having a nuanced variety of opinions you don't normally hear from commentators, nor does he seem to be as shrill as some of his contemporaries.

So, with that in mind, I have to respectfully disagree with his argument. Mr. McIntyre throws out some stats about how Los Angeles has recorded 1,500 incidents in the past 18 months, with "an obscenely high number of serious assaults by gangbangers, including robberies, beatings and shootings." It appears that he's basing his outrage on this recent article by John L. Mitchell in the Times. He keys in on Mr. Mitchell's descriptions (at least I'm guessing that's where he got it, since he doesn't attribute his facts) of the Mark Twain Library, which he describes as "a free-fire zone, caught in the sinkhole of a city capitulating to gang culture." He likens the situation to Nazi book burning, the Taliban destroying the Buddhas of Bamyan and the destruction of Garfield High's auditorium, allegedly caused by an arsonist.

That's where his facts start to slide, as he blames it on multiple "arsonists," rather than a single, 16-year-old freshman who was apparently upset with a teacher. He says there was "usual public hand-wringing... and little else." I suppose the benefit concert headlined by Garfield alumni Los Lobos at the Gibson Amphitheatre a few weeks ago was just hand-wringing, but that's not the main point of my argument.

It's also worth noting, when you click the link on Mr. Mitchell's article above, that most of the incidents mentioned involve things that are merely unpleasant, such as people with bad body odor, creepy, such as public masturbation, or crazy patrons. There are several gang crimes cited-- and they're certainly horrible-- but the article also says that after a bad attack on a Twain patron in August, the library posted a couple security guards and the problem kids moved on.

After setting up this introduction, Mr. McIntyre hits this thesis: "The city of Los Angeles has surrendered to the gangs. There are still some small pockets of resistance, a few isolated yelps of protest, but we have largely accepted the degradation of colors, tagging, banging and bling."

And, in addition to his library example, Mr. McIntyre hangs his argument on the Anthony Sena mural that Rick wrote, blogged about and video-ed the other day. He insults Mr. Sena, a murdered spray-painter and tattoo artist by referring to him as an "artist" (quote emphasis his) and suggests that the controversial mural represents the full-on invasion of gangsters.

He even takes graffiti expert Ed Moreno to task, writing "It saddens me to read LAPD Officer Ed Moreno of the West Valley Division's Gang Impact Graffiti Detail to tell the Daily News he has come to passively accept the unacceptable. Describing the Sena mural, Moreno said: 'Nothing on that wall says gangs.' Everything on that wall says gangs! Everything in Los Angeles says gangs!"

Now I've met and spoken with Officer Moreno several times and I know that he's a sharp, respected cop and that he did his homework on the mural before speaking to Rick. He interviewed Jeff Measles, the primary artist behind the display, and received assurances that if the mural gets tagged over, there will be no reprisals.

Here's a fuller context Moreno's comments from Rick's article that Mr. McIntyre omits:

Meanwhile, some support for the mural comes from an unlikely source: graffiti experts, including LAPD Officer Ed Moreno, who works with the West Valley Division's gang impact graffiti detail section.

Despite criticism that it glorifies gang culture, Moreno said, "Nothing on that wall says gangs."

Mr. Sena, known by the moniker 'Ohjae,' doesn't sound like a perfect citizen, but, if you read Rick's well-balanced piece, you'll see that he'd moved on to achieve success as a legitimate artist. As much as critics want to deny that art can come from a spray can, I've seen it used to sell cars at the LA Auto Show and videogames at E3. In the same way that tattoos migrated from biker gangs' arms onto the backs of squeaky-clean college girls, graffiti art has moved from its strictly sketchy past into the mainstream.

That aside, Mr. McIntyre's argument that gangs have taken over all of Los Angeles is simply not true. Looking at the LAPD's most recent stats, there were 5,758 gang-related crimes in Los Angeles through September. While that sounds frightening (Egads! Around 21 each day!), it's also 200 fewer than the city recorded the year before, a 3.4 percent reduction in gang crime. In the West Valley area where Officer Moreno goes after actual taggers and gangsters with cans of Krylon, gang-related crimes dropped 3.1 percent since last year.

Don't get me wrong, any gang crime is unacceptable. And it's an especially emotional sort of law-breaking because gangsters tend to be big, scary-looking guys who operate under seemingly alien codes of conduct. Whenever their bullets miss one another and end up in an innocent neighbor or child playing nearby, the wounds sting even harder because it's unpleasant to think that these guys with tattoos on their faces live in our communities.

But if we're going to work together to fight back against gangs' influence, we need reasoned debate, not rhetoric such as this:

When schools and libraries become free-fire zones and young lives are snuffed out in front of tattoo parlors with cutesy-pie names making light of smack (Needle Pushers, get it?) and it's considered an honor to have your life memorialized in spray paint on a liquor-store wall, the canary in L.A.'s coal mine is on life support.

If the people of Los Angeles don't act, we'll take our place alongside those who accommodated the book burners in Germany and the Taliban Buddha bombers. We have a choice - library cards or toe tags. What's it gonna be?

Cops from Chief Bratton on down will tell you that the key to combating crime is an informed, involved community. If we're going to have that, to really rise up against the gang lifestyle, the community needs to arm itself with facts instead of hysteria. Scaring people out of the library because it's an alleged hotbed of gangsterism, a supposition not borne out by fact, playing up arguments over a painting instead of focusing on real crime and attacking a cop whose expert opinion doesn't square with a narrow thesis will not help bring us any closer to a real solution.

As always, we welcome your thoughts and comments on this clearly sensitive subject. Perhaps I'm totally off-base on this, but I'm curious to know what y'all think.

While one of the biggest scandals to hit Orange County is going down, with the federal indictment of Sheriff Michael Carona in the news, The Times today does a profile of Robert Ordelheide, the police chief of a small island of a city in the midst of the sprawling metropolis of LA - the San Fernando Police Department. The 47-year-old man is loyal to the department he has been a part of for 23 years, vows to reach out to the town's 25,145 residents, and promises to avoid scandals. He earns $173,220 a year overseeing a department of 38 cops and 32 reserves to patrol a city of 2.42 square miles in the northeastern corner of the San Fernando Valley. It's a town where crime has dropped there 17 percent. There are no homicides this year or gang-related shootings.

latimes.com

Detective Mike Selleh kisses his daughter, Jessica, goodbye in an old family photo

This will be a light post until I get into the office later, but I wanted to put a quick link up to the Detective Mike Selleh benefit story-- it definitely seems like a worthy cause.

Mike Selleh Benefit Concert site.
Ticketmaster link.

The story of indicted Orange County Sheriff Michael Carona snowballs. The OC Weekly carries a story with the above photo of Carona in a Newport Beach bar with convicted felon Rick Rizzolo, a Chicago Mafia associate. In his story, R. Scott Moxley says this:

Pictures speak volumes, and they can raise questions—like what the hell was Sheriff Mike Carona thinking when he posed for a photo with Rick Rizzolo, a man the FBI calls a mob associate?

Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona who was charged in a federal corruption case pauses before answering a question during a private interview at the Orange County Sheriff's headquarters in Santa Ana on Tuesday, Oct. 30. Carona was charged with conspiracy, mail fraud and witness tampering in a wide-ranging indictment unsealed Tuesday that also implicates his wife, his "longtime mistress" and two former assistant sheriffs. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)

The Times follows up on the unfolding scandal involving Orange County Sheriff Michael Carona, whom TV personality Larry King once dubbed, "America's Sheriff."

Court documents describe a furious pursuit of money, perquisites and expensive baubles, including more than $200,000 in payments and loans, a boat, a Lake Tahoe vacation, luxury box seats to the World Series, Mont Blanc pens and Ladies' Cartier watches. Carona, 52, is also accused of helping co-conspirators get a piece of a wrongful-death settlement that the family of a dead deputy won in a lawsuit.

latimes.com
Earlier

The Times today broke the story of the federal indictment lodged against Orange County's top cop, Sheriff Michael Carona, accused of misusing his office for financial gain.

His one-time friend, former Assistant Sheriff George Jaramillo, has already pleaded guilty and has admitted to collecting as much as $45,000 in cash and gifts and hiding the money by not reporting it on his income tax statements.

Here's more:

As part of the plea agreement, Jaramillo is cooperating with prosecutors in the Carona investigation.

"He has cooperated in the past, has cooperated while in jail and will continue to cooperate in the future," Jaramillo's attorney, Robert Z. Corrado said.

Jaramillo is serving a 12-month sentence on state charges in a pay-to- stay facility in Montebello and is expected to be released next month.

Federal investigators "were asking questions about Carona's activities since he was elected sheriff," Corrado said. Investigators asked Jaramillo specifically about "gifts and monies" Carona had received.

Jaramillo and federal prosecutors reached the plea agreement months ago, but it was sealed while investigators continued to pursue the case against Carona and is expected to be made public at an arraignment today.

Carona's longtime political advisor and attorney, Michael Schroeder, said that federal authorities had not questioned the sheriff or officially informed him he was a target of an investigation. The sheriff did not respond to a request for an interview.

An indictment would mark a spectacular fall for the 52-year-old sheriff, who only five years ago was seen as a rising star in California Republican politics. Since then, there have been attacks on his character and calls for his resignation, but he was narrowly reelected to a third term in 2006.

The full scope of the federal investigation remains unknown, but one apparent focus is a scheme outlined in Jaramillo's plea agreement.

The 30-page plea agreement describes Jaramillo's involvement with individuals identified as "M.C." and "D.H." Corrado said the initials stand for Carona and former Assistant Sheriff Donald Haidl.

The agreement says that beginning in late 1998 or early 1999, Haidl arranged for Jaramillo and Carona to be appointed to the boards of directors of several companies that paid them compensation or honoraria.

latimes.com dailynews.com

You can see the Sheriff's Web site by clicking here, but it appears somebody's taken down Carona's bio.

So Tony Castro has filed an early dispatch from the courthouse on one of L.A.'s most wanted fugitive gang members, who now faces the death penalty for three killings and four attempts. Here's the top of the story.

in three murders One of Los Angeles' most feared gang leaders with a penchant for writing rap lyrics about his killings was convicted Thursday of murdering rival gang members for control of a lucrative drug trade -- and now could face the death penalty.

Timothy Joseph McGhee, 34, leader Toonerville gang in Atwater Village, was found guilty of three counts of first degree murder and four of attempted murder in a case in which prosecutors were heavily aided by an autobiographical notebook in gang lyrics in which he boasted about his crimes.

"I am why you lock your doors. I am why your daughters are whores " McGhee wrote in one set of lyrics that authorities said underscored his murderous rampage for which McGhee came to be called the Monster of Atwater, with cops even comparing his murderous nature to Charles Manson.

The three murder convictions and two of the attempted murder counts - involving attempts to kill peace officers - carried special circumstances charged upheld by the jury and qualify McGhee for the death penalty.

Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry immediately set penalty phase hearings to begin Friday morning.

Check out the rest of the story by clicking here

Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton says he still gets angry when people shoot people and he wants to put the culprits away for the rest of their lives every time it happens, he tells Rachel Uranga today reflecting on his five years at the top of the country's second largest police force. He says he get's a jingle on his Blackberry everytime there is a major shooting in the city. He has seen the number of homicides drop, says gangs are still problem number 1, especially in the San Fernando Valley, and hopes to reduce crime by 5 percent.

Let me say for the record that Bob Pool is one of the greatest journalists in Los Angeles. And I hate him. Nothing personal against him-- he's a fine guy whom I run into from time to time. Very pleasant. Very polite. But he gets the most freaking amazing stories, frequently right under my nose. I dread the assignment where we go head-to-head. The guy's a master.

For example, consider this passage:

Wheeler began killing time by writing. Perched on his motorcycle with a yellow pad on his knee, he wrote love poems. And then one romance novel, and another.

"Writing love stories, sitting in the gutters of L.A."

The rest of the story of Robert Wheeler, retired motor cop, romance novelist and abstract painter, is similarly fantastic. I wish I'd have written it myself. But don't take my word for it.... check it out yourself here. Nice work, Bob. And nice life, Robert.

Now back to fires and other unpleasant things.

I was looking for another story when I ran across this eye-catcher by Hector Becerra and Maeve Reston at the Times.

Amid worries of new blazes adding to the firestorm already afflicting the region, a man in Hesperia has been arrested on suspicion of arson, and police reported shooting and killing another arson suspect after chasing him out of scrub behind Cal State San Bernardino.

Investigators have said that at least two of the huge wildfires, one in Orange County and the other in Temecula, were the work of arsonists.

Amid all this fire coverage, here's a break, courtesy the Los Angeles Police Department:

Chief of Police William Bratton today announced the following transfers and promotions of LAPD Command Staff, effective Nov. 11.

• Captain III Scott Kroeber, currently assigned to Metropolitan Division, has been promoted to Commander. He will become Assistant Commanding Officer of Special Operations Bureau.
• Lieutenant II Lance Smith, currently assigned to Medical Liaison Section, has been promoted to Captain I. He will become Patrol Captain of Northeast Area.
• Lieutenant II Phil Fontanetta, currently assigned to Emergency Operations Division, has been promoted to Captain I. He will become Patrol Captain of Southwest Area.
• Lieutenant II Ivan Minsal, currently assigned to Foothill Area, has been promoted to Captain I. He will become Patrol Captain of Foothill Area.
• Lieutenant II Dennis Kato, currently assigned to Incident Management and Training Bureau, has been promoted to Captain I. He will become Patrol Captain of 77th Street Area.

The following paygrade advancements were announced:

• Captain II Jeffrey Greer, currently assigned to Metropolitan Division, has been promoted to Captain III. He will become Commanding Officer of Metropolitan Division.
• Captain I Rob Hauck, currently assigned to Office of Operations, has been promoted to Captain II. He will become Assistant Commanding Officer of Metropolitan Division.
• Captain I Steve Zipperman, currently assigned to Foothill Area, has been promoted to Captain III. He will become Commanding Officer of West Valley Area.
• Captain II Bill Eaton, currently assigned to LAX, has been promoted to Captain III. He will become Commanding Officer of West Los Angeles Area.

The following reassignments were also announced:

• Captain III John Sherman, currently assigned as Commanding Officer of West Valley Area, has been reassigned as Commanding Officer of the new 21st Northwest Community Police Station, scheduled to open October, 2008.
• Captain III Matt Blake, currently assigned as Commanding Officer of West Los Angeles Area, will become the Commanding Officer of the new 20th police station tentatively name Olympic Area Community Police Station schedule to open November 2008.
• Captain II Bill Sutton, currently assigned as Commanding Officer of South Traffic Division, has been reassigned as Commanding Officer of LAX.
• Captain I Eric Davis, currently assigned as Patrol Captain of Northeast Area, has been reassigned as Special Assistant of Office of Operations.
• Captain I Don Schwartzer, currently assigned as Patrol Captain of Southwest Area, has been reassigned as Commanding Officer of South Traffic Division.

(I've been working on this post for several days, but the fire keeps sucking me back in. Now, at 11:49 at night, maybe I can escape flame coverage for 10 minutes and finish this...)

One of the things I dig about our downtown friends is Outside the Tent, where they invite local authors to rag on their coverage. I think it takes some guts to use your own pages to let people say you suck.

The most recent critic to weigh in is Robert CJ Parry, whom you may remember from a previous post here. I've chatted with him numerous times, and, a few months ago, we enjoyed a delightful conversation over hot cereal at his Westwood office (he chose the oatmeal, I opted for cream of wheat. I got the sense he was judging me for my choice, but I didn't hold it against him). We seem to have completely opposite political viewpoints, but I respect him as a smart dude.

In his Times takedown, Parry argues that the paper focuses too much on negative cops stories at the expense of positive ones. He brings up some good, valid examples that lend credence to his position and tells me that the Times' Op-Ed folks were careful and thorough in their fact-checking.

[Tuesday, 11:56 p.m. edit... I've been trying to figure out how to critique this for two days now, but everything I wrote sounded stupid, so I'm just going to close here and let you make your own judgments.... actually, come to think of it, I will say something that's sort of related....]

Let's stipulate that what Mr. Parry says is true and that the Times favors negative coverage and neglects the heroic ones. I don't know their relationship with the cops they cover or their agenda, so I can't get into that too much of my own. But I will say this: cops (and all law enforcement agencies, for that matter) often don't help things by the way they deal with the media.

Whenever I end up on a crime story, I've found there are two sorts of cops: they're either ridiculously helpful or the extreme opposite. You get a good relationship with one and they'll help you out on a story, give you fair access and allow you to tell their side of the story. The other sort spend all their time complaining about how they don't like the media and how some reporter gave them a hard time in 1982 and how we just don't understand them.

Well, guys, I'm sorry for whoever was rude to you, especially if it was me. And I realize there's often things you can't talk about because of your investigations or because you're busy chasing men with guns. Hey, that's cool, I can respect that. But y'all oughtta realize that we've got a job to do that's very similar to yours: to serve and inform the public. If we're going to do that, we need your help and your honesty. If you offer that up, you're much more likely to get an accurate, fair story about whatever you're working on.

That's my soapbox, however, not Mr. Parry's. I hope they're kind of related. Whatever. It's late. Let me know what you think of his piece and have a lovely evening.

Here's a pair of unusual ones out of our friendly rivals downtown.

First off, check out Ms. Leovy's interview on Gangsters Anonymous at The Homicide Report.

"It's a 12-step program, based on Alcoholics Anonymous. We are recovering gangsters who meet to help each other stay crime-free. We believe the gangster mentality is a disease--a mental disorder. We are sick. We suffer from a criminal mentality. But recovery is our responsibility. " - Kenny Mitchell, 44, longshoreman and founder of Gangsters Anonymous.

And when you finish that, pour yourself a drink, kick back and treat yourself to The exotic dancer, the police chief and the dividing line by Peter H. King. It's an absolutely phenomenal read, telling the crazy tale of a cop, his stripper wife and two feuding towns on the Utah/Nevada border. Not in my wildest dreams could I imagine such a bizarre set-up.

WENDOVER, UTAH -- Sylvia, for whatever reason, needed another pair of shoes. So, on a late Wednesday night in mid-August, police chief Vaughn Tripp headed across town in his red Chevy pickup, hauling high heels to the club where his wife performed as an exotic dancer, stage name "Ecstasy."

"I don't smoke cigarettes, I don't drink alcohol and I don't do drugs. Never have," he declared, not long after he'd been battered by the tabloid whirlwind created when his wife was arrested on narcotics charges.

And it only gets better from there. King really knocks this one out, capturing the sadness and craziness with a great tone. As strange as the story becomes, he never loses the emotions of the characters. Well done, sir.

From Dailynews.com:

SANTA CLARITA - A sting targeting parking lot cheaters netted 19 citations for fraudulent disabled person parking placards, the Department of Motor Vehicles announced Thursday.

"Those that righteously had the placards were very appreciative," he said. "Those who got caught copped some attitude. The usual, `Don't you have anything better to do?' In many cases, they were downright defiant, like, `How dare you challenge me?"'

That attitude reminds me of a girl named Olga, with whom I went to college. While the rest of us were riding the bus, or, if lucky, drove beat up, 15-year-old cars (go Datsun Pulsar!), Olga had a brand new BMW. Her dad bought it for her. He also got her a shiny blue placard with a white icon of a person in a wheel chair.

He was a doctor. She had no disabilities, aside from a massive sense of entitlement.

Our dorm, the fun but uncomfortable Sproul Hall, had a handful of meters out front and one or two spots reserved for people with disabilities. On most days, she took up one of them so she'd be spared the indignity of actually having to pay for parking or walk any distance. Whenever I saw a person struggling up the hill on crutches or in their wheelchair because she swiped their space, I became convinced that Olga was bound for a special place in hell.

We should have said something, aside from telling her she was a rotten person. I think my buddy Tony let the air out of her tires once, but we never actually turned her in. Which is a shame, because UCLA ended up getting quite a bit more careful about tracking down folks like her. Gee, I wonder why?

Detective Jim Pollock's shadow

On Wednesday night, Detective Jim Pollock cut up a big, blue cake with his colleagues at the San Fernando Police Department. Then, he pulled on a black raid jacket, tucked his reading glasses into his pocket and went to work. It was his 30th anniversary on the job.

James Anthony Rojas

As if the housing market wasn't fraught with enough drama these days, I ran across this story yesterday. If it's true, it's a pretty dastardly way to make a buck.

SAN FERNANDO - James Anthony Rojas' attempts to cash in on the foreclosure market ran him afoul of the law, police said Wednesday.

Anyone with information about the case can call the San Fernando Police Department at (818) 898-1267.

Midway through an extremely long day on the job, I dropped in on Lt. Tom Smart of LAPD's West Valley Gang unit. He loaded up his slick-top hybrid and toted me around for awhile and we got to chatting.

It was a quiet, slow day and the conversation meandered from the old days of policing "when you just had your stick and your mouth to protect you" to Lee Harvey Oswald to gangster etiquette. That led us to how gangs recruit.

"If they don't get affection, kids go and look for it with the gang instead of Little League or piano lessons," he said.

But not all of them-- plenty of kids who grow up in jacked-up households reject that and go onto become upstanding, law-abiding citizens. Even the gangsters often dream of holding down respectable jobs, sometimes more unusual ones than you'd think.

"Almost every single guy you arrest says they wanted to be a cop," he continued. "'Oh, yeah, I was gonna do that, then I got the whole felony drug thing.' They wanted to do it for the same reason they join the gang-- the camaraderie, the family, the sense of belonging."

So what's the solution? How do we get kids to become the next generation of police officers instead of their "clients?" What makes some get into trouble while others stay straight? And for that matter, what makes cops sometimes go bad? Or gangsters sometimes go straight?

I wish, dear readers, that I had those answers for you. But I fear that it's quite late and I'm not quite as keen an observer of human nature as the lieutenant. So we'll save that for another time, when I'm sure I'll be able to decipher all the mysteries of the human soul. In the meantime, just make your kids read Harry Potter. Little League and piano lessons might not be a bad idea, either.

Here's three quick ones before I head off to court....

A man whose blood-alcohol level was three times the legal limit when his large SUV slammed into a car on Pacific Coast Highway, killing film director Robert Clark and his son, is scheduled to be sentenced today.

Clark directed numerous movies, including the holiday season standard "A Christmas Story" in 1983 and "Loose Cannons" in 1990. He also directed, wrote and produced the teen cult films "Porky's" and "Porky's II: The Next Day." His son studied music at Santa Monica College.

Elsewhere on dailynews.com, we have another story of street racing.

SUN VALLEY - A young man who had been taking part in a multi-vehicle street race suffered serious injuries today when he slammed a subcompact into a utility pole as he was being pursued by Highway Patrol officers in Sun Valley, police said.

The vehicle was totally destroyed, Dunnet said, adding that investigators are trying to determine whether the Civic had been stolen.

You'd think that with all the horrible news we've heard about racing in the street in the last week, they'd learn. Don't get me wrong, I'm a car guy and I understand the need to go fast, but not if it's going to endanger innocent people.

And finally, Mssrs. Bartholomew and Gutknecht offer us this package on cat hoarding gone horribly awry.

NORTHRIDGE - Los Angeles police Officer Jenny Potts crawled under a house Thursday through the refuse of 70 sick cats.

Armed with a search warrant, the task force arrested Ron Mason before 6 a.m. Thursday as he walked out to feed the cats.

Not the stolen ice cream
With all the drama as of late, I thought we could use something a little lighter. And, luckily, the always-entertaining folks over at the San Fernando Police Department happened to have something.

SAN FERNANDO — It seemed like a cool caper, but the case of the stolen ice cream cone left the perpetrator with a bitter aftertaste.
When Eric Dewayne Dennis, 39, ambled into the Baskin-Robbins on Maclay Avenue on Monday morning around 11:30 a.m., the San Fernando Police Department allege he had more than 31 flavors on his mind. The transient stepped up to the counter, ordered a triple — strawberry, in a cone.
But when the scooper rang up the $4.98 tab, Dennis allegedly declined to pay. He took off, cone in hand, the 20-year-old employee in hot pursuit.
“She had a little spunk to go after him,” said Detective Anthony Vairo. “She tried to recoup the cost of that ice cream cone.”

I'll hit you with a full link later on. Right now, I'm sorely in need of some dinner and quality time with my wife. Adios for now.

Robert Becerra
Here's the latest on the Simi shooting.

SIMI VALLEY -- Police formally identified Robert Becerra today as the gunman in a mysterious Tuesday shooting that left a customer dead and two workers at Tire Pros franchise wounded. Becerra, 29, of Simi Valley allegedly then took his own life with a shot to the head.

Becerra also got a speeding ticket this year on Feb. 14, but had no other criminal contact with the department.

Things are flying today, so here's a quick few posts on the May Day report, hopefully to be updated later. Bratton took responsibility and blamed poor communication for the mess-up.

Rachel and Mr. Orlov's main story about the LAPD's report is here

The LAPD's poor planning, weak leadership and disjointed communication led to the chaos that unfolded during the May Day melee at MacArthur Park between riot gear-clad officers, immigrants-rights protesters and the media, according to a scathing internal report released Tuesday.

"This is an event that I regret deeply. I accept full responsibility for it because it occurred on my watch," Los Angeles Police Department Chief William Bratton said. "My apologies to the men and women of the LAPD and to the public for the events of that day."

Rick's sidebar on the skepticism regarding the reforms has some tasty quotes.

MACARTHUR PARK - Watching her fellow students play softball during a quiet afternoon at MacArthur Park on Tuesday, 14-year-old Osmery Batrez recalled a much different scene at the park May 1.

"These riots are not an isolated thing," Batrez said. "It's been going on for years."

He also speaks to Jose Hernandez, a taco truck operator who knows his history. Hernandez isn't so keen on the idea to put names and serial numbers on officers' riot gear for ID purposes.

"You can put a number or a name on the helmet; they're still going to be the same," he said.

Elsewhere, the Times offers up their take.
Want the original thing? Here's the report in English and Spanish.

The Times takes a look at rent and taxes today, and not the kind paid for your apartment and on your 1040EZ form. Like many forms of gang crime, though it initially only affects a small slice of the population, it can spill over violently to hurt innocent folks unconnected to the business. Most recently, this had tragic consequences for a .

Sgt. Nichole Hanchett, San Fernando Police Department
When I first met Sgt. Hanchett a month or so ago, I was struck by the fact that she's unusually polite. So polite, in fact, that when I joined her on a ridealong, she even tried not to swear in front of me -- something most cops dispense with within the first five minutes of our introduction. And I don't mind, 'cause, hey, a little salty dialog may not play well in a good, family newspaper (or a good, family blog, for that matter), but it never hurt anyone.

Looks like the updated story revised the official number downward a bit to 28....

In the largest operation of its kind in the San Fernando Valley, 240 federal agents on Friday rounded up 29 foreign nationals belonging to more than a dozen gangs that prey on the immigrant community, officials said.

"The key thing is to recognize we're dealing with people with criminal histories," Schoch said. "They're really threatening our immigrant communities."

Full story's here.

Earlier, ICE comes knocking.

Southbound Sureno

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, working with the LAPD, mounted up early this morning to grab 37 non-citizens suspected of criminal involvement. Here's a quick bit from Dailynews.com, which I believe was a joint effort between Rick and Rachel. (He got the fun task of hitting the street at 6 a.m. alongside the cops).

In the continuing crackdown on illegal criminal immigrants, 37 foreign nationals face federal criminal charges or deportation following the second of two major enforcement operations within as many weeks by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement targeting aliens with ties to violent street gangs in the San Fernando Valley.

"The people targeted in these operations are career criminals who often prey on members of the immigrant community," said Robert Schoch, special agent in charge for the ICE office of investigations in Los Angeles. "We want to send a clear message to foreign national gang members that ICE intends to deal strongly with those who ignore our immigration laws and place our neighborhoods at risk."

If you're looking for more, check out the full story here.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Los Angeles office got a new head on Friday when the agency named Salvador Hernandez as Assistant Director in Charge. Hernandez, who comes from the Criminal Investigative Division, replaces the headquarters-bound J. Stephen Tidwell.

A Mexico City native who grew up in Missouri, Hernandez began his FBI career in 1984 and served in Phoenix, San Juan, Louisville and Oklahoma City. His assignments varied from tracking the Puerto Rican terrorist group known as the Macheteros to fighting white collar crime, public corruption and counterterrorism.

Hernandez, a St. Louis University graduate, earned a bachelor's in history in 1981 and a Juris Doctorate in 1984.

There were a couple of robberies overnight, the Los Angeles Police Department reports.

The first one occurred at 10:15 p.m. in the 5400 block of Cromer Place. Three men armed with a gun and a knife got into a man's car and held him up, police said. One pointed a gun at his head. Another man grabbed the victim from behind and held a knife to his throat and the other two demanded the victim’s property before taking off. The victim later returned, could not find his vehicle and believes it was stolen.

The second incident went down at midnight at Saticoy and Oso. Someone struck a man with an uknown object and possibly broke his skull. Three men were believed to have been involved and they took off with the
victim's property. The victim was taken to a local hospital.

The Los Angeles Police Department updated its Web site with notes from this week's Police Commission meeting.

• There are currently 364 recruits in the Academy. 55 cadets will graduate on Friday, October 12, 2007.

• The Police Commission heard a verbal update and discussion from the Department by Commander Jim Cansler relative to ongoing recruitment efforts. Commissioner Freeman requested additional information pertaining to the status of potential recruits in “the pipeline.”

• The Police Commission heard a verbal update and discussion from the Department by Commander Kirk Albanese relative to the process and methodology for deploying police resources.

• The Department's report, discussed by Deputy Chief Michel Moore, in response to City Council motion (Council File No. 07-2420), relative to deployment in the San Fernando Valley, was approved as amended in today's session.

• The Department's report, relative to a $118,545.00 grant agreement for the 2007-2008 Anti-Gang Initiative Program from the State of California, Office of Emergency Services, was approved.

• The Department's report, relative to additional funding in the amount of $41,610.00 for grant award amendment and modification to the 2006-2007 Law Enforcement Specialized Units Program for the period of June 30, 2007 to December 31, 2007, was approved.

• The Department's report, discussed by Erin Kinney, Captain Phillip Tingirides and Commander Rick Jacobs, relative to the Southeast Area Gang Enforcement Detail Command Accountability Performance Audit, was approved.

• The Department's report, discussed by Commander Rick Webb, relative to the Audit of the Tour of Duty for Professional Standards Bureau Investigators (AD No. 06-022), pursuant to Consent Decree Paragraph 99, was approved.

• The Department's report, relative to the Confidential Informant Control Package Audit, pursuant to the Annual Audit Plan, Fiscal Year 2007/2008, was approved.

• The Department's report, relative to Adjudication of Categorical Use of Force Incidents - Completion of Training Status report, was approved.

• The Department's report, discussed by Commander Rick Webb, in response to a Board request, relative to an update on the progress of Professional Standards Bureau's Racial Profiling investigations subsequent to the implementation of the new protocol, was continued for additional information. Commissioners Mack and Freeman asked that an independent analysis of cases conducted under the new protocol be performed by the Inspector General's office over a period of 45 days.

• The Department's report, discussed by Captain Kevin McClure, relative to the Hunter-La Ley Third Quarter and Fourth Quarter Reports for Deployment Periods 1 through 3, and 4 through 6, Fiscal Year 2006/2007, was approved.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies in the Lakewood station have been accused of engaging in a unique game of spirited competion - seeing who could make the most arrests, impound the most vehicles and question the most gang members in a 24-hour period, according to the Los Angeles Times in an article today. The deputies call it "Operation Any Booking." A Lakewood sheriff's Lt. James Tatreau, apparently wrote in an e-mail in August that the winner earns "bragging rights."

"No way, no how did anyone encourage officers to falsify a report or an arrest," he wrote in the e-mail, according to The Times.

Also there was "Operation Vehicle Impound," in July and another one that targeted gang members. Civil libertarians and attorneys are up in arms over the competitions. "It's crazy," said Jane White, the associate director of the National Center for Community Policing. "I'm at a loss for words. I've never heard of anything like this before." Sheriff Lee Baca said the competitions were well-meaning but ill-conceived, The Times wrote.

Rachel Uranga today has a good story about response times by police in Los Angeles, a city that historically has had a low number of officers and is one of the most sprawling cities in the country. The response times - the time it takes a cop to get to a crime scene after getting the call - have dropped by more than 30 percent, the police report. But the numbers of officers in the Valley has also dropped to its lowest level in four years, Rachel writes. The response times are at eight minutes, down from 12 minutes in 2003 and are still one minute above the goal of seven minutes, already met by the department's three other geographic bureaus.

Here's the rest of the story:

And though routine calls took 40 minutes to respond to and patrols were sparse, violent crime was down 2 percent in the Valley last year.

"I am ensuring that if the patrol plan is to have seven or eight units, that we don't fall below four," he said after the meeting. "It's a balancing act. On a rare occasion, we have gotten woefully small."

Councilman Dennis Zine, who two months ago demanded that the LAPD provide a detailed explanation of response times and daily deployment figures, said despite the explanation, he's not satisfied that the department has enough officers in the Valley bureau's six divisions.

"You don't have the numbers in geographic areas responding to needs in the Valley," Zine said.

"Where are the officers to reduce response times?" he asked rhetorically, pointing out that only 72 percent of the LAPD's uniformed officers - some 9,500 - are in regional bureaus.

And though the department provided an outline of deployment plans, LAPD Chief William Bratton said in a letter to the commission, "... It is not in the best interest of public safety to release our daily deployment information ..."

Zine believes that the LAPD is pulling much-needed patrol officers from their regular duty and placing them in specialized units or task forces favored by Bratton.

But LAPD officials said they have merely been shifting resources to where they are needed most, a hallmark of Bratton's strategy to decrease crime in violent areas.

In the Valley, gang crime is up 6 percent so far this year, but that rate has fallen dramatically from a 44 percent spike last year.

Earlier in the year, to combat crime, the LAPD created one of the very task forces that Zine has complained about. The violent-crime task force goes after gangs and criminals.

Though it is often credited with helping reduce gang violence, the department's use of motorcycle officers to bolster the task force has been blasted by Zine as making the streets more dangerous.

But Moore and other department leaders say there are constant trade-offs that must be made with, for instance, officers picking up a motel detail, serving on an auto theft task force or even working on the federal consent decree.

It is more efficient to pool resources to focus on a specific problem that will later generate work for uniformed officers, the report argues. For instance, the Registration Enforcement and Compliance Team, or REACT, has eight officers. The team cracks down on sex offenders and checks that they are registered with police. This, in turn, frees up other officers from this duty.

Moore insists the department will use overtime, officers from special task forces and any other available resources to ensure that the number of cars patrolling any Valley division does not fall below half of its recommended levels - 133 patrol units as of this month.

But that number is split among six divisions and three shifts. And under that calculation, as few as three patrol cars could be responsible for one Valley division.

Still, Moore said department manpower rarely falls that low. An analysis of July records - when Zine contended that the numbers of patrol units were dangerously low - showed that the Valley had about 118 of the 127 patrol units recommended on the street daily, he said.

And though response times have improved, the Van Nuys and Devonshire divisions still take an average of nine minutes to respond to emergency calls.

"I think we are getting our fair share," said civilian police Commissioner Alan Skobin, who is the liaison for the Valley. "But the fair share doesn't lead to a sufficient number of police officers that the city deserves."

Moore pointed out that the Valley - the department's largest division, with 1.3 million people living in its 221 square miles - has problems similar to the rest of the city.

"Are we stretched thin? Absolutely," he said, "but it's no different than anywhere in the city."

A man allegedly took a swipe at his girlfriend this morning, then threatened to kill himself when the LAPD came calling. They brought their heavy tactical trucks, an air unit and a bunch of scary-looking dudes in body armor. It tied up the street for a few hours, but ultimately turned out to be nothing when they coaxed him out with a little tear gas.
Just another fun day in Los Angeles...

From Dailynews.com

ENCINO - Police have taken a suicidal man accused of assaulting a woman into custody after an hours-long standoff on Burbank Boulevard this morning.

Detectives are currently investigating the incident and have not yet released the suspect's name.

Here's the crime story of the day, so far.

It wasn't the tasty Egg McMuffins that two Vineland Boys gangsters were after yesterday morning at the local McDonald's fast food restaurant. They had their eyes on the pair of $130 Nike Air Jordans worn by an unsuspecting man coming out of the restroom.

The men beat the 26-year-old victim, knocked him down, pulled off the blue and white tennis shoes, and then went on a mini crime spree before police caught up with them and took them into custody, police said. Nobody was seriously injured.

The drama began about 9:30 a.m. yesterday at the restaurant at Vineland Avenue and San Fernando Road. Carlos Silva, 20, and Edgar Lopez, 18, both documented members of the Vineland Boys gang, are accused of punching and kicking Tony Gudino as he came out of the McDonald's restroom and stealing his shoes, police said. Gudino was treated at a local hospital for bruises on his face and head and released.

After the attack the men then went to Sun Valley Park nearby, took a purse off a park bench, rifled through it and then when the owner's boyfriend grabbed it back, took a hammer out of a man's shopping cart and threatened him with it.

Read the rest here.

While rounding out the Saturday shift, Mr. Tong and I got into a great discussion about that classic of American crime cinema known as Point Break. Since I know all devoted readers of It's a Crime have already seen this great movie, with Special Agent Jonny Utah tracking the insidious gang of bank robbers known as "The Ex Presidents," I won't get into the specifics. If you haven't seen it, you owe it to yourself to do so as soon as possible. You can thank me later.

I will, however, direct your attention to this important fact that I located in the "goofs" section of the IMDB post.

Factual errors: While staking out the bank, Angelo (Gary Busey) reads the newspaper and makes a comment to the effect of, "That Calvin and Hobbes sure are funny!" However, it is evident that he is reading the Los Angeles Daily News, which did not carry Calvin and Hobbes.

Now that I know the Daily News played a role, I only appreciate this great film all the more. I mean, how can you go wrong with great dialog such as this?

Bodhi: It's basic dog psychology, if you scare them and get them peeing down their leg, they submit. But if you project weakness, that promotes violence, and that's how people get hurt.
Roach: Peace, through superior firepower.

From our sister paper, the Long Beach Press-Telegram, we offer you this flat-out bizarre story of a man, a cop, no clothes and an arrest.

LONG BEACH - The belligerent, naked man accused of assaulting a Long Beach police officer near a popular Westside delicatessen last week is a Los Angeles County probation officer, authorities said Friday.

Officials with the Los Angeles County Probation Department were unavailable to comment Friday, but Long Beach Police Cmdr. Laura Farinella confirmed that Walton was a "new probation officer" assigned to the Los Angeles area.

For the rest, click here.

I don't know what circumstances led to Mr. Walton's alleged adventure, but whatever the case, it sounds like he had one heck of a bad birthday.

While most of our posts on foolishly criminal behavior focuses on inept crooks, they sadly don't have a monopoly on dumbness. That, tragically, extends to members of law enforcement at times, as well. The Associated Press gives us this bit, out of Muncie, Indiana.

Prosecutors have filed two misdemeanor charges against a former police officer who authorities say crashed a squad car while showing off for three female college students riding with him.

Lyons, a six-year veteran of the police force, resigned this month after being suspended over the Aug. 28 crash along a street outside a Ball State University residence hall complex.

For the rest, visit Officer.com.

Here's an odd one for you, dear readers. Angie Valencia-Martinez and I teamed up on this story (and by teamed up, I mean that Angie did all the hard work and I sat in the relative comfort of my office chair and made phone calls) about a protest outside United Church of Christ in Simi Valley on Sunday. UCC's harboring a woman named Liliana as part of the New Sanctuary Movement and the anti-illegal immigration group Save Our State showed up to complain. No one got arrested and after three hours, both sides went home without much of an incident.

Here's the interesting twist: on Wednesday, the City of Simi Valley sent the church a bill for the use of the police. Save Our State met with the cops in advance to tell them of their protest plans, but neither side called 911 and it sounded like, as far as protests go, this was pretty mild.

Simi Valley's position is that the church invited the protest by proclaiming they were harboring the woman, so they should be responsible for whatever police costs come with the unwanted publicity. While I can see why they don't want to have to pick up the tab for either side of the protest's actions, this seems to be an unusual way of passing on the costs.

When people picket the Daily News (as they do, from time to time), we don't get a bill from the LAPD for publishing something that irritated our readers. As Simi residents have made quite clear, they don't want their city to become like Los Angeles, but it does seem like there's some legal issues involved here that aren't so cut-and-dry. I guess we'll see in coming weeks how the church responds and who ends up forking over the $40k the city wants to charge.

City officials are getting serious about graffiti in the Valley area, and they're getting pretty high tech. Kinda like a mini-me version of RoboCop, small cameras have been put up in the middle of the Valley to tell taggers to step away from the wall and leave the area, that according to a story written by our colleague Alex Dobuzinskis. It's called the FlashCam. It's solar-powered and not only talks using a recorded voice, but shines a light on you. Whoa! The city is putting three new FlashCam cameras in Councilwoman Wendy Greuel's East Valley district, where graffiti crews' work has tripled this year. She is putting up $35,000 in matching funds to help buy an additional 10, with residents and businesses expected to put up another $35,000 to buy those cameras. dailynews.com

There were a couple of significant events that occurred over the weekend, the Los Angeles Police Department reports. On Friday just before 2 p.m. a guy was shot in the leg in the 14700 block of Burbank Boulevard in Van Nuys. Apparently, the suspect and the victim had been arguing when the suspect retrieved a revolver from an unknown location and fired a round into the victim’s lower left leg. The victim was transported to Valley Presbyterian.

On Sunday, police took a report of a burglary. The crime occurred at 9:30 a.m. in the 7200 block of Matilija Avenue. The victim and his daughter were at home when the daughter heard noises near a window. She told her father, who came into the living room, as the suspect entered the house through the unlocked front door. The suspect looked at the victims and said he was looking for someone else and fled in unknown direction. When the victim looked outside the house, he found the screen to a window had been pried off the frame.

Wednesday night was a lovely evening to be out and about, unless you had a warrant out for your arrest. As the early fall sky, clear and pretty, spread out in a gorgeous sunset, the San Fernando Police Department set out to spoil the relaxation for folks who'd run afoul of the law.

On their list of the accused: a scamster who had some outstanding traffic warrants, a felony drunk driver, a perjurer, a vandal, a hit-and-run driver and the wife of an alleged drug dealer.

As promised, Rick's got the updated news on the BHS shooting arrests.

VAN NUYS - Police arrested two gang members Friday on suspicion of shooting a man Monday outside a restaurant near Birmingham High School, authorities said.

Montes, a North Hollywood resident, and the other man arrested, Walter Oswaldo Guerra, 18, of Van Nuys are both members of the Mara Salvatrucha gang, police said.

For the full story and a map, click here to read the rest at Dailynews.com.

Rita Chiang, 53, enjoyed a 21-year-career with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but fell under suspicion of spying for the Chinese. On Jan 12, 2002, the feds took her badge and gun and kicked her out of the West LA office at the Federal Building on Wilshire Blvd. Accused of being a mole for Chinese intelligence, she failed a polygraph test but was cleared when her supervisor was accused of leaking the info, instead.

Though she later returned to work, Chiang said the incident ruined her career. According to a story that crossed the wire today, she now believes she was the victim of discrimination.

Rick's on the scene as we speak, but here's a quick link to Jason's early post on the arrest of two Mara Salvatrucha members for a pair of shootings near Birmingham High School in Van Nuys.

Here's the top:

In that shooting, a 23-year-old man was shot in the leg and elbow by two Latino males who approached him as he sat at a Jack In The Box Restaurant on Vanowen Street, just east of Balboa Boulevard, near Birmingham High School, said LAPD Sgt. Teresa Wilson.

Read the rest at DailyNews.com and we'll try to get ya more as soon as we can.

A former sheriff's deputy convicted of killing his wife was sentenced this morning to 25 years to life in prison. dailynews.com

Our colleague Pat Aidem out of Santa Clarita had a fascinating piece today about the arrest of an accused rapist of two women who were held at knifepoint in their homes. The arrest of Adrian Arriano, 29, twice deported to his native Mexico, sent jitters through one of America's safest cities. He was arrested after allegedly trying to break into a Newhall woman's apartment. DNA evidence is being processed, with results due in two weeks. dailynews.com

Man, three posts on the Sheriff's Department in one day! Fake deputies, heroic deputies and, now, finally, donating deputies. Our colleague Mr. Anderson down in the county office delved into who gave what to Lee Baca and found that the claims by the Association of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs hold up numerically.

Long under fire as the "sheriff to the stars," Lee Baca now faces accusations from his deputies that most of the officers he promoted to his command staff contributed to his political campaigns.

A Daily News analysis of promotion and campaign-contribution records bear out the claim.

Baca's spokesman says it's just political posturing, but local government observers say it's a little odd.

Click here here to read more.

And speaking of sheriff's deputies (real, actual ones, not the sort described in Jason's earlier post the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department honored its most noteworthy deputies last night in a ceremony at Dodger Stadium. We've just got the names of those honored, not the circumstances, but we'll try to get those up sometime soon...

Here's the list provided by LASD:
Sheriff’s Department’s Meritorious Conduct Medal-Silver:
Deputy Dion Ingram
Deputy Adam Kirste
Deputy Omar Miranda
Deputy Kelly Simon
Deputy Miguel Valencia

Meritorious Conduct Medal-Gold:
Deputy David Rowe

Medal of Valor:
Deputy Russell Helbing
Deputy Joseph Iberri
Deputy Corey Morning

I could hear the anger in principal Marsha Coates voice when I spoke to her Tuesday. The day before, there had been a shooting at the Jack in the Box across the street. A 23-year-old man had been hit in the leg and a reporter had been calling Birmingham High School, wanting to know what she knew about the shooting.

Police say there were at least a dozen students at the restaurant at the time and many were afraid of retaliation, unwilling to talk to uniformed officers.

Coates had been through the drill before. In September 2006, a 16-year-old boy was killed outside Birmingham High during a gunfight with two other teenagers.

By the time I got ahold of the educator, she was just exasperated. She said she was sick of her high school being portrayed as that one where there are all those shootings or dropouts.

She rightly pointed out that Sylmar, Monroe and other Valley schools are grappling with the same problem -- gangs. And she asked why Mayor Antonino Villaraigosa wasn't doing more to address the rampant gang problem in the Valley so she could focus on her job -- educating.

Well, on Wednesday Villaraigosa announced that his office would be tracking violence around schools but only in areas designated gang reduction zones.

Birmingham is not in one of those zones.

Arleta and San Fernando high schools are, as are MacClay Junior High School and Pacoima Middle School. Coates is going to have to wait, along with dozens of other Valley schools.

Two gang members have been charged in a January driveby killing that left a 17-year-old rival dead. Edilberto Olivares, 19, of North Hollywood and Mardoqueo Guevara, 23, were being held at the Los Angeles County Jail on murder charges in connection with the Jan. 31 slaying of Daniel Martinez.

Kristina Ripatti and Tim Pearce

After a year of following Kristina, Tim and their large, boisterous and great bunch of friends and relatives around, I don't know what more to say. I've barged my way into far more of their lives than I ever expected, seen them ride the rollercoaster up, down, through the dark curves and into the thrilling light. While I don't like getting emotionally invested in my stories, it was hard not to with them. I don't think I'm editorializing too much to say that they're incredible people.

Grumble, grumble, grumble... no reporter ever likes to admit this, but I've got to give credit to Howard Blume of the LA Times for beating me with his take on the LAPD Hollywood rescue story. When compared with mine he's got a lot richer detail, including the alleged attempted murder weapon: olive oil.

Damn, I wish I'd been there to get that bit. Oh well, hats off to you this time, Mr. Blume, and next time around, we hope to beat y'all. Well done.

HOLLYWOOD — A scream for help on Saturday morning turned into a dramatic rescue that sent five cops to the hospital, a woman to the hospital and a man to jail.
Around 10:35 a.m., patrol officers from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Hollywood station received a call of a woman screaming in distress at 839 Fuller Ave. They arrived at the two-story, 10-unit apartment building and found a ground-floor apartment ablaze, with a shaken woman outside.
Officers Eric Perez and Officer Ricardo Oliva were first on the scene, followed by Carrie Chang and John Engels. Sgt. Sal Ogaz also rushed to the blaze.

But every once in a while you hear about these kinds of stories where the thief shows up to the crime scene after committing the crime. Well, here's one of those, allegedly - a little higher profile than many because of who the victim was. A 50-year-old homeless man was arrested at the same location he is accused of burglarizing over two weeks ago - the offices of Congressman Xavier Becerra on Sunset Boulevard in West Los Angeles, a detective said this morning. dailynews.com

The second suspect wanted in the stabbing death of Daniel Edward Koch has been arrested. On a tip, cops found him camping on Isla Vista near the University of California, Santa Barbara. A cop was passing out fliers and apparently someone said they saw him camping on the beach. L.A. police went up late last night, early this morning to bring Justin Thalheimer into Los Angeles County custody. Here's the latest scoop. dailynews.com

In case you missed it yesterday afternoon, here's the latest on the Porter Ranch park stabbing that occurred over the weekend of Aug. 25-26. I found out by searching through arrest reports that one of the two men wanted in connection was arrested for possession of a heroin needle sometime after the killing, released and then arrested later in connnection with the slaying.

Here's the story I wrote yesterday.

NORTHRIDGE - An 18-year-old Northridge man accused in the grisly park stabbing death of a 33-year-old homeless man was arrested in the hours after the murder in connection with possession of a heroin needle, but was released.

The suspect was arrested later on murder charges in West Los Angeles after trying to run from police.

Quinn Alexander Marez, a student, was arrested at 7 p.m. on Aug. 26 on the possession charge at his Northridge home, about seven hours after police found the bloodied body of Daniel Edward Koch laying face down in a creek. Marez was released from custody on that misdemeanor offense the next day on a written promise to appear in court.

Police said that when he was released on the misdemeanor charge Marez was a "person of interest" in the murder investigation, although they wouldn''t give specifics about the time line, said Los Angeles Police Lt. Tom Murrell. At some point, they said they had witnesses who could identify the men as suspects.

Police believe Marez and another man, Justin Thalheimer, 18, of Northridge, stabbed Koch after an argument late Aug. 25 or early Aug. 26 at Limekiln Canyon Park. The three apparently knew each other and had been drinking when an argument broke out, police said.

Police arrested Marez at 10 p.m. Tuesday after spotting him get off a bus in West Los Angeles. He was booked on suspicion of murder into the Los Angeles County Jail with bail set at $1 million. Prosecutors filed murder charges against him today. A judge issued an arrest warrant for Thalheimer, who is on the run.

At the time of Marez's arrest on Tuesday, he was out on bail in a case from July. He was due to appear in a Van Nuys courtroom yesterday to face charges of driving without the owner's consent, receiving stolen property, and narcotics possession, according to the court. A warrant was issued for his arrest when he did not show up in that case because the court was apparently not aware that he was already in custody in connection with the murder case.

Chicago Police Department Officer Thaddeus Martyka was on the hunt for expired meters and double parkers when a bullet zinged through the air. He slammed his Segway into gear and engaged. He doggedly pursued the man, hitting top end at 12.5 mph. The chase ended with the suspect, wanted for shooting a man in the buttocks, in cuffs and a .25-caliber pistol logged as evidence. The Chicago Tribune has the story, with a link from Police One.

I know LAPD's looked at using the scooters in the past, so perhaps the wheels-vs-feet pursuit will provide 'em with a little insight about their usefulness.

I ran across a crime fiction blog this morning called Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind and found it to be quite enjoyable. Therein, I discovered what may be the best quote of all time:
"When I got up, I realized, my God, I don't have any pants."

That gem comes to us courtesy of Mr. Mark Stahnke, the subject of this excellent post. It seems that Mr. Stahnke, a Waukesha, Wisconsin native, got loaded in a local bar and divested himself of his trousers. Unfortunately for him, the pockets of the aforementioned trousers contained a couple hundred bucks in cash and a cashier's check for $41,093. He filed a police report and miraculously got it all back, including the missing pants.

Here's a link to the original AP post.

Now perhaps it's just because that check amounts to almost my entire yearly earnings, but if I had that much dough on me, check or otherwise, there is no way in hell my pants are going anywhere without me in them. Perhaps Stahnke should have kept check in his shoe, which he managed to keep on as his slacks sailed off.

LAPD Officer Will Beall

When LA Rex came out last fall, I read it and thought, "hey, this dude's got some style.... he's crazy, but he can put a nice sentence together." As it turns out, I didn't know half of it, on either point. As I looked into writing a story on him, I found that not only is he really crazy, he's got some mad style, too.

Lt. Tony Ruelas
As astute It's a Crime readers could probably surmise from the increase in San Fernando PD posts in recent weeks, we've been spending a lot of time getting to know the folks over there. They're definitely an interesting bunch. Today's piece tells their story, or at least a slice of it.

Here's a little of the back story on how the piece came together...

Detective Anthony Vairo, center, prepares the SFPD raid team for entry to a suspected drug dealer's home.
SAN FERNANDO _ The cops shifted around, loading and checking their guns, joking with each other as the sun splayed out across the Thursday morning sky. The colors above them shifted from grey to silver to yellow to baby blue as they zipped their protective vests and strapped on helmets.

"If these guys resist or give you problems, I have no problem with you using force," said Lt. Tony Ruelas, the San Fernando Police Department's commander of detectives. "Some guy resists, says 'F--- you,' take him down. All right, now just for S&G, let's pretend Bill takes a hit. What do we do?"

Police today sought two men in connection with a brutal stabbing of a 33-year-old homeless man whose body was found in a creek Sunday afternoon. dailynews.com

A former county employee leading an effort to recall Sheriff Lee Baca based on his handling of Paris Hilton's jail sentence has resigned. A statement Monday from The Committee to Recall Lee Baca said Andrew Ahlering's decision to step down was based on "threats to his safety." washingtonpost.com

The Los Angeles Police Department launched its end-of-the-summer raids in North Hollywood on Friday.

More than 150 officers from the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, Los Angeles Unified School District Police, Burbank Police Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, California Department of Corrections and Los Angeles County Probation focused on gangs and tagging crews linked to criminal activity in the North Hollywood and Sun Valley communities.

The operation went down at 6 a.m.

The cops served probation and parole compliance checks, arrest and warrant searches at 58 locations. A dozen people were arrested, including four juveniles. The gangs and tagging crews targeted were the Vineland Boys, 18th Street, North Hollywood Locos, North Hollywood Boys and Clanton (C-14).

18th Street is listed as one of the department's top targeted gangs.

Cops recovered three firearms, two machetes, narcotics including methamphetamine and marijuana, and several shaved keys that are believed to be used to steal cars.

Cops also say they seized a wealth of intelligence on gang activity in the eastern corner of the Valley.

The raids come as police report that gang-related crimes have increased in North Hollywood by 24 percent over last last year to date. In a recent four-week period, police in North Hollywood reported a 54.5 percent drop.

As of July 30, gang crime in the Valley is up 5.9 percent, a total of 47-additional crimes. While gang homicides are down 4.3 percent -- 22 through July 30 compared to 23 during the same time period last year -- some of the increase in gang crime can be attributed to more assaults against cops. This time last year, there had been seven; so far this year there have been 22, an increase of over 200 percent.

Through Aug. 18 crime is down 1.7 percent. That includes a 24 percent reduction in homicides - 42 compared with 55.

Cops say that gang crime accounts for 22 percent of of all crime in the Valley.

This is still developing, but cops were out in force this morning in predawn raids across the San Fernando Valley, a task force of police is cracking down this morning on gang members, career criminals, parolees and probationers in "Operation Heatwave." dailynews.com

Here are a couple of interesting cop stories I found this morning that will get your day started off.

• Police are investigating whether two more hospitals may have dumped patients on Skid Row. AP via kfwb.com

  
  

• Former Deputy U.S. Marshal Richard Carl Eaton, a Burbank resident, was arrested Saturday on suspicion of passport fraud. burbankleader.com

Two guys apparently Jonesn' for a fix of OxyContin and Dilaudid held up a drugstore on Aug. 11. The problem was that they were being filmed by a store surveillance camera and now cops are looking for folks to help identify the men.

The drama began Saturday, around 11:40 a.m., when the men, described as black entered the AD-RX Pharmacy at 6240 Wilshire Boulevard. They walked past the front counter to the rear of the business. One man, armed with a gun, confronted three employees and then demanded the name brand pharmaceutical drugs OxyContin and Dilaudid. When workers informed the suspect that the drugs were not available, he pistol-whipped two of the employees.

The second suspect was not armed and served as a lookout.

The suspects stole Vicodin and Tylenol 3 before fleeing the pharmacy.

The first suspect was in his 40s, 5'7" tall, 200 pounds, with a light complexion. The second suspect was in his 30s, 5'10" tall, 170 pounds, also with a light complexion.

The store employees received minor injuries and did not require hospitalization.

Anyone with information is asked to call Wilshire Robbery Detectives at (213) 922-8205. On weekends and during off-hours, phone the 24-hour toll-free Detective Information Desk at
1-877-LAW-FULL (877-529-2855).

LAPD's vice squad snapped up 17 guys and gals while targeting hookers on my home street of Sepulveda Boulevard on Friday night. I've never been so glad to have been out of town.

And the johns weren't John Does, either. Wanna read the names of the accused? Oh, come on, you know you do: click here to see the official news release, complete with the names and communities of the folks who got caught.

A convicted sex offender wanted for questioning in connection with the disappearance of an Orange County college student is in Los Angeles police custody in on an unrelated charge. Police said that 35-year-old John Burgess was the last person seen with 19-year-old Donna Jou on the night that she vanished. knbc.com

The San Fernando Police Department detective squad was out looking for a gun floating around the community and hassling a few punk taggers on Friday when someone dropped a dime. A guy named Jaime was selling dope out of a converted garage over on Kewen Street near Workman.

Three Crown Vics rolled up and the officers poured out, surprising the suspect as he worked on his car in the driveway. Jaime, an average looking guy with a white undershirt, blue shorts and filthy hands stood up, something black and metallic in his palm.

A Los Angeles police officer fatally shot a man Thursday night after he tried to choke another officer. latimes.com

Man, it's been a busy day for Mr. Tong, who generally covers much more subdued territory in Glendale and Burbank. In addition to heading to the scene of the triple fatal, he also picked up the Sylmar bank robbery.

From the story, the scene went something like this:

The woman, described to be in her 40s, was allegedly armed with a handgun as she exited a Bank of America branch in the 13500 block of Foothill Boulevard when she was confronted by two officers, said Michel Moore, LAPD Deputy Chief.

The woman suffered a gunshot wound to the head and died at the scene, said Mike Bowman, Los Angeles Fire Department Battalion Chief.

Gary Owen was leaving an Italian restaurant next to the bank as police arrived and quickly blocked the driveway, trapping Owen in the restaurant parking lot. Owen, 55, said he heard about a dozen shots.

"It was just bam-bam-bam-bam," said Owen, a Hesperia resident.

Audio slideshow by Hans Gutknecht and Carla Acevedo here.

San Fernando's usually a pretty quiet town, with little in the way of the violent crime that mars surrounding parts of the Northeast Valley. It's only had one shooting this year, but that was enough to get the City Council riled up earlier this week.

On July 2, a suspected gang member showed up in San Fernando and got into a beef with some locals. He disappeared for a few hours and returned to the 1100 block of Kewen Street slightly before 10 p.m. He lurked next to a dumpster, then popped out and drew down on two guys walking home from a nearby store.

A SWAT standoff in the parking lot of a Taco Bell ended early this morning with the arrest of a suspected car thief who was found sleeping in a stolen car with a realistic looking pistol sitting on the passenger seat. dailynews.com

Police Commissioners got a run down of crime reduction goals and an overview of recruits and recruiting numbers during yesterday's Police Commission meeting at Parker Center.

Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton wants to bring crime down another 5 percent this year, a Police Commission report noted. The chief also reported that the second recruit class for fiscal year 2007-2008 has 51 recruits. The ethnic breakdown is 2 percent African American, 51 percent Latino, 8 percent Asian, 4 percent Filipino, and 35 percent white. Twelve percent are female and 88 percent are male. There are currently a total of 398 recruits in the Academy. On August 17, 2007, 60 recruits will graduate.

Here's more:

• The Department hiring goal for fiscal year 2007-2008 is 780 recruits. The Department hired 731 recruits in fiscal year 2006-2007 and 545 recruits in fiscal year 2005-2006.

• At the August 14, 2007 Police Commission weekly meeting, the Department will make a presentation on deployment, including a section featuring deployment in the San Fernando Valley. Chief Bratton stated that, if the Valley were viewed separately from the rest of Los Angeles, it would rank #11 on the list of the nation's biggest cities. Furthermore, it would rank #2 on the list of the nation's safest big cities. The Valley, which is similar in size to Chicago and has far less police officers, is actually safer than Chicago.

• The Executive Director reported that negotiations with IBM for the in-car video cameras are still in progress.

• The Executive Director reported that a representative from the City Attorney's office will make a presentation on the Safer Cities Initiative at the August 14, 2007 Police Commission weekly meeting.

• The Department's report, relative to approving a $480,000 grant award entitled, "Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act (JJCPA) Program," for the period of July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008, was approved.

• The Department's report, and the Inspector General's report, relative to the Complaint, Form 1.28, Investigations Audit-Phase II, Third Quarter, Fiscal Year 2006/2007, in accordance with the Annual Audit Plan, was approved.

• The Department's report, and the Inspector General's report, relative to the Ethics Enforcement Section Quarterly Report, First Quarter 2007, in accordance with the Annual Audit Plan, was approved.
  

Officer David Hance, of the LAPD's 77th Street Station got himself arrested on fraud and receiving stolen property charges today. We've got a little bit here and hope to provide more details later on.

Elsewhere: LAPD Blog.
Previously, in Hance's neck of the woods:
Solving Murders in 77th - Why They Put on the Badge
The neon lights aren't so bright on the Broadway -- Another trip to 77th

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's effort to put his affair with a local Telemundo reporter behind him backfired this morning when a Port of Los Angeles police officer protecting him shoved a Spanish-language reporter against a steel container.

Ooops!

There's some great footage on KNBC.

From my story:

As a crowd of reporters pushed forward toward the mayor, Azteca America reporter Alicia Unger ran toward the gate. As she approached, a port police officer pushed her against the steel container.
"He pushed me with his hand, pushed me against the container, slammed me there," she said.
"The whole media was trying to interview the mayor but security is not allowing us and I think they are violating our rights once again," she said, referring to the Los Angeles Police Department's violent confrontation with the members of the media and the public during a May 1st immigration rights rally at MacArthur Park. Sgt. Ken Hawkes of the Port of Los Angeles police said the agency will launch an internal investigation into the officer's actions.

Rachel's got a touching piece today with a better look at the lives of Det. George Selleh and Officer David Rodriguez. Check it out here and, if you knew the officers and would like to share your memories, click either post above and pass along what they meant to you.

UPDATE, 7 p.m., 7/31: The Los Angeles Police Protective League emailed the statement below regarding both officers.

Yesterday must have been rough for the chief, who lost his mother, June, and two officers in off-duty accidents. From dailynews.com, here's a short story.

The Los Angeles Police Department announced today that Chief William Bratton's mother died in Boston.

June Bratton was 80 years old.

"It is with profound regret that I share with you the unfortunate news that the mother of our chief of police ... passed away early yesterday morning after an extended illness," Assistant Chief Earl Paysinger said.

Besides her son, she is survived by her husband, William, to whom she was married for 60 years, a daughter, Patricia Bratton, three sisters, two grandsons and several nieces and nephews.

As with Det. Selleh and Officer Rodriguez, we offer our condolences to the chief and his family.

As an update from yesterday's post, we learned the name of the second officer killed in an off-duty traffic accident on Sunday. Today's piece identifies him as Officer David Rodriguez. He grew up in North Hollywood, then went onto patrol its streets. After four years on the force, he'd recently joined the gang enforcement detail and was remembered as a popular officer who doted on his mother.
From Rachel's piece:
"She was just devastated, said North Hollywood Capt. Sharyn Buck, who spoke with Rodriguez's mother. "He took care of her. He did everything for her. He was her life."

He balanced his tenderness at home with a tough, energetic presence at work. The Times added this detail:
"He is the hardest working officer I know," said Officer Tim Bohac, who partnered with Rodriguez for 2 1/2 years. "He wasn't one to sit around and wait for things to happen."
Bohac said his former partner was a formidable 6 feet 2 and weighed 270 pounds.
"He was the brawn, and I was the runner," Bohac said. "Hopefully, no one was going to mess with us because of his size, but if they took off running it was my job to catch him."

Our condolences go out to both the Rodriguez and Selleh families. Anyone who knew either of them, please send us your remembrances so that we can share their stories with our readers.

More tragic news for the Los Angeles Police Department. According to this update, a second LAPD officer died just miles away from Det. Selleh in an unrelated crash. More details when we've got them.

It's always a shame to lose a cop, whether they're on duty or otherwise. Det. George Selleh, known to his friends and family as Mike, died this morning in a multi-car crash on the 101 on the way to work. We hope to have more information later, but in the meantime, click below to read the full story.

Also, if any readers knew Det. Selleh and would like to share their memories of him, please post them here or email us using the box at the left so that we can tell his story for those he left behind. Thank you and please accept our sincere condolences.

Not many jobs involve putting on shorts and flip flops and showing up with bourbon as perfume. But, as Jason shares with us today, a fake drunk cop cruised Chatsworth and Northridge to nab illegal intoxicant peddlers. It's a funny story _ unless you were tending bar at the Hot Tomato.

These five guys don't wear badges, but, like the Cops of Baghdad, they're just about the toughest law enforcement officers you could ever imagine. Four of them suffered terrible injuries while patrolling abroad, but they're still pushing their bodies to compete.

Click here or read on below to learn about Team Semper Fi.

Councilman Dennis Zine

The war over the war on drugs continued along its usual lines of "this is a federal crime" versus "leave it up to the locals" on Wednesday when City Councilman Dennis Zine proposed a moratorium on new medical marijuana dispensaries here in Los Angeles. In return for greater local scrutiny, he asked for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to back off on its raids on the shops.

The DEA, however, had other ideas. Several hours after Zine announced he'd sent the letter asking the feds to leave local pot clinics alone, the DEA raided 10 local shops, arrested five people, seized two guns, a bunch of drugs and cash.

Click below to read the tale Kerry Cavanaugh and I will have in manana's paper.

weed

As I keep building this much-delayed officer profile I blogged about a few weeks back, I took another drive down to 77th the other day and met some more interesting cats. The station's new and comfortable, and compared to, say, the Daily News offices, it's bright and attractive.

The streets outside, however, are not so pleasant.

Just about every time I've set foot in a police station, cops remind me of the unusual hoops they have to jump through as a result of the federal consent decree. Some seem innocuous, like filling out a report of what they plan to do each night, others, like a lengthy, complicated procedure for documenting their confidential informants seem onerous. I don't know enough about the particulars to make judgment, aside from the observation that most of the officers I've met seem less than thrilled with it.

But while I'm not as schooled on the particulars as I hope to become, guest columnist Robert C.J. Parry has spent plenty of time parsing the numbers. I used to talk to him as a business reporter when he was doing PR for a local chain of stereo shops and while I don't always agree with him, have always found him to be an interesting, thoughtful guy. He weighed in with a centerpiece column on Sunday in the Daily News and I thought I'd post it (late) on the blog.

(I'm not sure how long op-eds remain on our Web site, so you can either read on below or click the link above).

British police have a new plan to augment their extensive array of cameras: mounting them on cops themselves. Read on in this AP story in the Daily News to see all the details of this program. British cops already use a network of 4 million cameras to keep tabs on the nation, which they use in for everything from anti-terror operations to controlling rascally soccer fans.

Let's hope for the sake of the people who review the tapes that the officers are able to turn the cameras off when they visit the loo.

LAPD Detective Ronald Cade had a rough night at home on July 2, 2006, according to court testimony presented today. Yolanda, his wife of one month at the time, allegedly angry over suspected infidelity, shot him with his own gun, then packed her teenaged kids and grandchild into the family's SUV and tried to run Cade down. He survived. The 39-year-old woman is facing three counts of attempted murder and two counts of child abuse and 70 years to life in prison.

Read more, courtesy of our gifted young colleague Brandon Lowrey.

More than eight years after rogue cop Rafael Perez painted a picture of widespread police misconduct at the LAPD and mired the department in scandal, the agency is still paying the price.

The city has shelled out millions in lawsuits and the department is still struggling to get out from under a federal consent decree.

Among the decree's mandates is a complex system that monitors police behavior. It's called TEAMS II.

About three months ago, the department finally got the multi-million dollar system up and running.

And guess what?

The department has identified 1,000 separate incidents of unusual police behavior. The behavior isn't necessarily bad though. LAPD officials say officers who get more commendations will get flagged, as will officers who use excessive force more often than their peers.

Crime victims that want to take a look at their crime reports have to pay the LAPD $23 and have a lot of patience.

It takes an average of 56 days for the department to process requests. Tim Riley, who oversees information technology for the department, blames the long wait on staffing shortages. Normally, 58 clerks and typists handle the barrage of requests --about 6,000 a month. But with a tight budget, they are down to 37 employees and there is no immediate relief in sight.

Alan Skobin, the LAPD commissioner who represents the San Fernando Valley, says it's the number one complaint he hears from residents.

"It's very frustrating," he said. "We need to put a lot more focus on the level of service."

This isn't strictly law enforcement, in a lot of ways, soldiers are our cops abroad. Sgt. Giann Carlo Joya-Mendoza was one such cop and he died in the line of duty last week in South Baghdad. His patrol came under attack with an IED and small arms fire, claiming the lives of four other soldiers. His family got his body home on Wednesday, what would have been his 28th birthday.

The full story follows below.

Chris Weinkopf also gets into a thoughtful, related discussion at Friendly Fire.

Happy Friday. Click below for the day's crime news. And thanks for reading.

The Christian Science Monitor writes a profile today of Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton. The paper asks how its possible to reform a department with a history of confrontations with the suspects and others, a "warrior style police culture," with the latest example being the May 1 melee that left at least 32 people, including reporters, injured. Bratton says there are too few cops patrolling a sprawling city that allows cops to swoop into neighborhoods in patrol cars only when there's trouble and don't really get an opportunity to get to know its residents. Changing that culture is Bratton's biggest challenge.

The unofficial motto here is, 'too few who for too long have been asked to do too much with too little,' he says.

csmonitor.com

While a Los Angeles police officer was trying to restrain a fleeing thief, she accidentally hit the suspect in the head with her radio, police said, prompting a use of force investigation against the officer. No one was seriously hurt. From lapdblog.com:

On Sunday afternoon a Los Angeles man was arrested after fleeing from police.

On July 1, 2007 at about 2:30 PM, Hollywood Division officers responded to a possible "Theft Suspect" at a laundry mat located at 6707 Santa Monica Boulevard. The officers stopped a male, later identified as suspect Curtis Jackson, who was loitering in front of a 7-11 store in the same mini-mall as the laundry mat. During their encounter, the suspect provided the officers with his identification.

When Officer Gallegos broadcast a warrant check on the suspect, Jackson spontaneously stated, "I got warrants" and ran away from the officers. A short foot pursuit ensued, resulting in Jackson and the officers on the ground.

While struggling with Jackson, using body weight and firm grips, Officer Gallegos inadvertently struck Jackson in the head with her police radio resulting in a Use of Force. The officers eventually gained control of Jackson and took him into custody.

It was later determined that Jackson was wanted on an outstanding felony and misdemeanor warrants.

Jackson was treated and released at a local hospital for minor contusions that were unrelated to the head strike.

Police Officer Ivana Gallegos, 36, 13 years with the Department and Police Officer Cory French, 24, 9 months with the Department.

Both officers received medical treatment for minor cuts, bruises and scratches and were later released.

Forced Investigation Division is handling the investigation.

Click below for the day's crime news.

Los Angeles Police Officer Brian Gossh called the misdemeanor DUI charges he faces "ridiculous," said he doesn't drink and blew 0.00 in a Breathalyzer test. He's considering filing a wrongful arrest lawsuit against the LAPD. dailynews
Updated at 12:20 p.m.

Click below for crime news.

The Los Angeles Police Department blog today updates the story of the officer who shot a dog the other night in Sylmar. The officer involved is identified as Landon Summey, a 25-year-old, who has worked for the LAPD for three years. He got bit in the back of the leg before he killed the dog. lapdblog
Earlier

The stories that usually make news day-to-day fall under an old phrase man bites dog. Well, today read the spin on that, "Dog bites cop - Cop shoots dog." dailynews

The story has elicited a few reader comments. One woman named, Crystal, writes:

As always, pepper spray should have been tried first. I highly doubt this Labrador/Rottie mix bit that idiot hard enough to cause any damage. This cop just isn't capable of thinking before reacting. They were in a poor/minority neighborhood, so what do you expect from them?

Another reader, calling him or herself, oH sHuD UP aLREADY, counters:

And how exactly do you know that pepper spray was not used? Right, the racist behind every tree hysteria rear its foolish head again. BTW, what would you do if a rottie mix was attacking you?....Cry about racism and suggest useless measures to repel the attack, whilst the dog locks onto your hand........

A third reader calling him or herself, Just a thought, writes:

Why was the dog out? Was it sent out to Attack? Keep your dogs on a leash because unleashed dogs are a threat to life and lethal force Can and Will be used.

Thank you for reading. Glad to see the story is getting read. And I enjoy the debate. Because of the ongoing investigation, I wasn't able to get a whole lot more than what I wrote today, but stay tuned.

Click below for a full plate of crime news.

Click below for the surreal, the grim, the wacky crime news of the day.

The daughter of a retired LAPD officer, author Ann Patchett writes in Sunday's Washington Post Magazine about her struggle to get into the LAPD's Police Academy. Her new novel, Run, will be published in September and is about the department.

Inspired by the 1992 riots, Patchett said she wanted to understand why people are motivated to become cops.

Ted Koppel and then-police chief Daryl Gates were picking through the rubble of South Central Los Angeles. They were talking about the riots and Rodney King.

"There's a guy who did some good things for the city and some bad things," my father said about Gates. "But all that's over. Now he'll only be remembered for this."

My father had retired from the LAPD two years before. With Koppel and Gates in the background, we fell into a conversation about how the police force had been portrayed so often over the decades and yet was so rarely understood. Somewhere in my brain, a little light bulb switched to bright: I decided to write a book about the LAPD.

"You want to be a cop?" my father asked. Even with two books behind me, he still felt I lacked a professional calling.

"Not at all. Not even a little bit. I want to understand why other people want to be cops."

They went out there looking for love but found cold hard handcuffs instead. Fourteen men were arrested in a John's sting on Lankershim Boulevard and Neenach Street, in Sun Valley. This was a case in which undercover female police officers posed as prostitutes on the street and arrested violators who stopped and solicited them for sex. They also got their cars seized by the City Attorney's Office.
lapdblog

Click below for this morning's latest crime news ...

To honor two of their own, LAPD officers will tee up today at a tournament at Montebello Golf Course. Organized to raise money for the children of paralyzed officers Kristina Ripatti and Enrique Chavez, event organizers expect as many as 144 entrants to play.

Click below for a full plate of crime news this morning.

Click below for your morning dose of crime news to get your day started.