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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.
A Vineland Boyz member will spend the rest of his life in prison for shooting to death a 16-year-old girl who had testified against one of his fellow gang members. Raul Robledo was sentenced to the life term in a closed hearing Monday. The 30-year-old shot Martha Puebla outside her San Fernando Valley home on May 12, 2003. Days earlier she had testified at a hearing against Jose Ledesma, a fellow gang member of Robledo's. Ledesma and another member, Javier Covarrubias, admitted their roles in Puebla's death and are serving life sentences.
I wrote about Puebla in the pages of the Daily News in 2003. Her family told me she was a caring aunt to a then-7-year-old nephew who, admittedly, associated with troublesome friends.
She was shot across the street from her home in the 7600 block of Case Avenue. She was standing in front of her house, talking to friends when a man walked up to her and fired several shots from a pistol, then took off in a dark blue midsize sedan.
Family members told me that before the man fired the gun, he asked her sister, ``Do you know me?'' and Puebla responded no.
Police said then that the case was a "slap at the fiber" of the criminal justice system because they rely on witnesses to come forward and they promised to pursue the case with "great vigor."
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
A popular 17-year old football player who was slain last weekend after he confronted gang members crashing a graduation party will be buried Friday at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery.
Jesus Florian, known to friends as "Chimpo," was beloved among students at Francis Polytechnic High School.
"There was a lot of grief about the loss," said the school's interim principal Gerardo Loera. "He was a popular guy."
Over the past week grieving Polytechnic students raised $4,540 for Florian's family while the football booster club raised $3,000 for them.
Police said Florian did not associate with gangs but the shooting comes amid a spate of juvenile homicides in the San Fernando Valley _all gang-related.
On May 12, Manuel Rodriguez, a 16-year-old was shot and killed as he rode his bicycle near Remick Avenue and Weidner Street in Pacoima.
On May 5, Alejandro "Slash" Villa, a 14-year-old was shot in the back and killed after a fight with a group of teenage boys along the 12700 block of Van Nuys, less than a block from his Pacoima home.
On April 18, Victor Fajardo, a 15-year-old was shot and killed as he walked along the 7000 block of Ethel Avenue near Madison Middle School in North Hollywood.
The youngest of those murdered, Villa was a former Maclay Middle School student who had attended meetings at Communities in Schools, a gang intervention group, but friends and family said teetered on the edge of trouble.
His killing prompted a series of meetings at the school where students range in age from 9 to 14 years of age and experts say the lure to gangs begins. Counselors met with the parents of at-risk youth, each from separate gang territories to warn them of the dangers.
But some just didn't believe their young children could get tangled in the violence.
Now, with the summer months approaching --traditionally the most violent days in the city-- gang intervention groups and others are worried about the numbers of teens on the streets.
"There's no outreach out there. There are things to do for kids but it is minimal, especially in this part of the Valley," said Luis Rodriguez, author of "Always Running La Vida Loca, Gang Days in LA" and owner of Tia Chucha's Cafe in Lake View Terrace.
Police are still searching for Florian's killers and a $50,000 reward is expected to be posted next week.
SUN VALLEY -- With police still searching for the killers of a 17-year-old Polytechnic High School football player shot to death at a house party, officials announced Wednesday they will be seeking a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
Police say Jesus Florian, known as "Chimpo," was not associated with gangs but confronted gang members who crashed the party after midnight Saturday. He was shot several times in his upper torso.
It's unclear why he confronted the shooter, but the high school graduation and birthday party near Neenach Street and Amboy Avenue had just been winding down. Police say teens had been dancing, and the person who threw the party was not involved.
City Councilman Tony Cardenas, who represents the area, introduced the reward motion to the council Wednesday. It is expected to be approved next week.
"This is another tragedy involving a promising student who had a wealth of opportunities and a bright future brutally taken away from him," he said.
The suspect is described as a Latino in his late teens or early 20s with a shaved head and a thin mustache, 5 foot 8 to 5 feet 9 inches tall with a stocky build.
Anyone with information is asked to call LAPD North Hollywood detectives at 818-623-4045.
Los Angeles Police detectives are asking for the public's help to identify the person(s) responsible for the shooting death of 21-year old Derek Chambers.
On Saturday evening, May 31, 2008, at around 11:00 p.m., Southeast patrol officers were patrolling in the area of 108th Street and Figueroa Street when they heard four to five shots from the immediate area. The officers saw several people who were fleeing eastbound on 108th Street from Figueroa Street. As officers continued to investigate they found Chambers in front of 511 W. 108th Street, who had been shot multiple times.
Los Angeles Fire Department Paramedics transported Chambers to local hospital where he died from his injuries.
No suspects were seen. Witnesses told investigators that they had seen a dark four-door sedan drive away after hearing the gunshots.
The motive for this shooting is unknown, however it was likely gang related. The suspect(s), vehicle and weapon remain outstanding.
Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call South Bureau Homicide Detectives Roger Allen or Scott Wilhelm at 213-485-1383. After hours and on weekends, call the 24-hour toll free number at the Detective Information Desk at 1-877-LAW-FULL (529-3855).
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
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?
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.
More on the death of a 14-year-old boy, Alejandro Villa ...
PACOIMA - In one of the last photos taken of Alejandro Villa before he was shot to death less than a block from his home, he is smiling, sitting in the back of a limousine.The snapshot is from a quinceañera, where the 14-year-old boy danced so much and had such a good time that he promised to dance more often, his sister said.
And for months, he had been telling his mother he was going to stay out of trouble. He even had joined a boxing class through the gang intervention group Communities in School.
But Alejandro teetered on the edge, sometimes mixing with the wrong crowd. And in the end, his words to his family weren't enough.
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.
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).
Anyone out there know this kid, a 15-year-old shot in a gang related incident? Anyone else out there as outraged?
Police say a young teenager was shot to death amid gang related shooting yesterday evening in North Hollywood.The shooting happened around 7:15 p.m., in the 7000 block of Ethel Avenue. When police arrived they found the body of 15-year-old Victor Fajardo lying on the sidewalk suffering from gunshot wounds.
Paramedics rushed Fajardo to Holy Cross Medical Center where he died.
According to investigators, two Latino men confronted Fajardo as he walked along the sidewalk. One of the men pulled out a handgun and brutally shot Fajardo. Both suspects drove off in a 2000 or 2004 black Mustang.
Detectives have few leads and described the gunmen only as Hispanic.
Anyone with information regarding this shooting is asked to contact North Hollywood Homicide Detective Richard Wheeler at 818-623-4075. During off-hours or on weekends, call the 24-hour toll free number at 1-877-LAWFULL (529-3855).
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.
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.
- 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.
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."
From the Los Angeles Police Department's overnight significant crimes report ... A possible gang shooting occurred yesterday afternoon at 2:32 p.m. in the 9000 block of Orion Avenue in North Hills. Three Latino boys ages 13 to 16 believed to be in an unknown gang used a semi-automatic pistol to shoot at a possible rival. Nobody was hit and gang detectives today are trying to sort it all out. LAPD Detective Todd Booth, up at the Mission Division, said police are getting conflicting reports about the case.
If anybody on the street out there knows what happened, drop us a line.
The Los Angeles Police Department recently updated its top 10 most wanted gangster list.
With the March 25, capture of the LAPD’s sixth Top-10 Most Wanted Gang Member, Police Chief William Bratton and Mayor Antonio Villaragosa today announced the name of the next local gang member to be added to the list.Gildardo Pena, 28 is a member of the Toonerville criminal street gang. An arrest warrant for murder was issued for Gildardo after he was implicated in the November 6, 2005, shooting death of 45-year-old Donald Nelson. The murder occurred at midnight in the 7000 block of Valmont in Tujunga. Nelson was killed for the gang’s belief that he was providing information to police about Toonerville gang members.
The suspect should be considered armed and dangerous. He is Hispanic 5’11, 176 pounds and has back hair and brown eyes. Members of the community are encouraged to call their local police station or the LAPD’s toll free number at 1-877-LAWFULL (529-3855).
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.
The buzz this morning is over the big front page mea culpa The Los Angeles Times wrote over a recent story about a brutal 1994 attack on rap superstar Tupac Shakur.
They were hoodwinked by a con artist informant who faked up documents to look like legitimate FBI file papers. Today, The Times' reporter Chuck Philips and his supervisor, Deputy Managing Editor Marc Duvoisin, who were responsible for the story, apologized as they took the heat.
The Shakur article appeared on latimes.com last week and two days later in the paper's Calendar section. The criticism came first from The Smoking Gun Web site, which said the newspaper had been the victim of a hoax, and then from subjects of the story, who said they had been defamed, The Times reported today."In relying on documents that I now believe were fake, I failed to do my job," Philips said in a statement yesterday, according to The Times. "I'm sorry."
In his statement, Duvoisin added: "We should not have let ourselves be fooled. That we were is as much my fault as Chuck's. I deeply regret that we let our readers down."
Times Editor Russ Stanton announced that the newspaper would launch an internal review of the documents and the reporting surrounding the story.
The Shakur article described a Nov. 30, 1994, ambush at Quad Recording Studios in New York, where the rap singer was pistol-whipped and shot several times by three men. No one has been charged in the crime, but before his death two years later, Shakur said he suspected allies of rap impresario Sean "Diddy" Combs.
The assault triggered a bicoastal war between Shakur and fellow adherents of West Coast rap and their East Coast rivals. One such rival, Notorious B.I.G., whose real name was Christopher Wallace, was shot to death, as was Shakur.
The Shakur story said The Times had obtained FBI records in which a confidential informant accused two men of helping to set up the attack on Shakur -- rap talent manager James Rosemond and James Sabatino, identified in the story as a promoter. The story said the two allegedly wanted to curry favor with Combs and believed Shakur had disrespected them.
The purported FBI records are the documents Philips and Duvoisin now believe were faked, The Times reported.
The story prompted vehement denials from lawyers for Combs and Rosemond, both before and after publication, according to The Times.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Keeping you up to date on last summer's slaying of 31-year-old Eric Perez, a suspected gang member from Arleta. A man who was arrested last month was re-arrested last Thursday after a short search in the Sylmar area.
Murder charges have been filed against Santos Anthony Topete. He was arrested Feb. 7 at a gas station near Foothill Boulevard and Maclay Street, after a roughly 30-minute search by police, said Los Angeles Police Lt. Ernie Eskridge.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office has filed murder charges with gang and gun enhancements against Topete in connection with the death of Eric Perez, 31, a suspected gang member from Arleta, police said. Perez was shot at 12:30 a.m. July 1 after leaving a party in the 16000 block of Los Alimos Street in Granada Hills, police said. Topete was previously arrested Jan. 8 in connection with the slaying, but the DA's Office declined to file murder charges then for a lack of evidence.
A woman who said she was Topete's fiancee said the incident occurred before she was in the picture, but that, "he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"He's a good person," said the woman.
Los Angeles County Superior Court records online show that Topete was convicted in November 2005 of engaging in a speed contest and being an unlicensed driver.
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.
With a horde of cameras focusing in on them, a line of LAPD detectives joined with Chief William Bratton and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced Tuesday the department had cracked one of 2007's most brazen and chilling crimes -- a 23-day-old baby shot allegedly by 18th Street gang members trying to collect "taxes" from street vendors near MacArthur Park. (see entry below)
The crime gripped the mostly immigrant community, and took a throng of police and media attention to break the silence.
As a grip of cameras gathered on Tuesday for the press conference announcing the news, several Spanish language reporters kept turning back to the untold assaults, shakedowns and intimidation that continues in the neighborhood.
Did you know about these, one reporter asked.
Yes, was the answer.
It's not going to go away soon.
Last year, the LAPD reported extortion cases citywide were up 200 percent from 14 to 28.
But those are the reported crimes and some believe just the tip of the iceberg. Police know that many, many immigrants fearful of retaliation and of being deported, will not talk to cops, and others fear retaliation.
Police announced the arrests of eight gang members in connection with the slaying of a 23-day-old baby - you read it right, a 23-day-old baby - killed during a likely extortion attempt near MacArthur Park in September. The baby Luis Angel Garcia, was shot at Sixth Street and Burlington Avenue. Francisco Clemente, 37, also was shot and critically injured. Police said they believe Clemente was the intended target of an extortion attempt. This case is one of the most egregious that we've seen in a while. Wonder if this is the youngest murder victim. There's really not a whole lot more to say about this case. Stunned.
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.
San Fernando Valley gang homicides fell nearly 40 percent in 2007 to 29, down from 48 the year before, the Los Angeles Police Department reported. Overall gang crime was down about 5 percent in the Valley and around 4percent citywide. Citywide, gang homicides fell to 216 from 294 in 2006, a 26.5 percent decline, the LAPD reported. Aggravated assaults citywide and in the Valley fell by about 9percent. But gang-member attacks on police officers jumped from 16 to 23 in the Valley, a 44percent increase. In contrast, gang attacks on officers fell citywide to 89 from 91, the LAPD said.
A long-awaited court case looks like it could be moving forward today involving three accused members of the Armenian Power street gang who are charged in a shooting that wounded a rival Latino tagging crew member in Glendale in 2006 after an alley fight between the two groups.
It looks like both the victim's gang and the suspects' gang were flexing their muscles over turf.
The boys who were 15 and 14-years-old at the time of the April 17, 2006 shooting at Adams Street and Elm Elk Avenue are being tried as adults and police are still seeking an additional suspect, whose fingerprint was allegedly found on the revolver that was believed used in the shooting.
According to transcripts of the March 2007 preliminary hearing, Boris Voskanyan, Karapet Tumanyan, and Sevak Mehrabian were allegedly in a car and pulled up alongside Augustin "Icer" Rodriguez and his friends on Adams Street and Elk Avenue. Someone inside the car allegedly fired between three and four shots, wounding Rodriguez, who testified in court as belonging to a tagging crew called Krazy Demons.
The shooting capped a fight apparently that broke out earlier between Armenians and Latinos, according to court testimony. One shot was fired in the air in an alley during the scuffle, sending people scattering. Later the group of Armenians in the car pulled up alongside of a group of Latinos, shouted "Westside A.P." - for Armenian Power - then fired.
Rodriguez suffered a bullet wound to his left thigh and has since recovered.
Testifying at the preliminary hearing, Rodriguez said he believed there were two males in the front seats and three in the back. He said he did not get a good look at the triggerman who he believed was sitting in the back seat and wearing a black hood over his head.
“I didn't get a good look at him, because when I looked over, I saw the gun and he had his hood on and I went to the floor,” he testified.
Witness Victor Escalante couldn't identify the shooter either.
“I just saw a gun come out, and it just shot,” he testified. “I just saw my friend, Augustin, just limp across the street ... We pulled up his pants and it was all bleeding.”
Police recovered a silver Taurus .38 caliber revolver with wooden grips believed used in the shooting, the court papers said. It was found a day after the shooting inside a box in the carport area at the Glendale apartment complex where Tumanyan lived.
During an interview with police, Mehrabian told detectives he was in the car, in the front passenger seat, at the time of the shooting and fingered Karapet “Violent” Tumanyan as the driver. He identified Boris “Shades” Voskanian and Hayk Antonian, the fugitive, as sitting in the backseat.
He said that if any shooting happened inside that car, it “came from the back of the car.” Antonian was arrested the next day and police said he gave them a key bit of information, telling them that when he and his associates typically hide guns, they keep them in a covered toy wagon in the carport area of Tumanyan's home, Glendale Police Detective Matt Irvine testified.
Police did not find the gun there, but did later found it in one of two boxes in the carport area, Irvine testified.
Antonian, who was detained for questioning, was released for a lack of evidence, a mistake, Irvine acknowledged in court.
After police had the gun analyzed, they found only one print – belonging to Antonian and police issued a warrant for his arrest.
“At the time, a day after the shooting, our belief was that Hayk was neither the driver or the person who brandished the gun in the initial confrontation, nor the person who actually shot Rodriguez,” Irvine testified. “And therefore, we felt at the time that he was more useful to us as a witness than as a suspect. In retrospect, that thinking was incorrect.”
Tumanyan, Mehrabian and Voskanian face attempted murder and other charges. Stay tuned for updates about the status of the case.
Police made an arrest in a gang murder case.
GRANADA HILLS - A 20-year-old man was arrested in connection with a gang-related shooting that left a 31-year-old man dead and wounded another man this summer, police said.Santos Anthony Topete, unemployed from Sylmar, was arrested Tuesday at his home in connection with the July 1 killing of Eric Perez, a suspected member of the San Fer gang, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
The shooting occurred at 12:30 a.m. as two men were leaving a party in the 16000 block of Los Alimos Street in Granada Hills, police said. The suspect fired multiple rounds striking each victim numerous times. Both victims were transported to a local hospital in separate, private vehicles.
Perez, of Arleta, died shortly after his arrival at the hospital. The second victim, an unidentified 25-year-old resident of Sylmar, was treated for his injuries and later released.
Mission gang unit officersLAPD homicide Detective Terence Keyzer said Perez was a member ofthe San Fer ganga Pacoima gang.Topete was in jail awaiting a court hearing.
The cops threw the book at these guys.
Five people have been charged with attempted murder and other counts in connection with a takeover robbery of a San Fernando Valley medical-marijuana dispensary that sparked renewed concern about the safety of the facilities and forced the owner to shut down out of fear.
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.
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
Could it have been love that caused a boyfriend and girlfriend duo, both members of the Clanton Street gang, to allegedly jack a 2000 Saturn the other night in North Hollywood and take the jewelry from the motorist and his female passenger? Or was it spur of the moment? Leo Vasquez, 30, and Angelia M. Langley, 28, are accused in the Nov. 24 heist at Saticoy Street and Coldwater Canyon Avenue in North Hollywood, police said. The two will now spend time apart, housed in separate county jail facilities, facing carjacking charges, with bail set at over $1 million, said Los Angeles Police Detective Sean Mahoney. Langley, unemployed from Torrance, and Vasquez, a driver from the Rampart area, were arrested by, get this, school police who were flagged down by a friend of the owner of the Saturn, who happened to spot the car rolling on Norris Avenue in Pacoima last night, Mahoney said. Apparently, Mahoney said, the duo were on their way to Langley's sister's house in Pacoima when they were arrested. Smart move, huh?
Wow. I can't imagine what it would be like to put together a story like this.
Even after Addie and I split, I would still drop in on Li’l Mike. When he saw me walk in the door, he’d get this really big smile on his face, rush over and punch me in the leg. But eventually the visits faded, and the last time I saw Mike he was maybe 6 or 7 years old. Then last summer, Addie called. I hadn’t spoken to her in years. Michael, now 19, had been arrested and charged with a gang-related murder.
Michael Krikorian, formerly of the Times, now an aspiring novelist, wrote this searingly memorable first person piece in the New York Times Magazine about his ex-girlfriend's son who turned out not to be his kid. It's a hell of a story, but I'm sure glad I'm not writing it. Well done, Mr. Krikorian.