Fagaloa Mose Tiavaasu'e sits by her son's casket during his funeral service at Westside Christian Church. Roketi Tiavaasu'e (Su'e) was shot multiple times in the torso in front of his home in the 3400 block of East 67th Street at after an alleged struggle with two police officers. The family said they are going to sue the Long Beach Police Department.
May 2008 Archives
Fagaloa Mose Tiavaasu'e sits by her son's casket during his funeral service at Westside Christian Church. Roketi Tiavaasu'e (Su'e) was shot multiple times in the torso in front of his home in the 3400 block of East 67th Street at after an alleged struggle with two police officers. The family said they are going to sue the Long Beach Police Department.
While having a stroke is not 'lucky', after hearing these stroke victims talk about their condition, and joke with one another, they sure are lucky to have found Art Gottlieb and the Stroke Center of Long Beach at California Heights Methodist Church. Gottlieb runs the weekly program for stroke victims and their caregivers.
Saturday started off easy enough. My first assignment was a high school graduation and then I was slated to shoot a Unity festival downtown. Well as often happen in the news business - those plans went right out the window. As I was leaving the graduation I get a call about a helicopter that crashed on Catalina Island. I headed to the newsroom and then to San Pedro where I hopped on a boat to Two Harbors. A little over an hour later I was standing about 50 yards from the wreckage of an Island Express helicopter that crashed in the isthmus between Isthmus Cove and Catalina Harbor in the Two Harbors area of Catallina Island.
Two Harbors is a very small city, there are only 298 residents and one boat a day from the mainland (or as the locals call it "overtown").
After shooting pictures of the investigators and the L.A. County coroner removing the bodies I had to search for a place to spend the night. Being Memorial Day weekend - and the fact that there is only one hotel in the city - I thought I might be forced in to an impromptu camping trip . But I got lucky and found the last available room. The reporter from KNX radio and the NTSB investigator were not so lucky, they had to take a taxi to Avalon (about $200 and 1 1/2 hours).
Three people died in the crash, including the pilot, a crew member and a school teacher. Three others were injured.
Every time I see former Long Beach mayor Eunice Sato, center, she seems to be a little shorter - my best guess puts her at about three feet tall - but what she lacks in height she more then makes up for in niceness.
Pastor Reuben English Sr. is retiring after 24 years at New Hope Baptist Church. His final sermon is Sunday.
Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster, along with Downtown Long Beach Guides and other officials, pose for a picture during a press event at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company at the Pike in Long Beach, Calif. on May 7, 2008. Foster helped mark the official launch of the Downtown Guides on Segways.
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A Long Beach (Calif.) firefighter tends to a residential burglary suspect who was bit by a poilce dog while hiding in the 4700 block of Lorelei Ave.
About
This blog is a journal of Long Beach, California, through the lens of Jeff Gritchen. It will be updated frequently with the pictures, photo tips and musings from the various assignments he covers as a staff photographer for the Press-Telegram.
Gritchen has been documenting the diverse city of Long Beach since 1998. He covers everything from the Cambodian community to prep sports to gang ridden neighborhoods to the annual running of the Long Beach Grand Prix. He covered destruction Hurricane Katrina brought to Long Beach, Mississippi and traveled to Southeast Asia to document a rural Cambodian girl's as she traveled to the U.S. for life-altering heart surgery. He has won numerous state and national awards, including an international NPPA Best of Photojournalism award in 2003. He can be contacted at
jeff.gritchen@presstelegram.com
Gritchen has been documenting the diverse city of Long Beach since 1998. He covers everything from the Cambodian community to prep sports to gang ridden neighborhoods to the annual running of the Long Beach Grand Prix. He covered destruction Hurricane Katrina brought to Long Beach, Mississippi and traveled to Southeast Asia to document a rural Cambodian girl's as she traveled to the U.S. for life-altering heart surgery. He has won numerous state and national awards, including an international NPPA Best of Photojournalism award in 2003. He can be contacted at
jeff.gritchen@presstelegram.com
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