Rialto officer down, streets on edge

By Robert Rogers
RIALTO - The neighborhood is similar to many built in Rialto in the 1960s and 1970s, in structure even an echo of the notorious East Jackson Street, which led the city in calls for service for much of this decade.

Quaint rows of four-plex buildings line West Cascade Drive, painted drab colors, their days of looking like charming, inviting places for upwardly mobile families having long since passed.

But there is some sense of community amidst the fewer than 20 buildings lining both sides of the short, craggy street.

The problem, they say, is that much of the glue that held it together now sits in jail charged with the murder of a Rialto Police officer.

“People always got together at that house for big block barbecues,” said Dean Libbee, a 3-year resident, as he pointed at the four-plex where police serving a search warrant lost one of their own Thursday morning.

Officer Sergion Carrera Jr., 29, died of a gunshot wound while serving a search warrant at an apartment shared by Jaranard Thomas, his girlfriend and three children. Thomas has been charged with Carrera's murder, an allegation almost no one on this predominantly African-American street believes.

Now, the neighborhood may have a more solemn cause celebre than barbecues at Thomas' house. Many interviewed on Friday say they fear long-simmering distrust of the Police Department may boil into open emnity on both sides, with a racial element setting the whole thing off.

The officer was Latino, the suspect black.

Below is a video in which residents, one who doesn't want to be on camera, describe the tension:

“Shoot, everybody out here knows black males are already targeted out here,” said A.J. Barnett, a woman who lives in another part of the city but says she visits West Cascade daily. “But now we got people saying a black man shot this Hispanic officer, and you can bet this is going to be a racial thing, at least out here.”

Libbee agreed.

“The people out here, mostly, don't need to be treated the way they are” by police, he said.
Most residents on this street describe the area as poor but proper, with violence and overt gang activity rare.

Graffiti is not as pervasive in the alleys and lots around the street as it is in some other parts of the city.

Some residents did say that drug deals make their rounds, but that all in all it's a safe place for kids, some of whom scampered around the street Friday, just a sun-down and sun-up removed from the Carrera's shooting death.

No memorial was on the street for the slain officer, and residents admitted that there would be one if one of their own had been lain to rest there.

With Thursday's tragedy, detente seems unlikely.

“Look, I feel condolences for the man's family,” said a resident who would give only his first name, Anthony, for fear of retribution from police. “But you've got to understand that when police come out here, it's always just to bust down your door or treat you with disrespect when you just walking down the street,” said Anthony, 33, while his 5-year-old daughter stood next to him.

One day after an echoing gunshot killed a Rialto officer on-duty for the first time since 1986, the young officer's colleagues and family deal with heartwrenching loss and the residents of West Cascade Drive are bracing for what comes next.

“There ain't know relationship with the police that patrol here to begin with,” said Mel Schaefer, a resident. “Now, it's going to get bad because one of theirs got killed here.”

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Neighbors sketch friendly picture of suspect in killing
Robert Rogers, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 10/19/2007 10:13:38 PM PDT

RIALTO - Jaranard Thomas was known by nearly everyone living in the short stretch of fourplexes lining West Cascade Drive.
Thomas, 32, was a fixture for at least a year, spending much of his time outside playing with kids, selling candy and throwing barbecues for neighbors on weekends.

Now, he's in West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga after being arrested on suspicion of murder in the death of a Rialto police officer.

His neighbors and friends doubt the accusations.

"The word out here is that the police busted down the door, (Thomas) wrestled with them, and one of the policemen's guns went off," said April Williams, a 50-year-old who sat across the street from the scene of the shooting Friday.

"This was a gentle guy. Everybody liked him, and there's no way he had no gun of his own."

Police records disagree.

According to the warrant authorizing Thursday's raid, narcotics Officer Cindi Sandona wrote that there is a "likelihood that weapons will be present at the location."

Sandona also wrote that she thought narcotics were being sold in Thomas' apartment, based in part on information from a confidential police informant.

More than a half dozen residents and friends interviewed Friday said Thomas was something of a neighborhood host, opening his apartment's front yard to dozens for barbecues on weekends.

Thomas was the manager of the four-unit complex in which he lived, neighbors said. Police booking records list his occupation as property manager.

Thomas has no criminal record in San Bernardino, Riverside or Los Angeles counties, according to court records.

He does have a recent citation for driving without a license and failure to appear on the matter, both misdemeanors.

He is short and plump, listed in county booking records taken after his arrest Thursday as 5 feet 5 inches tall and 185 pounds.

Thomas is the father of two small boys, neighbors said, and played catch with and attended the football games of a teenage stepson.

Neighbors said Thomas lived in the apartment in the four-unit complex with a girlfriend and three children.

No one at Thomas' apartment, where 29-year-old Officer Sergio Carrera Jr. was shot and killed while serving a narcotics search warrant Thursday morning, answered knocks on the door Friday.

Thomas was described as a stay-at-home father who watched the kids while his girlfriend, Nashalla Bell, worked long hours during the day.

Thomas was a sharp dresser who wore his long hair in cornrows, Williams said.

They also say he had a commercial interest - selling candy and plates of soul food.

"He was always helping everybody," said A.J. Barnett, who lives in another part of the city but visits friends and family on West Cascade Drive daily.

Barnett pointed to a portable basketball hoop near the curb.

"He put that out there for the kids," she said.

"He wasn't into any drugs or gangbanging or any of that," said Mel Schaefer, who said she's lived in the neighborhood for less than six months. "He was just cool."

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Below is a graphic contributed by a reader in tribute to the fallen officer.