eMe: January 2008 Archives

8:33 p.m.

1234 Sherman in Monrovia. Police are inside the house where Mr. Rollins was shot. They have brought along a gun-sniffing dog as part of their investigation. One police spokesman told reporter Brian Day they the investigation is connected to a Jan 14th shooting, in which no one was hurt.

As our photog was taking pictures of the scene, police closed the blinds on the front windows so that no pictures could be taken of the investigation taking place inside.

8 p.m. update

Police have surrounded a neighborhood near Huntington and California as part of their effort to stop the violence in Monrovia. A helicopter has been circling the area. We have a reporter and photographer on scene. The neioghborhood is near where Mr. Rollins was shot.

2:51 p.m. Conversation with Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca from Hector Gonzales.

He's concerned about this spreading into the innocent population a task force in place.

"This is going way over the line now" Baca said while using words like "savage" to describe the current state of affairs.

Baca also said Day Day was intentionally targeted because he was NOT a gang banger

UPDATE 2 P.M.

The City Manager has issued a report on gang violence:

Here's an Excerpt: And a link

Over the last several days, I have received a handful of emails and comments from folks who believe that the current rash of gang violence is really a “race war.” In one email, a person sent me a number of news clippings detailing hostilities between Latino and African-American gangs as evidence that this is all about race, as opposed to criminals committing criminal acts. Although the topic of race is always very sensitive, I believe that we must be able to speak rationally, intelligently and carefully about such complex issues; to quote Confucius, “The beginning of Wisdom is to call things by their right names.”
I responded to the email stating that the mere fact that each of the articles that were cited focused on gang violence, trends in gang violence, demographic shifts that can contribute to gang violence, etc., that the sender had actually proved my point – that the issue here is not race; it’s gang violence. The racial/ethnic identity of the gang members gives the story racial overtones, to be sure. And tension is certainly not uncommon when one group supplants another in a given area or neighborhood – this has been witnessed time and again over hundreds of years throughout the history of cities and towns.
But this tension, in 2008 and here in Monrovia, does not extend so far as to cause a spontaneous combustion of hatred and bigotry.

UPDATE: 1:38 P.M.

Caroline An reports that Alhambra High School officials were reluctant to acknowledge Samantha Salas was a student there. What was interesting about the conversation and illuminating about the bureaucracy that runs our schools, the official was willing to discuss the fact that grief conselors were on campus today. He just wouldn't say why they were there and wouldn't discuss Salas.

UPDATE: 12:53 P.M.

MAP of Monrovia shooting locations posted below.

Additionally we have a page devoted to coverage of the crime wave at http://www.sgvtribune.com/monroviashootings

UPDATE 11:40 A.M.  This from PSN City Editor Hecttor Gonzalez:

looks like cops are out there in force hunting for evidence, including digging that stray bullet out of the wall of that one apartment (geez!), re-interviewing possible witnesses, ect. -- but how knows why they had to shut down the entire area around the building to do this. could be a show of force

UPDATE ENDS HERE