gangs: May 2008 Archives

I've heard so many different versions of this story today that my head is spinning. City News Service got bad information early from Sheriff's Headquarters Bureau and it spread like a virus through local news outlets.

As an example, KFI had to contend with a deputy at the SHB that was completely unfamiliar with the case. There's a whole story to be told about the decimation of SHB, but I'll save that for another day

In KFI's case the result was that Eric Leonard's story alluded to five men being named suspects in the case. In fact it's two men, one teen boy and two teen girls.

KNBC did a nice job with the wanted part of the story but left out the particulars about the other arrests. (They also used a lot of SGV Tribune copy to round out their tale -- thanks KNBC)

Here's AP's first story as it moved:

Date: 05/28/2008 11:45 PM

BC-CA--911 Killing/160
Eds: APNewsNow.
4 teens arrested, 5th sought for murder during 911 call

A few months back we had a meeting with police officials from Baldwin Park and they mentioned that the city had a problem with members of the El Monte Flores gang in their city.

There are already two gangs and a tagging crew that lay claim to the city, so having members of a fourth undoubtedly makes for some headaches.

Turns out that EMF may reach all the way into Covina, at least that's what sheriff's deputies are telling us in the wake of arrests in the Michelle Chien murder case.

Here's a little history of gangs in the SGV courtesy of a site that calls itself "Gangland Express."

Regarding EMF:

El Monte is an old barrio and home to the famous El Monte dance hall wich is gone now. That is were alot of the pachucos' idols would sing songs like, Earth Angel, Night Owl, 18 with a bullet, Duke of Earl, and Sitting in the Park. It is also home to El Monte Flores. This is one of the largest gangs from the SGV, and most spread out.

Text below is from the Sheriff's wanted poster:

On March 19, 2008 (Wednesday) at 1140 hours, Victim Michelle Hsu was shot and killed by intruders in her Covina Hills home.

The victim was on the telephone with a 911 operator when the suspects killed her to avoid capture and arrest.

After a lengthy investigation, detectives have identified Suspect Victor Manuel Maurtua as one of five suspects involved in the murder.

Suspect Maurtua is a known El Monte Flores gang member and was last known to frequent the Baldwin Park area.

*Update: City News Service has finally picked up on this (even though they had a copy of our story since Saturday). But what's being reported is wrong. The Sheriff's Information Bureau told CNS that there are no other suspects identified and no arrests have been made. CNS is working to correct their report.

Melissa Pamer reports that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Homicide Bureau has released the sketches of two men wanted in connection with a Jan. 14 drive-by shooting in Monrovia in which two men might have been slightly injured.

Here's the sketches at left.

I imagine folks in Monrovia have some questions for officials about certain elements of the story.

Here are my questions and observations:

1. Why is homicide releasing sketches of figures wanted in what is likely to be charged as an assault at best? It's my understanding that homicide detectives only investigate actual homicides.

2. When it comes to the Sammantha Salas slaying, why does homicide Lt. Dan Rosenberg say he's not ready ask for a reward from Supervisor Mike Antonovich's office? Antonovich's flack Tony Bell has said repeatedly that he's talked to detectives about that. Can we infer that these two might be wanted in the Salas case as well? What's the story here?

3. Officials that Pamer talked to said crime tips have decreased as media attention has waned in Monrovia.  It almost sounds as if the media is being blamed for a lack of interest in the community. Truth be told, Monrovia seems to have several pretty active community forums among them FCBLOG, City Hall, North Primrose and Frazgo on MetBlogs. Additionally we've had a section of our Web site exclusively devoted to the shootings.

4. Early on in the investigation, authorities blamed the rising tensions in the community on recently released parolees. Do these composite drawings match the mug shots of actual parolees reportedly released into the community?

Chuck Hubbs, who was the night city editor at the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner when I was a copy boy there, always had me running weekend casualty counts.

Every Friday and Saturday, just when I'd be getting ready to leave, he would exhort in his unmistakably deep voice. "Check those wires kid. See how many bodies have piled up."

I'd rip pieces of printer paper from machines that spit out copy from the Metro Wire and City News services and run them back to Chuck so that he could compile a daily body count for an inside page.

Some weekends were slow with one or two slayings. Others seemed quite busy; with eight, 10, even 15 killings.

I wonder how many of those even got solved?

This past weekend undoubtedly would have qualified as a slow one. And yet, it could have been quite deadly.

Young men were injured in shootings in Whittier and Pico Rivera.

A few other teens might have taken bullets in Baldwin Park. But somehow they were luckier than Jose Perez, 16. The Baldwin Park High student was shot to death talking to a friend outside a home in the 5000 block of Maine Avenue Saturday night.

By my count, Perez is the second student from that high school to succumb to gun violence this school year. That seems awfully high.

In November, Baldwin Park High student Luis Estrada, 14, and his father Pedro were gunned down by four attackers in front of their home in the 4000 block of Downing Avenue.

Three teens, all former Baldwin Park students, have been arrested in the case, officials said. A fourth remains at large. Gang rivalry apparently motivated the incident.

As they did in the Estrada case, school administrators promised Monday to provide grief counseling to anyone who needed it at Baldwin Park High School.

"The school will of course do something for the students who need the services," said Lynne Kennedy, associate superintendent for student achievement in the Baldwin Park district.
Although there is absolutely no indication that Perez had gang ties, it's pretty clear his attackers used gang tactics. Witnesses said the men drove slowly north on Maine Avenue. They flipped a U-turn, drove up to Perez and opened fire.

Because Perez had only just enrolled at Baldwin Park, and was killed on a Saturday night far away from campus, Kennedy claimed the slaying reflects more on the community at large than on the high school.

"You have to expect these things," she said. "There's crime in the city and there's going to be fall over to students who attend the school."

Kennedy also claimed that there is no gang problem at Baldwin Park High School, even as she pointed to the city's tenacious problem with three notorious groups.

This morning (as I do most mornings) I know I'll drive along Puente Avenue past Baldwin Park High on my way to work.

I'll watch the kids pass and wonder who is going to college? Who is going to Iraq? Or Afghanistan? Who is going to get married, settle down in town and raise another generation of students?

I'll have another question on my mind this morning though: Who will be the next name in my casualty count?