LAPD: August 2008 Archives

LA Weekly this week chronicles the case of a serial killer on the prowl in south Los Angeles. The killer who was prolific in the mid 1980s resurfaced in 2002 and 2003, according to the Weekly, who gave the person or persons the moniker Grim Sleeper:

Local journalists haven't even assigned him a creepy nickname, like Night Stalker (Grim Sleeper was chosen by the Weekly to mark his 13 years of inactivity before killing again).

It's coincidental that I began my column this week on the crime wave of 1985 and 1986, because apparently the Grim Sleeper was most prolific during this period. Going through teh Tribune archives over the past several days, I believe I read some news accounts of the at least three of the slayings. I'll post up scans later this week.

A summary of some items we've been covering over the weekend:

1. EL MONTE -- Homicide detectives are investigating the mysterious death of a man whose body was found on the property of an office building Sunday.
2. ROSEMEAD -- The man who died in a fiery crash at the end of a police chase Saturday was driving an SUV that belonged to a woman found shot to death at her Gardena business.
3. LA PUENTE -- A man allegedly shot and wounded two of his roommates during an argument at their house Saturday.
4. SOUTH EL MONTE -- Officials have released the name of a man found who was fatally shot in his car last week.
5. NORWALK -- A man was shot and wounded in the parking lot of a convenience store Sunday.
6. SONORA -- The Montrose Search and Rescue Team rescued a 34-year-old man Sunday after he spent two nights at the bottom of an abandoned mine shaft.

The Board of Supervisors is about to extend the time limit on the $10,000 reward offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of two men suspected of killing Sammantha Salas in January.

Salas was gunned down in a section of Monrovia known as "No Man's Land." Police believe her killing was the result of a series of escalating gang violence attacks between black and Latino gangs that took on racial overtones.

The reward vote takes place Tuesday.

***

Sheriff's homicide Lt. Dan Rosenberg said Monday that all five juveniles suspected of taking part in the robbery that killed Covina Hills resident Michelle Chien at her home earlier this year will be tried as adults. One suspect, Victor Maurtua, 19, a member of the El Monte Flores gang remains at large in the case.

"This is a pretty vicious case," Rosenberg said. "And it was random basically. These were local kids. One individual orchestrated the whole things and the others followed along."

***

Rosenberg also has a crew working alongside LAPD detectives in hopes that they can solve the slaying of Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Juan Escalante, 27. 

The deputy was slain outside his home two weeks ago, as he left for work at Men's Central Jail.

According to the Los Angeles Times:

A U.S. Army reservist, Escalante had worked for the Sheriff's Department for 2 1/2 years. He was assigned to the "high power" unit, where dangerous inmates -- many of them violent gang members -- are housed in single-man cells. Investigators said this week that the shot that killed Escalante was fired from behind him and that he may not have seen his killer or killers.

Ropsenberg said deputies and officers are working alongside and getting along.

"We're working real well together," he said. "We still don't have a motive, but we're looking at everything." 

This from ABC7:

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Funeral services at Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral are held Friday morning for Juan Escalante, an L.A. sheriff's deputy who was shot to death in front of his parents' home.

The reward for his killers is nearing $100,000, but the gunmen have still not been found.

A large law enforcement presence gathered for the funeral set to begin at 9 a.m.

As family and friends said their final goodbye, police are still looking for suspects involved in the 27-year-old deputy's murder.

The gun, and several others were seized as part of the county's DISARM program, officials said.

Reporter Brian Day attended an Antonovich press conference downtown Monday morning, but had some difficulty getting answers to a couple of key questions.

Like, why does Antonovich care about stuff that happens outside the Fifth *Supervisorial district?

How many guns of this caliber have been seized in the San Gabriel Valley?

Unfortunately he didn't get answers to those questions. Just a nice photo of Antonovich with a ton of guns.

*I've corrected this post. As Tony Bell points out below, Supervisor Mike Antonovich represents the Fifth Supervisoral District. My bad. The rest stands. Officials told Brian the guns came from the 77th Precinct, which is outside the Fifth District.

I would still like to know how much of the money and guns that were seized as part of DISARM came from the San Gabriel Valley?

Somewhere on my desk I have a frayed, faded and much abused copy of the 1993 edition of Police Call.

I learned today from LA Observed that Gene Hughes, publisher of the magazine, died recently at age 80.

Police Call was a collection of radio frequencies used by police, fire and other government agencies. Hughes, a scanner junkie, put them together  and made the gibberish understandable to the lay person.

As much as anything I have Hughes (real name Gene Costin) to thank for my ability to tell the difference between real news and real noise.

Here's a bit from the LAO post:

Costin was 13 and living in a Los Angeles foster home in 1940 when he discovered that he could listen in on the LAPD's radios. The rest is history.

Here's a link to Wired's obit. The photo is from Wired also.