Recently in Monrovia Category

MONROVIA -- A report of a parachutist possibly stranded in the foothills above Monrovia Sunday night was likely nothing more than party balloons, officials said.

A caller reported seeing a parachutist through a telescope go over the foothills about 6:30 p.m. in Spanish Canyon, near Monrovia Canyon Park, but not come back, Monrovia police Sgt. Tom Wright said.

Rescuers from the Sierra Madre Search and Rescue Team, as well as helicopters from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and the Pasadena Police Department scoured the area, but found no sign of the parachutist after more than an hour, Wright said.

A Verdugo fire dispatcher said one of the helicopters spotted a group of party balloons floating in the area of the same color the caller said the parachute was, leading officials to believe the caller mistook the balloons for a parachutist.

Nonetheless, rescuers continued the search Sunday night to make certain, Wright said.

From the Associated Press:

LOS ANGELES -- A Monrovia man arrested at Disneyland has been charged with a five-day crime spree across three Southern California counties that includes carjackings, home-invasion robberies and attempted murder.

Los Angeles County sheriff's detectives alerted Anaheim police of 27-year-old Anthony Hislar's whereabouts last week and he was arrested.

Hislar's alleged crime spree started Sept. 19 with a shooting in Rosemead and continued with carjackings in El Monte and Rosemead, home invasion robberies in Arcadia and Azusa and robberies in Huntington Beach and Santa Ana. He's also listed in a Ventura County arrest warrant.

Hisler's bail is set at $3.4 million.

A man and woman were arrested following a standoff with the Monrovia PD in the 100 block of North Magnolia.

Interestingly enough, the story came to light because the woman notified the news media.

Here's a link to Robert Hong's story.

The incident apparently followed an eviction attempt. Another sign of a failing economy?

 

 

A woman who apparently threatened Sheriff's deputies on Tuesday with a shotgun is apparently barricaded ina home in the 100 block of Magnolia with a shotgun.

Now she's apparently threatening Monrovia officers who are outside her home.

We'll get an update as soon as more information becomes available.

*THe woman is apparently distraught about an eviction.

She called several local television stations to discuss her grievances, according to reporter Robert Hong.

As of 6:22 she remains holed up. Fortunately, looks like the local TV stations cared more about Bush's address to the nation.

Vacation is over. So is the Detroit Lions' season.

Looks like there was a mess of crime stories during the hiatus.

Most notable:

• The doctor who is a suspected molester.
• Another postponement in the case of Man-ling Williams, accused of killing her husband and two sons.
• Olympian Kim Rhode's shotgun being stolen in Lake Smell-some-more.
• An elderly couple killed looking at the full moon.
• The death of a Glendora man slain after a fight at his home.
• More Clark Rockefeller news.

 

 

From reporter Nathan McIntire:

MONROVIA - A reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for killing Sammantha Salas has been increased to $20,000, Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich announced Tuesday.

Salas, 16, was fatally shot on Peck Road near Longdon Avenue in the unincorporated area of Monrovia on January 26.

The two suspects in the slaying are described as African-Americans in their late 20's wearing dark-colored bandanas or hooded sweatshirts. The suspects are believed to be members of the Du Roc Crips gang.

More cutting and pasting. This time there's three sources. First, Kate Kealy, night editor, reports:

 Whit: NORWALK -- The sentencing for a gang member convicted of killing a rival during a car-to-car shooting in Pico Rivera was continued to Sept. 22.

This story added to Trib A4:

POMONA -- A man who repeatedly called Rep. David Dreier's district office in San Dimas and threatened to kill the congressman has pleaded no contest to a felony charge of threatening a government official.

Brian Day, night cops reporter, was following these stories:

Hacienda Heights: There may have been a "borderline" home invasion robbery Thursday.

La Puente: The 76 station at Sunset and Temple was robbed about 2:30 p.m. A silver semi-automatic handgun was used.

Walnut: An armed robbery was reported about 4:20 p.m. near 130 Avenida Alipaz. (near Lemon creek park)

Finally, from CA Breaking News on Twitter:

 Perp* Area of Graystone@Grand;Monrovia; MPD searching area for subject fleeing from Police ....

Guess What? Monrovia PD denies it happened this morning ....

Same stuff different day! 

 

 

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." 

 

Firefighters from several local agencies left for Mariposa County Sunday to help officials there battle the "Telegraph Fire," officials said.
A strike team led by Pasadena Fire Department Battalion Chief Scott Dandridge was called to the fire Sunday afternoon, Pasadena Fire Department spokeswoman Lisa Derderian said.
The strike team includes one engine from the Pasadena Fire Department, two engines from the Glendale Fire Department, one engine from the Monrovia Fire Department and one engine from the Monterey Park Fire Department, Derderian said.
The fast-spreading blaze has charred more than 18,000 acres since Friday as wooded slopes ignited amid hot, dry conditions that have plagued California for months. The fire was completely uncontained Sunday morning.
The wildfire led officials to order the evacuations of 170 homes under immediate threat. About 2,000 homes faced at least some danger from the fast-spreading flames.
Most of the evacuated homes are in the town of Midpines, located along Highway 140, about 12 miles from the park.
Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant said the southern edge of the blaze was as little as two miles from Mariposa, a town of about 1,800 residents.

Nate McIntire's story on an ATM scam in Monrovia was pretty thorough and included some interesting information from local authorities. It developed from an email posted here last week that generated some interesting commentary on the Foothill Cities Blog.

Goddess of Pomona has a local tale from the victim's point of view that makes for a great read:

The first thing that was sort of odd, is that when I went inside the store to pay, no one was there, and it was a good two minutes before anyone came inside. The man who came inside did not have a name tag on and that sort of bothered me too. I paid by credit card and what was irregular about that was that it looked like a normal cash receipt, but there was no pre-printed line for my signature. Instead, the checker drew a line in pen along the side of the receipt and had me sign my name perpendicular to the rest of the receipt. I convinced myself that these irregularities were rather charming in a funky Pomona kind of way. The gas station was absent of any other customers, 'cept a woman and her teenage son in an old caddie.

Otherwise, the pump worked fine and the money I put in seemed to make my gas monitor go up to to the proper level.

Well, fast forward to tonight. A few minutes ago, I turned on the Channel 9 news to see the cashier at Fuel It Up being interviewed about an alleged credit card scam operating out of the gas station.

This should make tomorrow's newspaper:

City officials have met to discuss the possibility of seeking a gang injunction. The idea's being talked about, but no decision has been made.

*Actually the injunction is already being pursued, according to Capt. Rick Miglia, who spoke at a city council meeting last week.

This from the email bag:

I am a resident of Monrovia, and I have been hearing alot about ATM scams going on in my city. My mother in law was hit for $600 dollars just before the 4th of July weekend, and so was her co-worker here in Monrovia. Just today I found out that another person was hit that lives on Madison. The police told my Mother in law, that they were looking into Pavillions in Monrovia for possible leads, being that most of them had used their PIN to make purchases there. ...

We are really concerned that there is a ring of Scammers out here. We are afraid of using our cards at all. If you know anything, can you please help us out, so that we know where to stay out of. I would like my name to be anonymous in case you decide to post anything on it. I just thought that if you knew something, it would be of great help to my community to be informed. Thank you for your time.

Any thoughts?

The planned press conference at the site of Saturday's shooting in Monrovia didn't pan out. Organizers were unable to get any support. And when TV crews didnt' show, organizers told our reporter and photographer that there would be no press conference until the "real media" arrived.

Almost as soon as the SGV Tribune PSN photographer took off, city spokesman Dick Singer arrived on the scene and apparently engaged in an argument with one of the "press conference" organizers. No details on the nature of the argument or what else happened out there.

*The argument was over whether or not the shooting victim was a gang member or not. A cop apparently stepped in and Dick Singer got into his car and drove off, reporter Nate McIntire said.

Organizers of a group called Enough is Enough plan a press conference in Monrovia this afternoon to decry a recent drive-by shooting there and possibly ask the city to remove Roger Johnson as Chief of Police.

Victim Brandon Black, 23,  has been branded by city officials as a member of the Du Roc Crips -- one of three warring gangs in the Monrovia-Duarte area. His family  said Black is not a gang member and was targeted by members of the Monrovia Nuevo Varrio gang because of his race. Black is Black.

The planned press conference will take place in the 500 block of Royal Oak. It begins at 3 p.m.

Spokesman Henry Clark said the group will demand police term the recent shooting a "hate crime."

"They are going to have to realize there's a ghetto in Monrovia and they are going to have to deal with the problems of the ghetto," Clark said. "Call these crimes what they are."

Clark also referred to Nathan McIntire's recent article on the strife in Monrovia and questioned how effective the police department can be against area gangs when allegations surrounding Police Sgt. Dan Verna have not been thoroughly investigated.

"If the city is not going to pay these officers and if they are going to be sitting in a park doing homosexual stuff with gang members the city needs to turn over patrols to the Sheriff's Department. And turn it over as soon as possible.

"As soon as the CHP and Sheriff's went away, this stuff started cropping up again. people are afraid its going to escalate like before."

BTW a Crime Scene poll on Johnson's performance has yeilded a huge vote of no confidence in the chief. Fully 76 percent of respondents voted in favor of removing Johnson. About 60 percent of those same respondents favor replacing the PD with the Sheriff's Department.