Recently in Montebello Category

The shooting death of a Montebello man on July 4, has generated some heartfelt interest from his family.

Here's an excerpt from a letter I received this morning from the man's cousin. We're still waiting to confirm some of the details in the letter:

We are all still in shock and disbelief and as well confused of the
whole senario.  I found just a small article in the whittier daily
which stated that police were still investigating . . . but we were
told by police otherwise.  We have been assuming that the
purpretraters two males were arrested.  Please help us figure this
out and find closeure especially for the 3 teenage boys he leaves
behind.  I was wondering if you can continue on investigating this
story we are willing to go public if need be to find who did this.
We thought they were caught because that is what we were told.
Please help my cousin was a great man and father and deserves justice.

An excerpt from our story after the jump

Twelve-year-old Albert Garcia and his father Juan were buried in Riverside Monday at a private ceremony.

Montebello police continue to badger the family about talking to the media, while they are apparently making little progress in their investigation. I received this note from a family member regarding police pressure in the case:

The cops told (the family) to not talk to the press because we were going to ruin the case.

I wonder if this is the sort police communication with citizens that Montebello's new city council approves of?

The video speaks for itself. Albert was shot and killed in Montebello by gang bangers trying to crash a graduation party for a blind girl.

Police have remained completely silent regarding progress of their investigation.

Here are some pictures of Albert Garcia, 12. He and his father were shot and killed Saturday while at a party in Montebello. Police have said little about the case, but indicated Tuesday there are seeking at least three men in conenction with the slaying that may have been the end result of an argument.

The pictures were sent by Albert's mother Willena Garcia. A former employee of the Riverside County SHeriff's department who worked for several years in Temecula. Albert and, his mom, and his 10-year-                                                                                old brother were residents of Hemet.

Albert's family believes they could encouter as much as 20 to 30K in burial expenses and have set up a fund at Wells Fargo.

Albert's uncle Job Armenta remembered his nephew Tuesday. "He was an awesome, awesome little dude."

In an addendum to an earlier letter, Albert's mom wrote about her son's favorite skater, and his infectious smile.

"Albert was a caring boy who wanted to make those around him happy."

On June 21, 2008 at 11:45 pm the Montebello Police Department received numerous calls of shots fired in the 100 block of East Madison Ave.  The incident took place at a residence that was hosting a graduation party.

During the party several individuals were involved in an argument that resulted in gun shots.  One group was invited guests and the other was not.  The preliminary investigation reveals that this crime appears to be gang related, however it is important to note that neither of the victims were involved in the confrontation nor members of the groups that were at odds. 

Here's the face of the boy who was shot to death at a backyard party in Montebello this weekend.

Albert Garcia, 12, and his father Juan were gunned down at a home on the corner of Madison and Poplar Saturday evening about 11:45 p.m., according to police.

In this picture Albert is third from left. He leaves behind a grieving mother and a 10-year-old brother.

This comes from the mailbag: (Sent by Chrisa Christy an aunt of Albert Garcia)

"Wait! Take a picture of my good side..."  

These were excited words from a vivacious, adventurous, 12 year old boy named Albert Garcia.  He loved his brother, Dominic, 10, and taught him all his best skateboarding tricks much to the weariness of his resilient mother, Willene Garcia.   

Albert, Dominic, and Willene have learned a lot about resilience in the past 8 years.  A single mother, Willene put herself through school to learn computers and eventually obtained a position with the Riverside County Sheriff's Department. 

 
Trying to give her boys a better chance she moved away from the harsh reality of life in the city for a single mom and two young boys all the way to the East Coast.   

"You have to take a chance sometimes.  You never know."  Willene watched her two boys play in the ocean that day, happy and content.  They didn't seem to have a care in the world.  Two weeks after the sun filled day in the Atlantic Ocean, the Garcia family once again faced the smog and congestion of the city.   

The following weekend brought a reconnection with Albert and Dominic's father, Juan Garcia, 44.  The boys had not seen their father in over a year.  With most of Juan's family in Puerto Rico, Albert and Dominic were happy to spend the weekend with their father getting to know his life.   

Albert and Juan Garcia were shot Saturday night, June 21^st 2008, while attending a Quinceañera in the 100 block of East Madison Street in Montebello, California. 

Sunday afternoon Willene Garcia was taken into a small room and shown a "picture" of young Albert Garcia for identification purposes.  He and his father, Juan were pronounced dead at 12:30 a.m. on June 22, 2008 at Beverly Hospital.  

Funeral arrangements are currently scheduled for Albert Garcia to be buried on Friday, June 26 2008 in Riverside. 

Terrorism claimed the life of a 12-year-old and his father visiting Montebello this past weekend.

Yes. I said it. Terrorism.
How else do you describe an attack on a party of 70 or so people gathered in a back yard to celebrate a graduation.

Killed were Albert Garcia, 12, of Hemet, and his father Juan "Jay" Garcia, 44, of Perris. Two others were wounded in the attack including a 23-year-old woman and an unidentified man.
The 9:50 p.m. ambush occurred Saturday while friends of Maria Soto gathered at her home in the 100 block of East Madison.

Partygoers feasted on chicken wings, barbecued ribs, pasta salad, meatballs and chips and salsa.

There was a D.J. There was dancing. There was Bud Light. There was a cake acknowledging the high school graduation of Soto's 20-year-old blind daughter, Rosemary.

It could have been any party anywhere in the San Gabriel Valley on a sweltering summer night.

"We were happy one minute and then it turned into a nightmare," Soto said. "It was horrible."

Soto pointed to a dark blood stain in the dirt next to a small rose bush in her back yard.

"You don't know when it's going to hit you," she continued. "Please. When are they going to stop devastating our families and our children?"

Every day we send young men and young women off to foreign countries because we're told they are keeping terrorism at bay.

Maybe we're keeping Islamic extremists out of the United States. But what is our government doing about terrorism in our own back yard?

There are no daily briefings, no green zones, no troop surges. I haven't heard presidential candidates Barack Obama or John McCain say a word about fighting local terrorist gangs.
Yet young men and women like Albert Garcia are being shot at -- sometimes wounded and sometimes killed -- by remorseless killers.

I strolled around the neighborhood where Garcia and his dad were gunned down. Graffiti marred the sidewalks.

"Free Clumsey," read one.

Graffiti also marred street signs, garden walls and even the whitewashed wooden siding of Soto's raised foundation house.

Just a few miles north, where San Gabriel Boulevard leads to the Montebello mall, taggers from Pico Viejo, White Fence and El Monte Flores have clearly marked their turf.

I asked Montebello police Chief Dan Weist if his community could stomach the slaying of an innocent 12-year-old. I asked if he thought there was a gang problem in his town.

"It's not as bad as you say it is," came the reply.

Mayor Bill Molinari said he was "sickened by an event that's never happened in our history."
As I watched heat waves rise from the asphalt on Madison Monday, I heard the chimes of an ice cream truck in the distance.

I listened as the driver turned onto Madison and passed me. A sign above the dash said "Caution. Children."

The song continued.

"It's a small world after all. It's a small world after all."

Over the weekend there were five homicides and one suicide recorded in local cities. The first incident involved a man who shot and killed his girlfriend before killing himself on the 605 near Telegraph Road Saturday afternoon.

Later on, four San Gabriel Valley homicides occurred within a six-hour window.

Here's a timeline and brief description of each:

VIOLENCE TIMELINE:

A 12-year-old boy visiting from New Jersey and his father were gunned down in a Montebello backyard Saturday night.

The attack outside a home in the 100 block of East Madison in Montebello occurred at a graduation party for the resident's blind daughter. In all four people were shot. The father and son were killed and two others suffered gunshot wounds.

A resident of the home, Maria Soto, said the attack occurred about 9:50 P.m. Saturday night as 70 people gathered in the backyard to celebrate her daughter Rosemary's graduation from High School.

"I heard somebody shout, they shot him," Soto said. "And when I walked out in the backyard there was my nephew with the child in his arms."

Party goers took the mortally wounded boy, identified as "Albert" from New Jersey and his father "Jay" of Ontario to nearby Beverly Hospital where both were pronounced dead.

Monday morning, Albert's blood still stained the dirt surrounding a small rose bush in Soto's backyard.

The Montebello Police Officer's Association is razzing one of its own on their Web site, with a news item headlined, "Officer Chris Tyni's First TV Commercial." The Web site links to a YouTube video of a GoPhone commerical featuring singers Meat Loaf and Tiffany, along with an actor who apparently bears a stiking resemblence to a Montebello police officer.

No, the Montebello Police Department does not appear to have a TV star in their midst, as a dispatcher explained. Fellow police officials just decided to have a little fun with one of their own.

Once a month, the Hispanic Outreach Taskforce gets together with the police chief in Whittier to discuss topics of interest to the community at large.

The meeting is a brown bag deal. There are sandwiches, sodas and a lot of conversation.
Topic A last week was a gang injunction the police are beginning to enforce against Whittier Varrio Locos, near Uptown.

Police Chief David Singer said officers are still in the process of notifying 40 gang members that they can’t do certain things in their neighborhood anymore. Among those things: carrying weapons, loitering, throwing gang signs and tagging.

Montebello has a similar ordinance on the books and officials claim that since it was enacted in 2004, there has been a marked decrease in gang crime.

In the wake of recent violence in Monrovia and Duarte, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Capt. David Shaw of the sheriff’s Temple Station, which patrols unincorporated areas of the community, suggested a gang injunction was being explored as a possible way to get gang members off the streets. No action has yet been taken.

While the injunctions in Montebello and Whittier are relatively new, the tool has been in law enforcement’s toolbox since the mid-1990s.

For example, Norwalk used one with great success against a particularly violent Latino gang. Pasadena hoped to duplicate the effort and enjoined the Pasadena Denver Lanes Blood gang.

The move essentially flowed from a community reaction to the Halloween Homicides. On Oct. 31, 1993, Edgar “Eddie” Evans, Reginald Crawford and Stephen Coates were gunned down as they walked home from a friend’s Halloween party.

Herbert “Monster” McClain, Lorenzo Newborn and Karl Holmes, all members of the Denver Lanes gang, were convicted of murder and ultimately sentenced to death.

Enforcement of the order against PDL was fairly effective, and the neighborhood around Summit Avenue became safer for a while.

Nearly a year later, city officials and the District Attorney’s Office came close to taking similar action against the Villa Boys and Krazy Boys Latino gangs.

But when Bernard Melekian took over as chief in 1996, he derided the injunctions and chose to fight gangs with a mantra of “community policing” that was popular at the time. The injunctions faded away from lack of enforcement and Pasadena’s gangs went back to being Pasadena’s gangs.

A few years later, Melekian defended the decision to Daniel Sharfstein, a one-time reporter here, who was writing a piece for a publication called The American Prospect.

The chief, now interim city manager, called injunctions “an intellectual substitute for responsible public policy.”
My guess is that officials in Montebello, Whittier and Monrovia know best what they are up against. They also know what makes “responsible public policy” in their communities.

If a gang injunction works in Monrovia, my guess is there won’t be too many law-abiding taxpayers who will complain.