Recently in OIS Category

At his press conference this morning, attorney Mark Geragos replayed video from a Korean language newscast showing the last minutes of Michael Cho's life.

Cho was shot and killed in a confrontation with police officers outside a La Habra liquor store during the holidays.

An investigation by the Orange County DA's office backed the police officers who took part in the shooting. Geragos is hoping a civil suit against the PD will get Cho's grieving family some money.

Here's a YouTube video of the channel 18 broadcast. (Note: it's delivered in Korean) You can clearly see Cho approach the officers. The shooting takes place off camera. I'm sure some of the officers who read this blog can provide a blow-by-blow explaining the tactics used by the two officers in the video...

Video on the jump

The strange case of Michael Cho is about to go big time as celebrity lawyer Mark Geragos takes the family's case to court.

Geragos is scheduled to hold a press conference in Los Angeles at 11 a.m. today to discuss his case against the La Habra Police Department for their handling of the incident.

There's a Justice for Michael Cho web site that's cropped up as well.

I'll update this after the press conference... looks like Geragos is going to release a video of the actual incident.

Some local connections in the case. La Habra Police Chief Dennis Kies if a former member of the Baldwin Park PD

Michael Cho attended Walnut High School.

Mayor's son questioned in car theft case.

An unidentified person was detained at Mayor Ron Beilke's home Wednesday as part of an auto theft investigation, authorities said.

<snip>

Beilke said deputies questioned his 17-year-old son, who visited the same house as Sonny Costello, a 19-year-old transient, who is accused of stealing a 2002 Chevy Suburban on Tuesday night.

Monrovia plans outside investigation of claims against PD.

MONROVIA - Police Chief Roger Johnson said Wednesday that an outside agency would investigate sexual harassment allegations contained in a lawsuit filed against a Monrovia police officer.

Rudy Ramirez, 25, a former Monrovia jailer and member of the Monrovia police Explorer program, filed the lawsuit last month. He claims Sgt. Dan Verna sexually abused and harassed him beginning in 2000 while he was a minor until November 2006 when Ramirez was terminated by the department.

"Any of these allegations are going to be reviewed by a law enforcement agency independent of the Police Department to determine if there's been any wrong-doing," Johnson said.

<snip>

To bolster claims in his lawsuit, Ramirez states that Verna helped a suspected gang member, Salvador Parra, get released from Monrovia city jail on two occasions in 2006.

Sheriff's officials on Wednesday said a deputy saw Verna and Parra in 2006 inside of a parked car in Fish Canyon.

On patrol May 2, 2006, Deputy Mike Silva spotted the pair, authorities said. When he saw a gun in the car, the deputy detained Verna and called for backup, said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Capt. Richard Shaw. 

Man shot and killed in Hacienda Heights.

Police responded to the 1100 block of Finegrove Avenue to reports of shots fired around 9:50 p.m., according to Deputy Aura Sierra of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

They found a Latino man, 30, with multiple gun shots wounds in his torso, Sierra said.

CHiPs OIS follow up; woman identified.

Two CHP officers patrolling the eastbound 10 Freeway just after 11 p.m. initially noticed the woman as she passed them in her car, driving at a high rate of speed, Dolson said.

The officers thought she might have been under the influence, so they pulled her over at Hellman and Garfield avenues, just off the freeway, Dolson said.

When one of the officers approached the vehicle, the woman pulled out the replica handgun, prompting the officer to fire one round, he said.

The fake handgun was later recovered at the scene, said Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Oscar Butao.

"It looked exactly like a righteous firing gun," Dolson said. "You would probably have to handle it and examine it for a short time to realize it wasn't real."

We're following this story as it develops. Officers told reporter Tania Chatila that the woman is still not identified. But somehow they know she was 52-years-old:

ALHAMBRA - Authorities are investigating the shooting death of a woman by a California Highway Patrol officer Tuesday night after the woman allegedly brandished a fake handgun.

The incident occurred about 11 p.m. off the 10 Freeway near Hellman and Garfield avenues.

Authorities believe the woman - who has not been identified - pulled out a replica handgun prompting the officer to fire back.

The woman died at the scene, according to reports.

No further details were immediately available.

This from the Associated Press:

ALHAMBRA, Calif. (AP) _ A California Highway Patrol officer has shot and killed a woman during an Alhambra traffic stop after she pulled what turned out to be a replica handgun.

Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Aura Sierra says the shooting just off Interstate 10 east of downtown Los Angeles occurred shortly after 11 p.m. Tuesday.

Sheriff's investigators remained on the scene Wednesday morning at Hellman and Garfield avenues.

KTLA television says the CHP officer spotted the woman's red BMW speeding on the freeway and made a traffic stop just off the interstate.

Investigators say the woman pulled out what appeared to be a handgun and the CHP officer, fearing for his life, shot her. Sierra says the woman was declared dead at a nearby hospital.

The woman's name hasn't been released.

Busy couple of days in the SGV and surrounding neighborhoods:

• In La Puente a man was killed following a dispute near Stimpson and Fairgrove.

LA PUENTE - Deputies responding to a 9-1-1 call reporting a fight in a residential neighborhood Sunday discovered the body of a man lying in the street, authorities said.

The incident was reported about 4:30 p.m. on Stimson Avenue, just south of Fairgrove Avenue, said Los Angeles County sheriff's Sgt. Dan Jackson.

Two men believed to be participants in the fight were stopped leaving the area in a pickup truck and taken to the sheriff's Industry station for questioning, Jackson said, however it was not known if they were suspects in the attack.

It was not clear how the man died, Jackson said, though witnesses who reported the fight told officials there was a knife involved.

A sheriff's press release put out Monday morning indicates the man died as the result of blunt force trauma and may have been run over.

• An officer involved shooting in El Monte left a suspect wounded and in custody:

EL MONTE - Police shot and wounded a parolee Friday who allegedly tried to run down officers in a stolen van, authorities said.

A police officer suffered minor injuries in the incident, sheriff's officials said.

The suspect, a San Bernardino County man in his 20s whose name was not released, was reported to be in stable condition at an area hospital, said Sgt. Bill Marsh of the sheriff's Homicide Bureau.

He was wounded in both arms, said El Monte police Lt. Dan Burlingham.

The suspect was later determined to be a parolee with a felony warrant for his arrest, Marsh said. The specific nature of the warrant was not known Sunday.

• A suspected copper thief is believed responsible for a small brush fire in Industry.

The blaze was reported about noon near the freeway's Valley Boulevard off-ramp, said Los Angeles County Fire Department Supervising Dispatcher Bryan Webb.

No structures were damaged or threatened by the flames, and no injuries were reported, said Firefighter Jayson Mendoza.

The fire was sparked by Edison electrical equipment after someone apparently tampered with it earlier, Mendoza said.

• Pomona people protest police checkpoints:

POMONA - A weekend checkpoint caused residents to express concern and accusations to fly at a City Council meeting on Monday.

Councilwoman Cristina Carrizosa said residents were frightened and that the behavior of officers reminded her of movie scenes depicting the Gestapo.

Several people spoke at the meeting about Saturday afternoon's DUI checkpoint at Mission Boulevard and San Antonio Avenue.

Police Chief Joe Romero said the remarks about the Gestapo were offensive to the officers at the checkpoint and that they were owed an apology.

Pomona businessman Francisco Espinoza said the checkpoints targeted Latinos and urged the council to "take control of the city."

"Take it back. You control the Police Department, and you work for us," he said.

 

Reporter Brian Day's story on Tuesday's officer involved shooting in Covina has the first actual quotes by representatives of Glenn Patrick Rose's family.

Here's the story top:

COVINA - Details continue to emerge about a fatal officer-involved shooting earlier this week and the local man who was killed.

The driver, Glenn Patrick Rose, 25, was shot to death by police. Rose and his girlfriend, 24-year-old Sarah Morales, were both zapped with a Taser prior to the shooting and Rose had been convicted twice before of fleeing police, according to police and court documents.

Rose and Morales were inside an allegedly stolen pickup truck when he rammed a car being used for cover by a sheriff's deputy and a California Highway Patrol officer, said sheriff's Lt. Dan Coleman.

Records show that Rose was convicted of evading police in July 2001 and May 2002. He had also been found guilty of grand theft and driving a vehicle without the owner's consent.

Brian Claypool and Eric Maier, attorneys representing Rose's family, said Rose had no history of violent crime and that the 6- and 7-year-old convictions only bolster their belief that he was merely trying to evade officials, not attack them.

"When the officers opened fire, they didn't know that (Rose had a criminal record)," Claypool said, adding that past deeds do not excuse bad decisions made by officials.

"He was really doing a lot to change his life," Claypool added. "He was really working hard."

Though Rose had a drug problem in the past, he had been sober for more than four years, Claypool said.

After two days of intensive reporting Brian Day is set to report several new revelations that have emerged from his investigation into the slaying of Glenn Patrick Rose.

Among those revelations, Rose had been Tasered prior to an officer involved shooting that led to his death. Additionally he had been convicted of participating in at least two police pursuits in 2001 and 2002.

On Tuesday morning, Rose was shot to death by deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and officers from the California Highway Patrol. The shooting occurred after Rose led officers on a high speed pursuit from Walnut through West Covina.

Rose, a woman who was riding in the car with him, and the officers ended up in a Covina alleyway near First and Puente avenues in Covina.

Once there, officers said Rose attempted to steal another car before attempting to run them down.

As many as 15 shots were fired and Rose was killed.

Here's the new information:

• Rose was Tasered before he was shot, according to an autopsy performed by the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner.
• Rose had a criminal record in Los Angeles County that included convictions for fleeing officers in 2001 and 2002. His record also included convictions for grand theft and driving a vehicle without the owner's consent.
• An attorney hired by Rose's family to possibly file a wrongful death lawsuit against the county told Day in an interview Friday he was unaware of convictions, but believes it bolsters his case; as Rose was never charged with violent crimes stemming from previous pursuits.
• Rose's family and friends as well as the attorney told also told reporter Day that Rose, who previously had a substance abuse problem, had turned his life around and was attending a 12-step program.
• Rose's girlfriend Sarah Rebecca Morales remains in custody for her role in the pursuit. She is being held in lieu of $50,000 bail.

Much of this continues to be debated in a Topix forum that's been pretty heated.

As a sample, here's an anonymous comment from a person identified as a friend of both Rose and Morales:

 I knew Sarah and Patrick very well. I was in sober living with Patrick and knew Sarah from her job at Alpha Omega. She was and is a sweet young lady. It is so sad to see what the drugs and alcohol do to us and how we turn into a totally different person once we are on them. I am in recovery and have been sober for four years. I know the strugles of staying clean and sober. I relapsed many times befor I got the four years I have today. The one thing that AA tell us is,(If we do not stop doing the drugs and drinking and work the Spiritual Program put befor us, that we are doomed to Jails, Institutions or Death. It is just really sad and ashame that Patrick had to draw the death card, because when he was sober he was a very good person and helped many.) I have seen so many guys that I care about and that have been through the sober living that I went through and managed go back to prison and institutions that it really hurts. But, Sarah and all of the men that have had to go to jail or back to prison are the lucky ones, because they can resume there lives once they have served there time,

The death of Glenn Patrick Rose following a pursuit that ended in a hail of gunfire in a Covina alley is generating a lot of comment from friends and family in a Topix discussion of Amanda Baumfeld's story.

Here's a sample comment from someone identified as JoJo of Covina:

Those of us that knew Patrick know what cause's this type of behavior. Those of you that were close to him know exactly what I'm saying.

Several other commenters have taken up a defense of Rose on the site.

Meanwhile, Rose's girlfriend Sarah Rebecca Morales, 24, of Pomona was arraigned Thursday on three counts of assault on a police officer or firefighter and two counts of taking or driving a vehicle without the owner's consent.

She's being held in lieu of $60,000 bail at the same Lynwood facility that housed Paris Hilton last summer, according to the sheriff's inmate locator.

BTW, here's a link to the Trib's discussion forum, which is hosted by Topix.

In the News

Both the LAT and the Riverside Press-Enterprise delve into the rash of violence at the Soboba Indian reservation outside San Jacinto. PE includes a timeline of incidents that stretches back to 2007. I've heard that the tensions are long simmering and likely go back many more years if not decades.

Speaking of OIS, I stumbled on a law enforcement Web site (Officer.com) that carries discussions of several of the more recent shootings, including Tuesday's Covina shooting.

Speaking of law enforcement -- how about the confluence of TV and Sheriff's department causing a reexamination (and temporary closure) of the Sheriff's Academy in Whittier. Here's what the DN says.

On the blogs:

Nice back and forth between Proctor and Ortega for the coveted WWE Pasadena belt. There's an interesting revelation or two in there...Just in time for Judgement Day this weekend.

Elsewhere:

Speaking of Judgement Day there's lots of news coming out of China in the wake of the devastating 7.9 earthquake, there's also plenty of local connections.

Oh almost forgot, it's Bike Week in Pasadena, but that' doesn't make things any safer as Hector Gonzalez, city editor of the Star-News just pointed out in an e-mail:

so much for bike-to-work week:HACIENDA HEIGHTS<NO1>ZZSG<NO> <NO1>(CNS)<NO>- A bicyclist in his 60s was killed today when his bike and a car collided in the Hacienda Heights<NO1>ZZSG<NO> area.<QA>

The accident occurred about 7 a.m. on Los Altos Drive at Hacienda Boulevard, the California Highway Patrol reported. The man, who was not immediately identified, died at a hospital.<QA>

 

 

Less than a week after the slaying of 90-year-old Evelyn Mosley at her home on Lincoln Avenue in Altadena, the Board of Supervisors is ready to authorize a reward.

Mosley was found lying in a pool of blood inside her home by firefighters who had responded to reports of smoke. The initial investigation in the case labeled Mosley's death as suspicious.

Later it was determined that she had been slain, and for a few brief hours Friday, the Sheriff's Department thought Mosley's housekeeper might be responsible. They booked the unidentified woman, but cut her loose several hours later, saying she had been "exonerated."

So, from the reward offering we can assume detectives are back at square one with nothing to go on.

I'm interested, though, in the swiftness of the reward offering. It's not clear what is motivating the supervisors, since I couldn't get Michael Antonovich's flack Tony Bell on the phone Monday.

Perhaps this is a good sign for those hoping the supes will also offer a reward in the Sammantha Salas slaying.

You'll remember Salas, 16, was shot to death in a hail of automatic gunfire outside her father's apartment in unincorporated Monrovia in late January. No one has been caught in the case.

Last time I talked to Bell, he blamed the lack of a reward on the detectives investigating Salas' death.

"They know what they are doing," he scolded me. "Who are you to say what is the right investigative technique?"

Since then, I was able to ask Supervisor Gloria Molina about the possibility of offering a reward in the Salas case.

She said she would look into it and hoped Salas' family would contact her office. I haven't heard back.

What's the disparity between the Salas and Mosley cases?

As one of my colleagues asked Monday, "Wouldn't you think that detectives and the supes want to do something about the killing of a 16-year-old who had her whole life in front of her?"

Not yet, apparently.

X X X

Watching television news and reading the paper over the weekend, I suddenly got the feeling that we are all living in Grand Theft Auto IV.

As the title implies, players go around stealing cars. Sticking to the story line can lead to shootouts with cops and drug dealers and police pursuits.

Taking a look at headlines of the past week, all of the violent stuff reads like it came straight from the video game.

Example: In Azusa, Jose Luis Medina, 33, was shot and killed in a street robbery that occurred about 2a.m. Saturday in the 600 block of West Gladstone Street.

Medina was walking with a friend east on Gladstone when a car approached and Medina was shot and killed.

The car and its occupant fled. Like many of the scenarios in GTA, there were no arrests.

Across the county in Inglewood Sunday morning, a couple of officers, believing they were under fire, opened up on a passing car, killing a 19-year-old and injuring the driver. Again there have been no arrests.

In South El Monte on Sunday night, four men apparently affiliated with a local gang were targeted by a gunman for unknown reasons. All four were wounded and taken to an undisclosed hospital. There were no arrests.

Taking such a clinical approach to reading and watching the news removes the fact that in each of these stories, real three-dimensional people were involved.

They had real families, real friends and real hopes and dreams. And no restarts.

Take a look at the jump for an update.... 

Here's some photos by Walt Mancini, who was at the scene of the OIS in Covina this morning. These are the ones we can put on the net. There were some pretty gruesome shots of the dead man that we will withhold. Walt's captions are next to the photos.

Sheriff's deputies and California Higway Patrol Officers chased a
stolen car Tuesday, May 13, 2008 into an alley adjacent to The
Lexington Apartment 327 South First Avenue, where gunfire  broke out.
No deputies  or CHP officers were hurt in the shooting but the suspect
were shot and killed. (SGVN/Staff Photo by Walt Mancini/SVCity)

A bullet from crime scene on the door of The Lexington apartment
building at 323 South First Avenue in Covina.  Sheriff's deputies and
California Higway Patrol Officers chased a stolen car Tuesday, May 13, 2008 into an alley adjacent to The Lexington Apartment 327 South First
Avenue, where gunfire  broke out. No deputies  or CHP officers were
hurt in the shooting but the suspect were shot and killed. (SGVN/Staff
Photo by Walt Mancini/SVCity)

View Larger Map

***One is dead after three officers shot at a suspect attempting to flee. One body remains uncovered and in plain view in the street.**  

There are reports that as many as 16 shots were fired at the end of the pursuit.***  Several people who live in the neighborhood are not allowed ot leave their residences while the crime scene is being investigated. Officers opened fire when they feared for their safety***

An officer involved shooting on First Avenue in Covina is under investigation this morning, officials said. The shooting apparently occurred at the tail end of a high speed pursuit. Few details were available early Tuesday.

Sheriff's Homicide investigators remained on scene at 8:30 a.m., more than six hours after the shooting occurred. Although the shooting occurred in Covina the officers involved were apparently members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and California Highway Patrol.

The Los Angeles County Department of Coroner has not been called to roll out to the scene, officials said.

No further details were available.

For LA County, the event marked the third such shooting over the past three days. On Sunday morning,  Officers in Inglewood opened fire on a car they believed was involved in a shooting. Michael Byoune, 19, was killed, driver Larry White, 19, was injured.

The CHP shot and killed a DUI suspect in Westlake, officials said.

The shooting happened just after midnight on West 7th Street at South Westmoreland Avenue, CHP Officer Patrick Kimball said.

"After the suspect exited vehicle, per the orders of the officers, that suspect produced a handgun," CHP Sgt. Mark Garrett told reporters at the scene. "At that point the officers, in self-defense, fired on the suspect, and he was hit more than once and succumbed to his injuries at the scene."

After the shooting, a man that had been riding in the suspect's car was handcuffed and put into the back of a CHP patrol vehicle. He is reportedly being questioned as a witness.

**An officer involved shooting in San Jacinto in Riverside County has left two others dead:

SAN JACINTO, Calif. -- Sheriff's deputies killed two people suspected of shooting at a security guard at the Soboba Casino on Monday night, according to broadcast reports.

Riverside County sheriff's deputies initially received calls that the security guard was shot and wounded, but when deputies arrived they discovered that the guard's shack was hit but the man was not wounded, a sergeant said.

After the shooting near the guard shack, the suspects then fled in a vehicle on the Idyllwild National Forest (74) Highway into the hills just east of the casino, engaging in a running shootout with Riverside County sheriff's deputies and a SWAT unit. The shooters also fired at least six rounds toward a sheriff's helicopter, but the chopper was not struck, the sergeant said.

  

 

What a week.

Violence erupted on our freeways. Crooks took pot shots at police officers and the cops shot back. Someone executed an Arcadia man inside his parents' home. The Department of Coroner attempted to sort out the details surrounding the strange death of a Pico Rivera man found dead in a Ford sedan the morning after his wedding.

Two kindly grandfathers working as car salesmen in East Los Angeles were herded into a back room and blasted. Twenty minutes later, and a block or so away, two other guys were killed in a drive-by.

Oh, and the parents of Moe the chimp encountered a purse snatcher Sunday at a Target store in West Covina.

On Wednesday afternoon, St. James and LaDonna Davis held a press conference at attorney Gloria Allred's office in a Wilshire Boulevard highrise overlooking the Hollywood Hills to discuss the incident.

"How could she do this to me?" St. James said. "I keep asking myself 'why, why, why do I have such bad luck?'"

This is news.

As proof, TMZ.com was streaming live and KTLA, KABC, KCBS, KCAL and KTTV all sent their heaviest hitters.

There's a huge file of stories about Moe the chimp in the newspaper's morgue dating back a decade or so. Most have pictures. The saddest shows St. James Davis wailing as his "son" is carted away from the family's West Covina home in September 1999.

The most recent mention comes from 2005. Chimps attacked and mauled St. James on the grounds of Moe's new home, the Animal Haven Ranch in Caliente.

As a result of the attack and 60 surgeries, St. James' face is disfigured and he is confined to a wheelchair. He could only sit and watch Sunday as LaDonna's purse was taken from their shopping cart. On Wednesday, 15 of my colleagues were there to chronicle this latest twist of the Davises.

After all, who doesn't like monkeys or stories about monkeys? (Yes I know Moe's a chimp — but in a generic sense he's a monkey.)

Monkeys are funny. It's in their genes. Every time I think about the chain-smoking Mr. Teeny, Krusty the Clown's sidekick on "The Simpsons," I smile. I put Ronald Reagan right up there in the pantheon of presidents, but who can remember a single movie of his other than "Bedtime for Bonzo"?

I must admit, I stifled a grin when I saw how much attention the Davises' case got.

In that context, who can blame Allred for using the chimp to make chumps of the local media?

"They are on a fixed income and are still coping with the life-changing consequence of the attack by the chimps," Allred said. "LaDonna spends her days caring for St. James, feeding him, bathing him, helping him in and out of his wheelchair and taking him to doctors."

For most of us, a purse snatching winds up with the police taking a report, and the bank and credit card companies taking their sweet time to return your lost plastic.

Don't forget the line at the DMV taking a century or so to navigate just to get a paper license and a new picture.

I know. My wife, Rosie, and I lived this once. When our son Matthew was born at San Gabriel Valley Medical Center, he had to spend the first week of his life in the neonatal ward in an induced coma.

It's one of those secure and supposedly clean wards of the hospital. Everyone has to scrub down. Purses and other personal items need to be left on a table away from the sick babies.

One Sunday when we were visiting the little guy, someone walked off with Rosie's purse. I think we called in a report to the police.

Eventually the wallet came back, with a note that said, "sorry." But the plastic and the money was gone. I guess someone needed it more than we did.

And that was that.

Maybe we would have scored it all back if Matt had been born a monkey.

This time in Glendale, where again an officer attempting an arrest was shot. The suspect in this case was also shot and died at the scene. The AP provided this photo of the investigation.

Here's a brief synopsis of the gunbattle:

GLENDALE - An officer was shot and a man was killed following a series of gun battles between the man and several officers Monday evening, police said.

The wounded officer was struck in the chest but was wearing a bullet-proof vest and is expected to survive, said Sgt. Tom Lorenz, with the Glendale Police Department.

The shooting occurred around 9:30 p.m. near Colorado Boulevard and Adams Street after an officer chased a suspect who then turned and began firing a weapon at the officer, Lorenz said.

The rest of the story is here.

Meanwhile, Monrovia police and Sheriff's detectives continue to investigate the OIS that occurred there early Sunday morning. Police have identified the Monrovia officer wounded in the incident, but have yet to provide a name for the suspected shooter, who remains in the hospital.

Star-News reporter Melissa Pamer filed an update in the case, which includes this information:

The 50-year-old, 320-pound suspect allegedly shot veteran Monrovia police Sgt. Dan Verna during a gun battle in the southwest corner of the city just after midnight.

The man, whose name is being withheld pending his discharge from a hospital and booking, was shot several times after he fired on Verna, authorities said.

Officials believe he was the same man wanted in connection to recent crimes in Arcadia, Monrovia spokesman Dick Singer said.

"He's suspected of being responsible for a whole string of burglaries in Arcadia," Singer said. "If it's this guy, then he's been getting very aggressive recently."

It's interesting that city spokesman Dick Singer apparently knows more than the police department in regards to this case.