shooting: March 2008 Archives

War zone. Interesting choice of words.

Ever since moving here in the early 1980s, I’ve always been hyper-conscious of the possibility of encountering a gun on a freeway.

I’m pretty sure that in ’85 or ’86 a really mad guy driving a Bimmer near the junction of the Costa Mesa and San Diego freeways waved a piece out the window at me in my beat up, air-conditionless 1974 Mustang II. It occurred right after I crossed something like three lanes of traffic to go from the south 55 to the south 405, because that interchange was pretty darned confusing and difficult to navigate back then.

In the past couple of weeks, there’s been a spate of shootings on area freeways, all of which have baffled police and frightened motorists. The outcomes weren’t as benign as my encounter 20-plus years ago.

At least two of the recent incidents were fatal. A couple of others nearly fatal. One may have been the result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Here’s the roundup:

[BULLET]On March 12, Deborah Lynn Lepper, a 54-year-old Rancho Cucamonga chiropractor, was shot to death along a stretch of the 10 Freeway near White Avenue in Pomona. The case remains unsolved.

[BULLET]On Feb. 27, just a few miles north on the 210 Freeway between Irwindale and Grand avenues, a 46-year-old man was shot several times.

Azusa police told reporters a compact car pulled alongside the unidentified man and started shooting.

“And as he’s traveling eastbound at some point a vehicle opened fired on his car, striking his car several times on the passenger-side door,” Lt. Paul Dennis, of the Azusa Police Department, told a KABC reporter. “The vehicle was struck several times and our victim was hit a couple of times as well.”

[BULLET]This past Saturday night a man driving on the northbound 710 Freeway near Del Amo Avenue was apparently shot several times by someone in another car.

[BULLET]On Sunday the alarm was sounded when a man was found shot to death on the 101 Freeway in Sherman Oaks. It turns out his death may have been a suicide.

So much for the war zone theory.

Of course the truth is there are probably people getting killed every day on the freeway — just not by gunfire. So we don’t notice it as much, unless it ruins our commute or its gruesome enough to make the morning news.

After a day or so of keeping up with news accounts, reading blogs and listening to radio traffic reports about the recent shootings, it dawned on me that our freeways no longer have names.

There is no San Bernardino, no Pomona, no Long Beach, no Santa Monica, no Hollywood, no Golden State, no Artesia, no San Diego, no Foothill, no Harbor, no Pasadena, no San Gabriel River.

All those places, all those evocative names, they all add up to one two-word phrase that just as aptly describes the area outside of Baghdad’s Green Zone.

War Zone. Thanks, Drudge.

*Here's what Coroner's Lt. Fred Corral said regarding the Ernesto Frayre case.

*This is a transcription of my notes from a phone conversation with Corral on Monday afternoon:

The victim suffered a "gunshot wound to the head." The coroner's investigator wrote his report and assigned a double mode to the case. "Suicide vs. homicide," Corral said.

What this means Corral said is that the homicide detectives think one thing may have happened while the coroner's investigator think it was something else.

Homicide dets are leading toward homicide, coroner's investigator is leaning toward suicide.

Corral would not say if a gun was recovered at the scene. He also wouldn't say if there was a note of some sort.

A veteran Monrovia police Sergeant had been treated and released from a local hospital following a gun battle on city streets early Sunday morning.

Sgt. Dan Verna, who grew up in Monrovia and was a member of the Police Explorer program took at least one bullet to the chin and perhaps another in the shoulder.

Meanwhile, the man suspected of shooting Verna, was himself shot several times in an exchange of gunfire between Monrovia and CHP officers and the suspect.

The suspect has not been identified. He was apparently wanted in connection with some vehicle burglaries in both Monrovia and Arcadia, officials said.

*UPDATE: The Foothill Cities Blog has an entry, authored by Frazgo, devoted to the incident, including details about the suspect, who apparently has a lengthy rap sheet and was wanted in connection with a hot prowl in Arcadia.

Due to some technical issues, Thursday's column was much shorter in print and online than I had originally written it. (In other words I wrote long and space was short). You probably notice in reading it that it's pretty much a follow up to Sam Quinones excellent piece in yesterday's LAT.

I've heard that Quinones attended every day of trial and was able to score some interviews that I couldn't get. Most notably no one from the Azusa PD returned calls Wednesday to discuss Ralph Flores, Azusa 13 or the impact and aftermath of the spree of hate crimes that plagued Azusa between 1998 and 2004.

Complete column after the jump...

At the location near to residential communities, not far from the commercial district, Park corner is a kindergarten, residents in the Chinese and Hispanic majority. He evening, living in the vicinity of the house looks into Michael Hispanic television, not witnessed, but it 4-5 sound heard gunshots, he dared not go out to see, only silent prayer that no casualties.

This comes from the FBI who are continuing to search for Emigado Preciado. You might remember that a Whittier billboard featuring a picture of preciado was defaced with gang graffiti in recent months. Basicaly, the FBI is upping their reward to $200,000. Here's an excerpt from their press release:

The reward for information leading to the arrest of fugitive from Los Angeles, Emigdio Preciado, wanted for a brutal attack on two Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputies during a routine traffic stop, has been increased to $200,000, announced Salvador Hernandez, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI in Los Angeles.

Preciado's photograph is also being advertised on billboards throughout Los Angeles, courtesy of billboard space provided by Clearchannel, in an effort to draw attention to the reward. Emigdio Preciado, Jr., a.k.a. "Junior," "Trigger," "Spooky," and "Snyper," the alleged triggerman in the September 5, 2000 attack in Whittier, California, was the 485th person to be placed on the FBI's historic list when he was added in March 2007.

 On the date of the attack, Deputies Michael Schaap and David Timberlake were on patrol in Whittier, California, in a marked Sheriff's patrol car when they saw a 1979 Chevrolet van traveling toward them. As the van approached, the deputies noticed the van's headlights were not functioning properly and proceeded to stop the driver of the vehicle. When the van came to an abrupt stop, the deputies came under immediate attack from a burst of automatic gunfire.

The gunman, one of four occupants traveling in the vehicle, appeared from an open door in the van, according to Sheriff's detectives. Preciado, an American citizen, was identified as the alleged shooter.

The FBI's wanted poster is here.

Appraently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.

Some of the Daily Bulletin's coverage:

The incident apparently began just after 6 a.m. as a domestic dispute in which the man's wife was shot in the chest. The woman escaped to a neighbor's house and called police.

She was later airlifted to a hospital with apparently non-life-threatening injuries, according to Fuchs.

A 95-year-old woman, apparently the mother of the woman who was shot, was in the house after the shooting but was safely removed by SWAT team members.

The neighborhood around the house was evacuated, and Base Line between Towne and Mountain avenues remains closed.

 

Sheriff's deputies are at a home near the intersection of Towne Avenue and Baseline. There are reports that there has been a shooting. A suspect in the incident is apparently hiding in a nearby home or building. No further information is available.

Officials are reportedly treating the incident, which began at 6:15 a.m. as a hostage situation.

A woman was apparently hurt in the shooting. Her condition is unknown.