shooting: April 2008 Archives

Brian Day reports on another shooting in the Valinda-La Puente corridor. Killed Monday morning was a 43-year-old man standing in a driveway in the 700 block of Foxworth Avenue.

From Brian's story:

LA PUENTE - Authorities had few leads Monday in the shooting death of a man in a residential neighborhood, authorities said.

Alex Trejo, 43, of Valinda was pronounced dead at the hospital after being shot numerous times, sheriff's and coroner's officials said.

Deputies responded to 9-1-1 calls reporting a gunshot victim just after 5 a.m. and found a 43-year-old man with multiple gunshot wounds in front of a house in the 700 block of Foxworth Avenue in an unincorporated county area near La Puente, said Los Angeles County sheriff's Sgt. Gerard Velona.

While several witnesses reported hearing gunshots shortly before the body was found, no witnesses reported seeing the shooting, said Detective Steven Blagg of the sheriff's Homicide Bureau.

The man was found lying in the driveway of a single-story home with numerous gunshot wounds from a handgun, Blagg said.

 

EL MONTE - A stabbing, a shooting, three search warrants leading to a major pot bust and a bomb scare involving 30 pounds of TNT.
It's a roll call of major crime that sounds like it could fit neatly into a busy month for any police department.
But in El Monte, those calls made up part of a frantic 48 hours that saw police handle two homicides - making arrests in both cases; bust up a $2 million pot operation 15 miles away in Rowland Heights; and swiftly clear a neighborhood endangered by 30 pounds of TNT.
"We have a very active city," said police Chief Ken Weldon. "It's a challenge to stay on top of it." 

Sheriff's officials said Peter Sanchez, 38, of El Monte, has been arrested in connection with the slaying of Elaine Garza, 41.

Garza was shot to death in the parking lot of Five Points Plaza in El Monte Tuesday.

Her mother identifed Garza as an informant and said family members knew it was coming.

Sanchez doesn't appear in the sheriff's inmate locator as of 11:30 a.m. Wednesday. It is unclear if he has been booked.

*Turns out suspect's name is actually Joseph Sanchez, DOB 10-03-1969. He's being held on a parole violation at the El Monte city jail, according to El Monte police LT. Santos Hernandez.

 ** Sources close to the investigation said Garza and Sanchez had been involved in some sort of altercation previous to the shooting. The altercation allegedly took place at the Victory Motel where Sanchez was later arrested.

** Sources close to the investigation also said Sanchez fled the scene on a "Razor"-type scooter. He went back to the Victory Motel and was arrested with a handgun still in his waistband.

One witness said the shooting resulted from a purse snatching gone wrong. We'll update as soon as more info is available.

If true, the shooting would be El Monte's second homicide today and *eighth this year.

*LA County Sheriff's homicide detectives are rolling to the scene of the shooting at 12030 Valley Boulevard (near Five-Points)

*A man has apparently been arrested in connection with the case at the Victory Motel on Garvey Avenue, according to reporter Claudia Palma who is at the scene.

**The victim may have been a well known El Monte police informant, according to several sources. There is a rumor that the victim had informed in a recent case that lead to a large scale bust (possibly the pot house?)

**** A person of interest has been detained in connection with the shooting, sheriff's officials said. The man was apparently in possession of a handgun similar to that used in the killing.

**** The dead woman was identified by authorities and her mother as Elaine "Baby" Garza, 41, a resident of El Monte and mother of four kids.

****Here's my notes from conversation with reporter Claudia Palma who is at the scene:

" her mom thinks she was an informer and the people who might have done this were upset about several raids pulled off by the El Monte PD. Mom not surprised said she expected it. said her daughter lived a bad life..."
 

View Larger Map

Brian Day interviewed family and friends of Jack Hicks, killed last week in El Monte. Many of his acquaintances recalled Hicks as a good guy who made some bad choices ...

Here's the opening from Brian's piece:

EL MONTE - The fatal shooting of 33-year-old Jack "Eddie" Hicks last week remains a mystery, authorities said.

His body was discovered inside a trailer April 12 with a single gunshot wound about two hours after he left his girlfriend's house, according to officials and family members.

No witnesses have come forward and no motive or suspect description is known, said Lt. Gil Carrillo of the Los Angeles County sheriff's Homicide Bureau.

"I hope we find out what really happened," said Hicks' cousin, who requested his name not be published for fear of retaliation.

"He's not just a man found dead in a trailer," said the cousin. "My cousin was a good guy."

"He'd give you the shirt off his back if you're cold," said Hicks' girlfriend, who also asked her name be withheld. "Everywhere he went he was loved," she said.

Hicks had two daughters, 7 and 8 years old, with previous girlfriends and another on the way with his girlfriend, who said she's currently four months' pregnant.

Hicks, who had been in and out of prison over the years and battled a drug problem, "wasn't an angel," said his cousin, but he was a friendly man who didn't have any enemies.

Pasadena Star-News city editor did a little enterprising reporting on the arraignment of Brandon Landreth at the Pasadena courthouse this a.m.

Landreth is acused of killing Justo Cesar Morlaes then skating off from the scene of the crime on Canyon Drive in Arcadia.

Here's what Hector found out(this comes from an IM Hector sent):

Not much information available on this one. Appears to have happened late Saturday night. Sheriff's and El Monte PD just got around to reporting it Monday. Here's the details from our website:

EL MONTE - Authorities today identified a man found shot to death in an El Monte home during the weekend.

Jack Edward Hicks, 35, was found dead about 11:50 p.m. Saturday in the 5200 block of Cogswell road, said Deputy Ed Hernandez of the Sheriff's Headquarters Bureau.

Sheriff's homicide detectives were assisting El Monte police in the investigation

Official counts indicate three murders county-wide during the 40-hour "Murder Moratorium."

The moratorium was planned as a way of honoring the death 40 years ago of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. THe LA City Council rejected the idea initally, but did issue a proclamation against violence. No one's checked weekend violence stats yet, but undoubtedly they are typical for an average weekend in Los Angeles County.

One of those killed over the weekend was a 23-year-old La Puente man, shot to death in the 400 block of Edgley Drive in Monterey Park.

Alfred Richard Chavez, 23, was shot about 1:20 a.m. Sunday, according to a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner. Sheriff's Homicide is investigating the case.

Richard's case is the third homicide in the La Puente area investigated by the Sheriff's Homicide Bureau this year.
Joe Rudy Encinas of La Puente was pronounced dead at the scene of a March 8 shooting on Tonopah Avenue near Flynn Street, coroner's officials said - about one mile away from where Richard was shot.
Encinas was driving his car when he was shot in the back, officials added. A motive or suspect description was not known.
Lt. Larry Lincoln of the Sheriff's Homicide Bureau said Encinas was not known to have any gang ties.
On Feb. 3, a 43-year-old La Puente resident was found stabbed to death inside a trailer in the 13800 block of Proctor Avenue, said Los Angeles County sheriff's Sgt. Edmundo Hummel.
"(The violence) needs to stop," said Julie, Richard's sister. "We wanted to come out here not just for Richard, but for all the victims."
Alice said her son's organs have already helped to save the lives of at least eight people.
"Pray for those people who got his organs," she said.
Alice addressed the group of young people in front of the memorial, urging them to use caution.
"All you kids please be careful. Watch it out there. Keep an eye on your back. Keep an eye on your friends' backs. Keep safe," said Alice.

Brandon Michael Landreth, suspected in the Sunday slaying of Justo Morales holds a California state teaching credential and was teaching at Muir High when arrested in the case, according to preliminary information.

A commenter here said Landreth and Morales were involved in a love triangle that went sour. We have no evidence of that, however Landreth and his wife recently divorced.

Neighbors on Canyon Road in Arcadia where Morales was killed were guarded when speaking to reporter Robert Hong who visited the scene this afternoon.

In Monrovia, where Landreath and his estranged wife lived, neighbors said little about the couple.

For now Ladreath is being held at the Twin Towers jail on a no bail warrant. He will be arraigned Friday, authorities said.

RCJ Parry has a lengthy post on TheFCBlog about how the Monrovia Police Officers Association has been ill treated by the city even after the shooting of Sgt. Dan Verna early Sunday.

From Parry's commentary:

Regardless of your opinion of the Monrovia Police Officers’ Association’s tactics, the City of Monrovia has clearly taken the most egregious steps possible in attacking not only the MPOA, but the Police Department itself.

The City Council voted Tuesday night to study three measures which would utterly destroy the police department - one of which would directly impact crime fighting efforts and, in fact, will unquestionably bring the current anti-gang effort to a screeching halt.

The proposals reflect the council’s complete and utter ignorance of police work, an astounding failure to understand markets (or intentional sabotage of MPD) and the individual council members’ personal contempt for the officers of the department. Remarkably, all this came barely three days after MPD Sergeant Dan Verna came within a fraction of an inch of dying at the hands of a common thief.

“This is strictly punitive,” Phil Nelson, MPOA president, told me. “It has nothing to do with improving police services in this community.”

The whole enchilada is here.

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.

I received the email below after posting this entry on the homicide in Arcadia. I've redacted the writer's name because its unimportant.

Here's the letter:  

I think it's interesting how very glib you are being about this murder.  Have you been to the area of the crime, Canyon Road?  Do you really think it's "ritzy"?  What a ridiculous word to describe an area of canyon homes- they are for the most part not ostentatious, not shiny, not over the top.  The word  "ritzy" immediately sets you up to look immature and not objective.   Is this murder any less horrifying because it happened in Arcadia?

Get over yourself.