A homicide epidemic claimed the lives of three Baldwin Park High School students in the 2007-08 school year.
Yes, epidemic.
Consider the numbers. There are about 5,100 high school students attending various secondary schools in Baldwin Park.
Between September and June, bullets claimed the lives of three of those students. That translates to a homicide rate which is slightly less than Colombia’s.
So what’s going on?
“I really wish I knew,” said Baldwin Park Unified School District Superintendent Mark Skvarna. “Factions are feuding with factions inside and outside the city. Somebody gets upset and this is the result.”
Skvarna agreed the killing of Baldwin Park high schoolers is out of control.
“I would have considered one (homicide) an epidemic,” Skvarna said. “I don’t want to see our community go through that. The frustration level is off the scale.”
Family members and friends identified the most recent victim as 16-year-old Ruben Chavera, a student at the Opportunities for Learning Charter School in Baldwin Park. He had previously attended Sierra Vista High School.
This school-year gun violence also claimed the life of Jose Perez, a 16-year-old Baldwin Park High School student who was shot to death outside a home in the 5000 block of Maine Avenue on May 3.
And, in November, Baldwin Park High student Luis Estrada, 14, and his father, Pedro, were gunned down by four attackers in front
of their home in the 4000 block of Downing Avenue.
Three teens, all former Baldwin Park students, have been arrested in the Estrada case, officials said. A fourth remains at large.
Gang rivalry apparently motivated all the slayings, authorities said.
Baldwin Park recently hired a new police chief – ostensibly to deal with problems like this. New police Chief Lili Hadsell sent phone calls seeking comment for this story to a spokesman.
Baldwin Park police Lt. David Reynoso, Hadsell’s flack, said the city’s doing everything it can to cut into the gangs that seemingly rule the night these days.
“We’ve had extra enforcement, the gang units have doubled,” Reynoso said. “There’s more officers on the street working toward identifying the people behind these crimes; specifically the murders. But we can’t be everywhere.”
If Hadsell returned my call, she might say that crime stats are a difficult thing to get a handle on anyway, especially when it comes to homicide.
Look at Pasadena this year. No homicides.
By contrast in 2007, the city counted four homicides between January and June.
Community activists and city officials described the downturn in 2008 as a hopeful sign. Pasadena’s acting police Chief Christopher Vicino claimed solid police work was largely responsible.
But what if it was something else?
Consider this: On March 25, three men were shot at on North Fair Oaks Avenue near Washington Boulevard in Pasadena. The men were apparently targeted for “no reason at all.”
What if they had been hit? What if they had been killed?
Thankfully they weren’t. For now, Pasadena smells like roses.
Baldwin Park on the other hand …