Recently in Temple City Category

Fire officials say three foreign exchange students escaped from their burning Temple City townhome "just in time" Saturday.

The blaze occurred about 7 a.m. in the 6200 block of Rosemead Boulevard, officials said.

The students, two men and a woman, were all in their early 20s and were believed to be exchange students from China, Los Angeles County Fire Department Capt. Al Traxler said.

The fire was sparked by a space heater downstairs and started moving up the stairs of the two-story townhome toward the upstairs bedrooms where the residents slept.

They awoke and smelled fire, and were able to get out before the fire blocked the stairwell, Traxler said.

The students had suit around their noses but were not injured, he said.

The townhouse was a total loss, Traxler said, and the damage was estimated at about $350,000.

The students were relocated with the help of the Red Cross. 

Jennifer McLain will be reporting this story later today:

 A burlgary ring that involved dozens of homes and a victim who was fired on by a suspect was broken this week. The Temple City's Sheriff's Department arrested four people, including one female, who were led the ring. The woman was arraigned today at the Alhambra Courthouse.

Jen says the ring was operating in Rosemead, Monterey Park and Temple City. More on this as it becomes available.

Yesterday I created a mirror site, in case of problems during our move to larger and better servers. It requires posting to both sites and hoping there's some kind of synchronization. I must admit I haven't done a complete job of it.

There are posts on the mirror site that aren't here and vice versa.

Here's a link to the mirror site.

As for the missing posts from this site, there are two. The first is titled "Girl pleads guilty to manslaughter, evading and street racing."

Here's an outtake:

A 17-year-old girl pled guilty Monday to several charges stemming from a collision that killed Angela Chung, 19, of Temple City.
Here's an excerpt from Dan Abendschein's online piece:

PASADENA - A 17-year-old girl pleaded guilty on Monday to four felony counts in a street racing case that killed a 19-year-old student from Temple City.
The girl, whose name was not released because of her age, was convicted in juvenile court. She will serve three months in a county probation department camp, and will have to pay restitution to the victim's family.

The second is a follow to the El Monte Homicide from the weekend. Again an excerpt:

The victim lived in a trailer (not apparently visible on Google Earth). Left no fingerprint of his existence as far as public records and was apparently arrested three times in recent months by El Monte and Baldwin Park police, according to the Los Angeles County's Sheriff's Inmate Locator.

The guy also has a lengthy rap sheet for drug possession, car thievery and spousal abuse. Motive anyone?

Here's our story for (Tuesday's) paper:

EL MONTE — Detectives are continuing to investigate the death of a 33-year-old man found shot inside a trailer late Saturday.

Jack Edward Hicks’ body was discovered shortly before midnight in the 5200 block of Cogswell Road, said Los Angeles County sheriff’s Deputy Denise Fuchs.

The body was found inside a trailer next to a back house where Hicks had been staying, said Detective Gil Carrillo of the Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau.

Star reporter Jennifer McLain, who has her own blog "Leftovers From City Hall", turned in an interesting piece about the rising number of female deputies in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Turns out that Temple Station has the highest percentage of female deputies (17 percent); while San Dimas has the lowest (6.3 percent) .

From the story:

"It's acceptable now for women to be in patrol," Harshman said. "When I came in, women in patrol was a new program."

While male and female officers agree that it is more "acceptable" for women to be deputies and commanding officers, the number of female sworn officers within the department is still only 16 percent and females account for only 22 percent of the enrollment in the academy classes.

But that number is constantly increasing, Fennell said. Recently, they increased their goal from 22 percent to 25 percent enrollment in the academy classes.

Some female officers said the consent decree brought unwelcome attitudes as well.

"I would hear comments like, `Oh, you got promoted just because you were a female.' I didn't appreciate that," said Sgt. Debra Hermon, 50. "I got my promotion based on merit."

Hermon, who has been with the department for 27 years, said she has mixed feelings about the consent decree.

"The sheriff's department has been very good to me," Hermon said. "But I'm not sure how I feel about the consent decree. It's like people want you as a female so that you could be a number of a list."

Just days after Crime Scene runs its first ever transportation story, we have another.  This from KCBS 2 KCAL 9:

Authorities traced cell-phone signals Sunday to find and arrest a man who left a suspicious package on a public bus, and then repeatedly phoned in bomb threats. The satchel was blown up by a bomb squad, but contained only "miscellaneous papers," according to Lt. Keith Obenberger of the sheriff's Transit Services Bureau.

The bomb threats kept coming, and sheriff's detectives were able to trace the man's cell-phone transmissions to a neighborhood near East Colorado Boulevard and North First Street in Arcadia.

"I believe we found him (the suspect) on the street," Obenberger said. The incident started at about 9:45 a.m., when the suspect made several calls warning that there was going to be a bomb on a bus, singling out the bus route number.

Deputies notified the bus driver, who said he found an unattended package underneath one of the rear seats in his bus, he said.

Deputies and a bomb squad rushed to the area of Baldwin Avenue and Las Tunas Drive, evacuating what they said was a "large circumference" of neighboring businesses and an apartment building, Obenberger said.

The squad blew the suspicious package apart at about 11:30 a.m., and the suspect "kept making more threat," Obenberger said. "We were able to narrow down where he was at."

The man, whose name has not been released, was booked at the sheriff's Temple station on suspicion of making terrorist threats and false reporting of a bomb.

A memorial site Tuesday,  December 4, 2007 for Angela Chung 19, of Temple City, who was killed in a possible road-racing incident in the early hours of Sunday morning.  A 17-year-old girl was arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter. The memorial site of the accidentwas Rosemead Boulevard and Las Tunas Drive in Temple City. (SGVN/Photo by Walt Mancini/SXCity)

UPDATE 9:48 p.m. 12-4-07

Somehow the photo of the Memorial didn't post here. It's very nice. There is a framed photo of Angela, several candles and what appear to be stuffed animals. I will get the photo posted here Wednesday morning.

Angela will also unfortunately be added to the growing homicide database as number 81 for the year locally.

UPDATE 6:50 p.m. 12-5-07

Finally added the photo from the memorial. Apparently Angela was an honor student at Woodbury University. We have another picture of her apparently from a family member that I will try to post tomorrow. 

Kids went back to school in Temple City and for the first time in anyone's memory there, they are dealing with the aftermath of a drive-by shooting. Police suspect Deandre Netter was shot and killed by former classmates.
I think the most interesting element of this is how the tension has even filtered down on to the football team. During preseason drills, an assistant coach and student got into an argument over the shooting, What's even more interesting is how the school district has dealt with that element of the fallout.

The arrests of both suspects in the Deandre Netter murder coupled with the arrests of suspects in the hate crime stabbing of a man outside Carl's Jr. on Las Tunas Drive, gave investigators some room to talk about both cases.
On background they have repeatedly said the cases might be linked. The link became clearer Thursday when a homicide detective said search warrants served on most of the suspects in both cases turned up similar graffiit in all their homes. The graffiti seemed to indicate the teens are all memebrs of a group that called itself "Brown Side."
No one is sure about the origin of the name.
Arraignment for Phillips Guerra and Christopher Lopez, both 18, both charged in Netter's murder, has been scheduled for mid-September. Both waived their speedy trial rights in the case, authorities said.

Crown City News is reporting, and SGVN's Brian Day has confirmed, that Phil Guerra, 18, wanted in connection a drive-by shooting in Temple City has turned himself into authorities.
Brian reports that a watch commander at the Temple City Station Friday night told him Guerra showed up at the station on Tuesday.
Sheriff' s homicide promised a heads-up. Guess they forgot. Sheriff's Headquarters Bureau, which handles the press, had no idea Guerra was in custody Friday night.
The inmate locator indicates he's at Men's Central with a $4 million bail on his head.
Chris Lopez ...

In case you are wondering (like me) ... Sheriff's detectives report they are still searching for Temple City teens Phillip Adrian Guerra and Christopher Gilbert Lopez, both 18, in connection with the drive-by shooting of Deandre Netter.
Neither boy has been found, but detectives say they believe a break in the case is right around the corner. Another search is on for Richard Alexander, a 17-year-old Temple City youth wanted in connection for a stabbing at Carl's Jr. on Las Tunas near the corner of Golden West.
All three teens are former students at Temple City High School, as was Netter.
Meanwhile,

Got this email this a.m. from a former Temple City resident who is saddened by recent events.
Sharing it here, beacuse I've heard a lot of comments like this over the past week.

lived in Temple City most of my life and it use to be such a nice community to live in. You could take walks in the evening and not worry about getting shot at.

There was a containment in Temple City last night as deputies went to work in their search for clues in the Deandre Netter homicide.
Got this note from Night Editor Phil Drake:

Turns out that deputies were assisting homicide bureau in serving search warrants at homes. It was regarding a murder ... but would not release details. Sheriff's command post was at lemon and temple.