Good morning! On April 15, 2023, Officer B. Jerry Sandoval was killed in a traffic collision. Please consider donating to the Blue-Ribbon account established for Jerry to support his wife, Christine and twin sons, Logan and Jacob. Click here for more details.

LAPD Memorial Ceremony Planned Honoring Fallen Officers

Since the official founding in 1869 of the Los Angeles Police Department, 239 officers have lost their lives in the line of duty — and Wednesday, all of them will be remembered during a solemn memorial ceremony at LAPD headquarters. Family members of fallen officers will be joined by LAPD Chief Michel Moore, elected officials, members of the Police Commission and active LAPD personnel at the 9 a.m. ceremony. The department said the program will feature traditional police honors — including a roll call of the fallen, a rider-less horse, a rifle volley, a helicopter flyover in the “missing man” formation, bagpipers playing “Amazing Grace,” a solo bugler playing “Taps,” and the time-honored “end of watch broadcast.” The ceremony will also include the inaugural performance of the LAPD Choir — a voluntary group of sworn and civilian LAPD employees. It will conclude with family members and partners of the fallen placing long-stem roses near their loved one’s name plate on the Memorial Wall.

MyNewsLA

Video Shows Suspect Violently Beating Oklahoma Officer Unconscious

Oklahoma City police have released bodycam video showing a violent attack on one of their own during an investigation. Sergeant Morgan Reynolds was investigating a domestic violence report, according to KOCO, when the suspect, DeAngelo Wright, struck Reynolds and continued to hit her even after she was knocked unconscious. Officers had responded to this address for Wright causing a disturbance, but he left before officers arrived. On the second call, Sgt. Reynolds was the first to arrive and make contact with Wright. Wright violently punched Reynolds until a witness intervened. He fled the scene, but officers caught him nearby the apartments. Police said this was not the first time Wright assaulted an officer. He is now in jail on a $10 million bond. In a Facebook post, the department stated that Wright had two outstanding felony warrants for kidnapping and aggravated assault and battery resulting from an incident he was involved in just prior to being incarcerated in 2021.

PoliceOne

Man Accused Of Biting Off Part Of LAPD Sergeant's Finger At Metro Station Faces Charges

A 36-year-old man accused of biting off part of a Los Angeles Police Department sergeant's finger at a Metro station was charged Monday with aggravated mayhem. Ephraim Okorie also faces two felony counts of assault on a peace officer or firefighter in the attack Thursday at the Vermont/Santa Monica Metro B Line Station in East Hollywood. He was expected to appear in court Monday. It was not clear whether he has an attorney who can speak on his behalf. He was being held on $130,000 bail, according to jail records. Officers were on patrol on the Red Line train at about 10 a.m. Thursday they saw a man in possession of drug paraphernalia, police said. Officers approached the man and escorted him off the train at the Vermont/Santa Monica Station. After Okorie was taken off the train, he fought with officers, police said. During the struggle, Okorie bit off a portion of a finger of an LAPD sergeant, police said.

NBC 4

Family Demands Justice After Young Woman Caught In ‘Gang Crossfire' In South LA Dies

The family of 19-year-old Jazmin Green gathered for a press conference and vigil Tuesday evening following her murder in South Los Angeles. Family says Green was coming home from work on April 24, and was parking her car at East 105th Street and San Pedro Street when her family said she was caught in the middle of gang crossfire. Green sustained a gunshot wound to her head, and was rushed to the hospital by fire officials. She died days later. The Los Angeles Police Department told FOX 11 that two suspects were involved in the shooting and drove away from the scene afterward. There is no suspect or vehicle description, according to police. "I would like justice for my daughter. She had a whole life ahead of her. She just turned 19. It just hurts so bad. She was a good girl. She went to school, didn't do anything, and barely wanted to come outside. All she wanted to do was sleep, eat and clown around in the house. I don't understand. I know I'll probably never understand," said Theresa Pearson, Green's mother.

FOX 11

School Stabbings, Traffic Crashes, More Suspected Fentanyl Overdoses Prompt Urgent LAUSD Safety Action

During one school day this week, Los Angeles Unified grappled with three emergencies: a double stabbing outside a high school, multiple suspected fentanyl overdoses at a middle school and a traffic collision outside an elementary school that badly injured a child. The Monday violence and trauma was so alarming that it prompted a Tuesday morning phone call between Mayor Karen Bass and L.A. schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho; the two pledged to work together to confront what feels to many parents like a school-safety crisis. The two leaders identified key safety concerns to address urgently: traffic, violence, drugs. “The mayor and I agree that these are the three main causes — right now in our school system, in our community — that are putting young lives at risk,” Carvalho said. In a statement, Bass spoke in similar terms: “Supt. Carvalho and I spoke today about strategies to keep our teachers, students and faculty safe and together we will host convenings of stakeholders and community members focusing on safety in and around our schools.”

Los Angeles Times

LAPD Investigating Menudo Founder Over Allegations Of Sexually Assaulting Ex-Boy Band Member

Edgardo Díaz, the founder of the internationally famous Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, is under investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department over allegations that he sexually assaulted a former teenage member of the group in the 1980s, police officials said. Allegations of sexual, verbal and physical abuse have swirled around Menudo for decades, but the investigation by the LAPD, centered around an attack that allegedly occurred at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, is the first known criminal investigation surrounding Menudo and its creator by law enforcement. “We can confirm a report was taken and it is an ongoing investigation,” an LAPD spokesperson said in a statement to The Times. “Due to victim confidentiality the department is unable to provide further.” The investigation stems from allegations made by former Menudo star Roy Rosselló, who was part of the teen-pop band during the height of its international popularity in the 1980s.

Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles High School Students Stabbed Near Campus: 10 Individuals Involved, Police Say

Two high school students stabbed outside Los Angeles High School in the Mid-Wilshire area Monday afternoon were attacked by as many as 10 people, police said Tuesday. The victims were listed in stable condition and expected to survive. Three suspects were detained as part of the investigation. Unidentified suspects approached two L.A. High School students on the 4600 block of Olympic Boulevard at about 4:30 p.m. Monday, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Prior top initial reports, only one of the two victims, 15- and 16-year-old boys, are believed to be LAUSD students. They were attacked at the corner of Olympic and Rimpau boulevards about an hour after the school let out for the day. The students were hospitalized in stable condition Monday afternoon. The victims sustained injuries to the upper back and arms and legs. They are expected to survive, police said Tuesday. The stabbing "was the result of an on-campus dispute," according to the LAPD. Police believe the suspects and victims know each other. Police said the suspects fled the scene in two vehicles.

CBS 2

WeHo Robbers Armed With AK-47 Possibly Arrested In Beverly Hills

A group of robbers who wielded what appeared to be an AK-47 during a holdup near La Boheme last month may have been taken into custody, a West Hollywood official said. The robbery at Santa Monica Boulevard and Orlando Avenue in West Hollywood was reported the night of April 25, but it may have been another robbery in Beverly Hills that led to the suspects’ arrests, said West Hollywood City Manager David Wilson. Beverly Hills police said Tuesday that three people held up victims outside of a department store on Beverly Boulevard, with one person armed with an assault-style rifle. Three people — a man and two women — were also accused in last week’s robbery, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. “The West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station has been working closely with Beverly Hills and believes that the four individuals in custody may have been the same four suspects involved in the West Hollywood robbery,” he told the West Hollywood City Council Monday night.

KTLA 5

Suspected Gunman Caught After 5 Dead In Texas Mass Shooting

Authorities near Houston say they have caught a man suspected of killing five of his neighbors, including a 9-year-old boy, with an AR-style rifle after the family confronted him late at night about firing rounds in his yard. Francisco Oropeza, 38, was arrested Tuesday, four days after the shooting late Friday in the town of Cleveland, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said. He said Oropeza was found hiding in the closet of a home, under a pile of laundry, after investigators acted on a tip. The capture happened near Conroe, which is roughly 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the home authorities say Oropeza fled after shooting his neighbors and setting off a widening manhunt that had grown to more than 250 people from multiple jurisdictions. Montgomery County Sheriff Rand Henderson said Oropeza was was arrested without incident “They can rest easy now, because he is behind bars,” Capers said of the families of the victims. “He will live out his life behind bars for killing those five.”

Associated Press

Frequent Shootings Put US Mass Killings On A Record Pace

Four people found shot to death in an RV in a small Mojave Desert community in California. Four partygoers slain and 32 injured in small-town Alabama during a Sweet 16 birthday that ended with a girl kneeling beside her fatally wounded brother. Six people, included three 9-year-old children, gunned down at an elementary school in Nashville. Now the discovery of seven people found shot to death in rural Oklahoma is keeping the U.S. on a torrid pace for mass killings in 2023 and could push the number of people slain past 100 for the year. The Mojave slayings over the weekend represented the 19th mass killing of the year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in a partnership with Northeastern University. That is the most during the first four months of the year since data was first recorded in 2006. The Oklahoma deaths have not been added to the database as of Tuesday afternoon. As of the Mojave shooting, 97 people had been killed in the 19 mass killings this year, exceeding the record set in 2009 when 93 people were killed in 17 incidents by the end of April.

KTLA 5

Fire At Commercial Building In Florence-Graham Knocked Down

Firefighters contained and extinguished a fire Wednesday at a commercial building in the Florence-Graham area of South Los Angeles. Fire crews responded at 4:24 a.m. to 8304 Broadway St. west of Main Street where they found the one-story building with heavy flames showing, said Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Nicholas Prange. It took 32 firefighters 21 minutes to extinguish the flames. No injuries were reported.

MyNewsLA

Amid A Rise In Reported Hate Crimes, California Creates A Special Hotline

California is officially launching a hotline this week for people to report acts of hate, as the state grapples with a rise in reported hate crimes. The statewide hotline, California vs. Hate, gives Californians an alternative to contacting law enforcement after a hate incident occurs. It can also connect people with support and resources in the aftermath of an act of hate, which could include mental health support, legal services or assistance with housing. “It’s not just a black hole where people will report things that happened to them,” said Kevin Kish, director of the California Civil Rights Department. “It’s something that’s going to connect people with resources.” People who dial (833) 866-4283 — or 833-8NOHATE — will be connected to trauma-informed “care coordinators” who work specifically for the program, Kish said. The hotline can provide translation into more than 200 languages, Kish said. Victims and witnesses can also go online to CAvsHate.org to report incidents.

Los Angeles Times

Councilman Kevin De Leon Calls For $2 Million For Viaduct Park

Councilman Kevin de Leon introduced a motion Tuesday calling for a $2 million allocation to complete a 12-acre park that would connect to the Los Angeles River via the reconstructed Sixth Street tunnel. “The communities of Boyle Heights and Downtown L.A.’s Arts District are among the most park-poor communities in all of Los Angeles,” de Leon said in a statement. “The $2 million I am investing in the Sixth Street PARC project is fundamental to my commitment to advance social and environmental justice and ensure that all residents, regardless of their ZIP code, have equal access to the benefits of open park space.” In July 2022, the city completed construction and opened the Sixth Street Viaduct. The bridge was part of a larger plan to reimagine the surrounding community, and as part of that effort, de Leon intends to support the completion of the Sixth Street Viaduct Park, Arts and River Connectivity, or PARC, Improvement Project.

MyNewsLA

About the LAPPL: Formed in 1923, the Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL) represents more than 9,200 dedicated and professional sworn members of the Los Angeles Police Department. The LAPPL serves to advance the interests of LAPD officers through legislative and legal advocacy, political action and education.