UCLA Grad Student Attacked While Sleeping In Her Own Bed; Suspect Arrested

A UCLA graduate student was attacked while sleeping in her own bed in October, leaving an entire neighborhood concerned while she continues to recover from the injuries she suffered. Yael Itzkowich, a 24-year-old Israeli woman pursuing a career in acting at UCLA, was asleep in her second floor apartment near S. Bundy Drive and Iowa Avenue when she woke up to the suspect standing over her at about 3:30 a.m., police say. "He jumped on her. They started to struggle, he told her to be quiet," said LAPD Officer Eileen Lomis. The violent attack left Itzkowich with serious injuries that required hospitalization, and though her suspect is now behind bars, she's telling her story online while still recovering at home. "Before I could fully process what was happening, he jumped onto my bed and starting choking me," she recounted on an online fundraising platform aimed at helping cover her medical expenses. Officer Somis says that the suspect, 27-year-old Los Angeles man Gerardo Solarzano, scaled the building and cut through the screen of Itzkowich's apartment window to get in. "During the struggle, he pulled out a large knife and he stabbed her repeatedly," Somis said. "Her screams awoke neighbors. The neighbors called police. The suspect fled the apartment."

CBS 2

LAPD Warns Holiday Shoppers Of Rising E-Commerce Robberies

As the holiday season approaches, officers with the LAPD Operations-South Bureau are warning the public to be cautious when buying and selling items online. With e-commerce transactions increasing during this time of year, police stress the importance of staying vigilant. "Each year, there are many successful e-commerce transactions, however, some of those transactions have harmful and traumatic outcomes for our community," said LAPD Cmdr. Ryan Whiteman. The growing popularity of platforms like Facebook Marketplace and OfferUp for holiday shopping has led to a troubling rise in robberies. "In the past three months August to October, Los Angeles Police Department Operation-South Bureau areas have had five robberies involving e-commerce transactions. In the month of November, this trend continued and we've already had two additional e-commerce robberies," Whiteman said. LAPD says over the past several months, detectives were investigating a series of e-commerce robberies involving a suspect armed with a knife. The suspect used fake listings for items such as iPhones to lure victims to meeting locations before robbing them.

ABC 7

Bob's Big Boy killer, once facing execution, could have sentence reduced

One of two men convicted and sentenced to death for an infamous 1980 takeover robbery and massacre inside a Los Angeles Bob’s Big Boy restaurant, in which employees and customers were herded into a freezer and shot in the back, has begun legal efforts to have his prison sentence reduced, which could allow the once-condemned prisoner to be released on parole.

NBC 4

South LA Middle School Locked Down After Student Found Carrying Firearm

A South Los Angeles middle school was placed on lockdown for part of the school day after a student was found with a firearm on campus on Wednesday. According to Thomas Alva Edison Middle School officials, the incident began at around 11:10 a.m., when school administrators and Los Angeles School police detained a student after he was found carrying an unloaded firearm and live ammunition. The lockdown lasted for about a half hour, according to EMS Principal Salvador Velasco. The student's parents were notified of the incident, but no further information was provided on possible punishment. LA School Police will provide extra patrol for the campus through the remainder of the week "out of an abundance of caution," said a letter sent to the parents of EMS students. "We take our students' and our campus's safety and security very seriously," the letter said. "This is an opportunity for parents and guardians to discuss with their children the importance of using good judgment and avoiding dangerous activities."

CBS 2

Human Skull Found On L.A. County Beach Prompts Investigation

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office, along with investigators at the Palos Verdes Estates Police Department, are working to identify human skeletal remains found on a local beach over the weekend, officials announced. Details are limited, but in a news release, authorities with the police department said that a person at Rat Beach, in the 300 block of Paseo Del Mar, spotted what they believed to be a human skull along the low-tide waterline. After they were informed of the discovery, officers and detectives with PVEPD responded to the beach and located additional skeletal remains. Investigators with the L.A. County Medical Examiner’s Office responded to assist in the investigation and confirmed that the bones were those of a human. After the announcement, which the police department also posted to social media, some discussion in the comments section focused on if the remains might be those of Michael David Vanzandt. The 36-year-old Air Force veteran and father of three was last seen on surveillance cameras walking down the Hermosa Beach Pier Plaza on March 5, 2016, a little more than five miles away from the 300 block of Paseo Del Mar where the new remains were recently located.  

KTLA 5

DNA Links 1979 Rape, Killing Of California Teen To Man Who Reported Finding Her Body

More than 40 years later, DNA evidence has linked the rape and killing of a 17-year-old Riverside County girl to a man detectives came across from the start of the case. On Feb. 9, 1979, Esther Gonzalez was walking from her parents' house in Beaumont to her sister's house in Banning. But she never got there. The next day, she was found raped and bludgeoned to death, her body left in a pile of snow off Highway 243 near Banning, authorities said. The person who discovered her body was a man deputies said was argumentative when he made the call, according to the Riverside County District Attorney's Office. He reported finding her body to the sheriff's station in Banning, telling investigators he couldn't tell if the person was male or female. A few days later, detectives identified the man as Lewis Randolph "Randy" Williamson. They asked him to take a polygraph and he agreed. He passed, leading to him being cleared in the case, according to prosecutors. But decades later, investigators continued to work the case and uploaded a DNA sample from the crime scene into the nationwide database known as CODIS. Last year, cold case homicide detectives sent pieces of evidence to Othram, Inc., a Texas-based corporation that specializes in the investigation of unsolved cases using investigative genetic genealogy, which combines forensic evidence with genealogy research using sources like ancestry websites.

CBS 2

BWC: Burglar Climbs Through Window, Opens Fire At Indiana Officer With Handgun

A 20-year-old man was sentenced to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted murder in the shooting of a Fort Wayne police officer during a burglary, WANE reported. Following the sentencing, Fort Wayne Police released body camera footage showing the man exiting a house by a window and opening fire at the officer, according to WANE. The man, identified as Zar Ni Myint, admitted to opening fire on Officer Andrew Minardo with a fully automatic handgun during a chaotic confrontation earlier this year, according to the report. The incident occurred on June 13, when Fort Wayne police responded to a burglary at a home. According to court documents, Myint was still inside the home when officers arrived. Body camera footage shows officers searching the outside of the home. As Minardo went around to the back of the house through a narrow passageway, Myint crawled out of a window. Minardo spotted Myint and instructed him to stop. Myint then raised a handgun and fired. Minardo returned fire before stumbling away and telling his team that he had been hit. Myint was struck by gunfire but fled the scene. He was found later in the day, according to the report. Both the shooter and Minardo were treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

PoliceOne

Man Admits To Torching New York Trooper’s Childhood Home In Revenge Over Traffic Ticket

A Hudson Valley man pleaded guilty Tuesday to setting a New York state trooper’s childhood home on fire in revenge for the trooper issuing him a traffic ticket. Tyler Williams, 26, pleaded guilty to second-degree arson and faces up to 20 years in prison at his sentencing hearing on Jan. 6, the Orange County district attorney’s office said in a press release. “Every day in America, police officers write countless traffic tickets, and it does not result in those drivers setting fire to those officers’ homes in retribution,” District Attorney David Hoovler said. “Law enforcement represents the backbone of the safety of our community, and they must be protected for doing the dangerous work that they do every day.” Williams was pulled over in Middletown on Dec. 20, 2023, and issued multiple traffic tickets, authorities said. After the traffic stop, Williams began searching online for information about the trooper who pulled him over. He eventually found an address for the trooper’s childhood home in Warwick, about 15 miles south of Middletown, cops said. The following morning, the trooper’s childhood home was destroyed in a fire. Cops immediately launched an arson investigation, and Williams was arrested in May. 

New York Daily News

Body Found In South LA After Firefighters Responded To Call Of Tree On Fire

Firefighters with the Los Angeles Fire Department were responding to a tree fire when they discovered that a person was dead in the South Los Angeles area Thursday morning. At approximately 5:06 a.m., firefighters found the tree in “a larger area of rubbish” and found the body. According to the Los Angeles Police Department, the body was found near Vernon Avenue and Avalon Boulevard. ”Circumstances around the death are unclear at this time and will be investigated,” LAFD said. The cause of death has not yet been determined. 

NBC 4

LAFD Firefighters Honored For Going Beyond Call Of Duty At Annual VALOR Awards

From car fires to wildfires, the work of a firefighter is never easy. Oftentimes, they risk their lives for people they don't know, and on Wednesday, they were celebrated as heroes. Several members of the Los Angeles Fire Department were honored for going beyond the call of duty at the department's annual VALOR awards ceremony. Guests had the opportunity to meet the honorees, like Shedrick Griggs, who was honored for saving a man from a burning truck in the middle of the 134 Freeway in Burbank earlier this year. Video shows the overturned truck on fire as crews pull the victim through a shattered windshield. The victim survived thanks to help of Griggs. "I don't feel like a hero, I'm just doing what I was called to do," he said. The 34-year-old was just two years into serving as an LAFD firefighter, a career he's been wanting since he was 7. "I came in first place in the little push up competition with one of our firefighters, so I was like, 'Ok, if he could do it, I can do it,' and 20 years later, here I am," said Griggs. Firefighters Ethan Ramirez and apparatus operator Jake Peters were both honored with a Medal of Merit.

ABC 7

City Council Delays Vote On Proposed Wage Increase For LA Tourism Workers

The City Council Wednesday delayed until Dec. 11 its vote on a proposal to increase the minimum wage for tourism workers, including hotel and airport employees, who are seeking better compensation and health benefits ahead of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. The decision to table the proposal came after a lengthy and difficult discussion with city department officials and a representative from Berkeley Economic Advising and Research, a consulting group that conducted an economic impact assessment for Los Angeles. The discussion left elected officials with more questions than answers. Council members asked Samuel Neal, an economist for the group also known as BEAR, several questions about the study via teleconference. They focused on issues such as hotel operations and developments, potential price hikes, the city's ability to host the Olympics, and on local taxes, among other topics. Several council members criticized the report, arguing it lacked sufficient information and failed to thoroughly analyze the potential impacts on the city and industries such as construction.

Westside Current

About the LAPPL: Formed in 1923, the Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL) represents more than 8,900 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.