Investigation Continues After Two Teenagers Shot And Killed In Cypress Park Area

The search for a gunman who allegedly shot and killed two teenagers in the Cypress Park area in early-November continues, with police now asking the public for help. It happened on Nov. 7 at around 12:10 a.m. in the 1400 block of Cliff Drive, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Officers were called to the area for reports of "unknown trouble" and arrived to find two male victims suffering from gunshot wounds. "Despite lifesaving efforts, the Los Angeles Fire Department Paramedics arrived at the location and pronounced both victims deceased at scene," LAPD said in a statement released on Monday. One of the victims has been identified as 18-year-old Denzel Guzman. The second is a 17-year-old male. Investigators did not release information on a suspect, only that they fled from the scene in vehicle. Anyone who knows more is urged to contact detectives at (213) 996-4163. 

CBS 2

Pedestrian Killed By Hit-and-Run Driver In Koreatown; Police Release Image Of Car Involved

Authorities are searching for the hit-and-run driver that killed a pedestrian in the Koreatown area early Wednesday morning. The crash happened at around 6 a.m. when the victim, who has not yet been identified, was crossing Western Avenue at Seventh Street and was hit by the driver of a light gray or blue Acura MDX, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Officers say that the car, likely 2004 to 2006 model, was driving northbound on Western Avenue and continued driving without stopping to help, heading towards Fourth Street. A standing reward of up to $50,000 has been offered by the city of Los Angeles for information that leads to the identification, arrest and conviction of the driver involved. Investigators believe that the car will have sustained damage to the front right passenger side in the collision. Anyone who knows more is asked to contact LAPD at (213) 473-0238.

CBS 2

Transient Sought After Stabbing Minor In Northridge: LAPD

Police are searching for a man who they say stabbed a minor in Northridge on Monday. The stabbing was reported shortly after 5 p.m. on the 9600 block of Balboa Boulevard, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Details on what led up to the violence were not clear. Paramedics tended to the minor’s injuries. It’s unclear how severe they are. The assailant is described as a transient in his 50s who was wearing dark clothing.

NBC 4

Hannah Kobayashi Crossed Into Mexico Alone, Police Say; Chief Urges Her To Message Her Family

Hannah Kobayashi crossed the U.S. border into Mexico on foot and alone, according to Los Angeles police. Investigators in the case of the missing Hawaii woman reviewed surveillance video from the Border Patrol on Monday, Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said at an evening news conference. “The footage clearly shows 30-year-old Hannah Kobayashi crossing the United States border on foot into Mexico,” police said in a statement. “She was alone, with her luggage.” On Nov. 12, Kobayashi was seen using cash and her passport to get a bus ticket to Union Station in order to reach the San Ysidro border crossing, where she crossed into Mexico through a tunnel shortly after noon, McDonnell said. Kobayashi has been classified as a voluntary missing person, McDonnell said, adding that law enforcement will be notified if she decides to reenter the U.S. Kobayashi went missing Nov. 8 after catching a flight from Hawaii to Los Angeles, with a connecting flight that would ultimately take her to New York, where she planned to visit relatives. Her family became worried after she landed at LAX and sent them cryptic text messages, suggesting that someone was trying to steal her money and identity.

Los Angeles Times

Caught On Video: Woman Hurls Racist Insults Toward Family On Shuttle Bus At LAX

A woman was caught on video hurling racist remarks and making obscene gestures at a couple and their children on a shuttle bus at Los Angeles International Airport. Pervez and Nicole Taufiq traveled to Los Angeles with their three children to spend Thanksgiving with family. They were on a shuttle bus when the woman unleashed her disturbing rant. "Your family is from India. You have no respect. You have no rules. You think you can push everyone," the woman said in the video. While giving the middle finger, the woman went on to say: "You guys are f------ crazy." Prior to the encounter on the bus, the parents said the woman's bizarre behavior started when she was sitting near their 11-year-old son on a United Airlines flight. Pervez Taufiq told Eyewitness News that the woman asked his son if he was Indian. After arriving at LAX and getting on a shuttle bus, one of the children pointed out the planes on the tarmac.

ABC 7

SFV Man Pleads Not Guilty To Carrying Luggage Containing Meth-Caked Clothing

A San Fernando Valley man pleaded not guilty Monday to possessing two suitcases containing clothing caked in methamphetamine while preparing to board a flight from Los Angeles International Airport to Australia. Raj Matharu, 31, of Northridge entered his plea to a federal count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. A trial date of Jan. 21 was tentatively set in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles. "Drug dealers are continually inventing creative ways of smuggling dangerous narcotics in pursuit of illicit profit -- as alleged in the facts of this case," U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement. "In the process, they are poisoning communities throughout the world. Law enforcement is committed to fighting drug trafficking, knowing that every seizure saves lives." According to court documents, on Nov. 6, Matharu attempted to travel from Los Angeles to Sydney. At the ticket counter, Matharu checked two luggage items -- one pink suitcase and one gray suitcase.

Westside Current

Father Arrested In Compton 9-Year-Old’s Fatal Shooting

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has arrested the father of a 9-year-old Compton boy in the child’s shooting death on Saturday. Princeton Jones, who was shot while playing outside his grandfather’s home at Haskins Avenue and Alondra Boulevard at around 7:40 p.m., was killed by his father, 32-year-old Nicholas Jones, officials said in a news release. The elder Jones was arrested on Sunday on charges of murder and child abuse resulting in death, the release added. Jail records show he is being held in lieu of $2 million bail at the East Los Angeles Station. He’s due to appear in Compton Municipal Court on Tuesday. Further details were not disclosed by investigators, but on Sunday, Najee Ali, director of Project of Islamic Hope, said the child was “shot down in cold blood” and implied that gang violence could be the cause. “There used to be a time where women and children were off limits to murder and gang violence,” Ali told KTLA’s Carlos Saucedo. “Unfortunately, those days are long gone.”

KTLA 5

Video: Man Uses Narcotics, Fires Shots At California Deputies Before Fatal OIS

Helicopter and body-worn camera footage released this week show what led up to seven sheriff’s deputies fatally shooting an armed man in Spring Valley earlier this month. The edited video shows 34-year-old Victor Rendon Jr. ignoring multiple commands from deputies just before he raises what appears to be a semi-automatic handgun in their direction in front of a home on Leland Street near Davenrich Street on Nov. 15. The edited video released Wednesday contains text from the Sheriff’s Office, images from body-worn cameras and footage captured by overhead helicopters on the afternoon of the shooting. The video begins with audio of a woman, later identified as Rendon’s ex-girlfriend, reporting in a 911 call that Rendon is in her backyard armed with a gun around 3:15 p.m. “I need a police officer to my house; they’ve been to my house numerous times,” the woman says. She later adds, “I wasn’t even expecting him to show up … he’s disorientated, and he’s under the influence.” Rendon’s ex-girlfriend adds that he has mental health issues, she is outside the house and that she doesn’t think he’ll hurt her. But she tells the operator her children are still inside the home. A camera shows Rendon in the backyard, apparently smoking narcotics with a gun laid on the table next to him.

San Diego Union Tribune

BWC: Suspected DUI Driver Slams Into Cruisers As Florida Officers Conduct Traffic Stop

Three law enforcement officers were injured when a suspected drunk driver crashed into their patrol vehicles during a felony traffic stop, CBS 12 reported. St. Lucie County Sheriff’s deputies Skylar Guertin and Jeffrey Anzalone, along with Fort Pierce Police Officer Corey Bernardini, were assisting with the stop on Nov. 30 when a white SUV crashed intothe back of their patrol cars, according to the report. All the vehicles involved had their emergency lights activated. “You could see these patrol cars with their lights on two miles away,” said St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson, who noted the driver was found with an open container of alcohol in his vehicle and appeared to be slurring his speech. The crash left the officers bloodied and bruised, with cuts to their hands and various injuries, according to the report. Initially reported as serious, Pearson later clarified that X-rays revealed no broken bones. However, a third deputy sought medical attention after the adrenaline from the crash wore off. Photos shared by Pearson show the wreckage, with one patrol vehicle crushed and totaled on its left rear side. The SUV’s front end was destroyed, and its airbags deployed upon impact.

PoliceOne

Firefighters Knock Down Residential Fire In West Adams

Fire crews knocked down a residential fire in a two-story home in the West Adams neighborhood of Los Angeles Sunday. Flames were reported around 9 p.m. Sunday on the second floor and the attic of a home at 1949 W. 27th. St., east of South Western Avenue, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. More than 50 firefighters knocked down the flames by 9:30 p.m., according to the LAFD. No injuries were reported. The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

MyNewsLA

Hepatitis A Reported At Buffalo Wild Wings In LA County, Customers Told To Get Vaccinated

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is investigating a case of Hepatitis A at a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant in Monterey Park, the department announced Wednesday. Public health officials have told customers who visited the restaurant between Nov. 13 and Nov. 22 to get vaccinated for Hepatitis A, a liver infection caused by the highly contagious Hepatitis A virus. It usually carries more mild symptoms of fever, vomiting and diarrhea, but in some rare cases, can lead to liver failure or even death, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some people who are infected may experience no symptoms but still spread the viral infection. It can be transferred through sexual relations, "close person-to-person contact" with someone who's been infected and consumption of food and water that's been contaminated, the CDC says. LA County health officials reported the infection at the Buffalo Wild Wings in Monterey Park, located at 4000 Market Place, because an employee there was infected this month.

CBS 2

LA City Council To Reconsider Much-Debated Lease At Van Nuys Airport

Returning from its holiday break, the City Council Tuesday will reconsider a much-debated lease at Van Nuys Airport that proponents say would bring economic growth but nearby residents fear could cause further harm to their communities. Bonseph Helinet LLC — composed of Helinet Aviation Services, the Castagna 1998 Trust and Bonseph Holdings Van Nuys Inc. — is seeking a five-year lease, possibly extending for up to 25 years, for 4.22 acres of land and 17,253 square feet of office and hangar space at VNY. If City Council approves the lease, the group would seek entitlements for a $26 million redevelopment project at the site, including two new 30,000-square-foot hangars, 15,000 square feet of terminal/shop space, 72,000 square feet of renovated ramp areas, among other improvements. This is the second time the matter has come before the council.

MyNewsLA

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.