Good Morning. Retired LAPD Officer Monika Rehder Reinhardt has been battling ovarian cancer since May of 2017 and is in need of medical treatments that cause much financial strain. Click here to donate to Officer Reinhardt’s campaign.

A Police Service Representative of the LAPD has died from COVID-19, the department said Saturday. Raymond L. Guerrero, a 24-year employee of the LAPD assigned to the Communications Division, died Thursday of complications related to the COVID-19 virus, according to a police statement. He is survived by his wife — a PSR in the Communications Division — and two daughters, officials said. Guerrero “dedicated his career to ensuring that every call for service made by the community members we serve was answered. We thank you for your service and you will be greatly missed,” officials said in the statement. “The impact of COVID-19 has been devastating for this department and this city,” Chief Michel Moore said. “Guerrero’s passing marks the fourth employee who has fallen from this deadly pandemic, leaving yet another hole in our hearts.”

A police officer was seriously injured Wednesday evening after being stabbed while trying to arrest a suspect in southwest Denver. The suspect was connected to a report of trespassing and harassment at 620 N. Federal Blvd., Denver police said in a tweet Wednesday evening. The Denver officer was hospitalized and the suspect remains in police custody, officials said. Investigators did not identify the officer or the suspect. Several hotels are listed at the address of the stabbing, which is near the intersection of Federal Boulevard and U.S. 6. 

San Diego County's top prosecutor is rescinding permission for Los Angeles County's newly elected district attorney to prosecute an alleged cop killer and suspected armed robber after the D.A. refused to bring special charges against the defendant. In a Monday letter, District Attorney Summer Stephan criticized George Gascon, who was elected to office in Los Angeles County on a platform of prosecution reform that now has roiled law enforcement officials and some crime victims, FOX 11 of Los Angeles reported. "I do not want our San Diego county cases to be connected to any publicly-announced special directive that dismisses special circumstances and serious gun use allegations where your stated reason is 'in the interest of justice,' when clearly the facts of this defendant’s violent offenses show it is not," Stephan wrote. Stephan said she wanted to take over the prosecution of Rhett Nelson, 31, who is accused of committing five armed robberies in San Diego County in 2019. Days later, on June 10, 2019, he is suspected of killing two people in Los Angeles County -- off-duty Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Joseph Gilbert Solano, 50, and 31-year-old Dmitry Alekseyevichand -- in separate incidents, hours apart, FOX 11 reported. In her letter, Stephan said her office had agreed to let Los Angeles County prosecutors prosecute Nelson for the San Diego robberies with the understanding that he would face the maximum amount of prison time. Jackie Lacey was the Los Angeles County district attorney at the time. But Stephan said Gascon, who took office Dec. 7, ordered his attorneys to drop the enhancements, which could make Nelson eligible for parole when he's 50 without the special charges.

A gunman who fatally shot a man and critically wounded two others in an altercation Saturday in Boyle Heights remained at large, authorities said Sunday. The shooting occurred about 8:50 p.m. Saturday in the 700 block of Fickett Street following an altercation that was believed to be gang-related, LAPD Officer Mike Lopez said. The shooter fired multiple shots and fled on foot, Lopez said. One victim was pronounced dead at the scene. The other two victims, a man and a woman, were transported to a local hospital and were in critical condition, Lopez said. The victims were all in their 20s, Lopez said. No suspect had yet been identified as of midmorning Sunday.

A man fatally shot a woman and wounded her dog inside her car in Koreatown early Saturday then fled, authorities said. The incident happened in the area of Mariposa Avenue and Council Street around 1:10 a.m., according to LAPD. A man in his 20s approached a vehicle on foot and fired inside, killing the occupant, the Los Angeles Police Department said. He fled south on Mariposa Avenue toward First Street, LAPD said. The Los Angeles County coroner’s office identified the victim as 38-year-old Katherine McNally. Police had previously described her as being 37. Her dog was also found suffering from a gunshot wound and was expected to survive. Witnesses told officers the woman was seen walking to her vehicle, and the man approached and shot her as she got in the car, according to the Police Department. The shooter remained outstanding as of 5 p.m., LAPD said. Police described the gunman as being as Black man in his 20s, last seen wearing dark clothing. Anyone with information is asked to call LAPD’s West Bureau Homicide Detectives at 213-382-9470 or 877-527-3247. Those who wish to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477.

Police in Irving, Texas say a 46-year-old man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend in front of their young child in Pacoima, killed himself after coming to North Texas to visit his family. Herbert Nixon Flores was being tracked by the FBI Fugitive Task Force from Los Angeles, and the Irving Police Department was notified after it was found he could be visiting family in Irving. Flores is accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend "in the presence of their young child" at a home in Pacoima on Wednesday. Surveillance video released by the Los Angeles Police Department shows the victim attempting to remove her child from the backseat of a vehicle outside of a home when a silver or gray-colored sedan pulled into the driveway. The suspect began chasing the woman up the driveway as she attempted to enter the house. Police say Flores then fired six shots from his semi-automatic handgun. Following the shooting, Flores was eventually tracked down to a location in Arlington, Texas. Officers were monitoring his location, and he was seen getting into a vehicle that was heading towards Dallas. Dallas PD assisted with air and ground units, and marked police vehicles tracked down Flores. Once Flores realized he was being followed, police said he got out of the vehicle and fled on foot. According to police, Flores then shot himself as more police vehicles approached him. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

A man was shot to death Sunday evening at the Van Ness Recreation Center in the Hyde Park area of Los Angeles. The shooting was reported at 7:51 p.m. at the park at 5720 Second Ave., said Sgt. J. Phelps of the Los Angeles Police Department’s 77th Street Station. The man, about 50 years old, was shot multiple times including a head wound, and pronounced dead at the scene, Phelps said. The shooting occurred by or in the bleachers, he said. No suspect information was available.

One of two 18-year-old men who is charged — along with several juveniles, with fatally injuring a counselor who was trying to break up a fight at the South Los Angeles-area residential youth facility pleaded not guilty Thursday. Nyier Mason was charged Tuesday, along with Keith Lewis, in the murder of David McKnight-Hillman, 25. Lewis pleaded not guilty Wednesday. The two young men — who were both residents at the facility — could face up to 15 years to life in state prison if convicted as charged, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. Four boys, ages 16 and 17, denied Juvenile Court petitions charging them with murder, according to the District Attorney’s Office, which did not specify the potential punishment they could face. A directive issued shortly after new District Attorney George Gascon was sworn into office last month calls for prosecutors to “immediately end the practice of sending youth to the adult court system.” 

Police Sunday circulated a photo of a 72-year-old man suffering from tuberculosis and dementia, who went missing in Koreatown. Tae Kang was last seen about 4 p.m. Saturday in the 500 block of South Kingsley Drive, the Los Angeles Police Department reported. Kang was described as a 5-foot, 4-inch tall Asian man weighing 120 pounds with gray hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a white and blue striped T-shirt, gray sweat pants with white stripes. The LAPD’s Olympic station urged anyone with any information regarding Kang’s whereabouts to call them at 213-382-9027 or LA Regional Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477.

Three Sri Lankan men have been charged in California with aiding a terrorist group blamed for 2019 Easter attacks that killed 268 people in Sri Lanka, including five U.S. citizens, and injured hundreds, it was announced Friday. Mohamed Naufar, Mohamed Anwar Mohamed Riskan and Ahamed Milhan Hayathu Moahmed were charged last month in federal court in Los Angeles with conspiracy and providing and attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorst organization, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office. The men have no California connection but the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force that headed the investigation is based in Los Angeles, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. The three men were linked to a group in Sri Lanka that supported Islamic State and which is blamed for April 21, 2019, suicide bombings at Christian churches and hotels in three Sri Lankan cities, prosecutors said.

A ghastly crime is waking San Francisco up to a new reality. The honeymoon for District Attorney Chesa Boudin and his progressive views on law enforcement is over. His goals for a rebalanced legal system are on hold. The starting point is a legal no-doubter. A career criminal on parole at the wheel of a stolen car allegedly ran a red light and killed two pedestrians at a downtown intersection. He ran off and eventually was caught by police, who found a handgun in the vehicle and traces of alcohol and meth in his system. Boudin enters the picture next to receive the blame. Just weeks before, after yet another arrest, the suspect was let go by the district attorney’s office. The parole system was better equipped to handle the situation, Boudin suggested, than his office running the individual through the courts. That assumption meant that the deadly mayhem wasn’t his fault, he argued. That’s not an acceptable answer. Shunning his obvious responsibility to protect the public won’t work in this case, especially given the glaring circumstances and outcome. Arguments about restorative justice won’t cut it. Neither will finger pointing at parole authorities as Boudin has done.

Los Angeles County reported 14,482 new cases of COVID-19 and 166 additional deaths today, bringing the county's totals to 920,177 cases and 12,250 fatalities. The number of county residents hospitalized with the coronavirus was 7,964, two fewer than Saturday's report and the second consecutive day that the number has decreased. It was 8,074 on Friday. Of the total hospitalizations, 22% were in intensive care, according to the Los Angeles County Health Department. Nearly five million people have been tested for COVID-19 in the county since the pandemic began, with 17% testing positive, the department said. On Saturday, the health department also reported three more cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, known as MIS-C. This brings the total cases of MIS-C in L.A. County to 54 children including one child death.

Los Angeles County health officials said Sunday they will stop providing a commonly used coronavirus test after federal regulators raised questions about its accuracy. The decision affects only a small number of county-supported mobile testing sites. County health officials had already discontinued the broad use of oral swab tests produced by Silicon Valley start-up Curative over the summer because of concerns about too many false negatives. The use of Curative oral swab tests at the city of Los Angeles’ drive-through testing sites are unaffected by Sunday’s decision, although Mayor Eric Garcetti’s office said separately that the Dodger Stadium site would be turned into a vaccine distribution center this week, ending testing operations there Monday. Garcetti has defended the tests as broadly effective and said that moving away from them could lead to fewer people being diagnosed and greater spread of the virus. Guidance issued last week from the Food and Drug Administration warned healthcare providers and patients that the test made by Curative carries a “risk of false results, particularly false negative results.”

California continued to see a dramatic surge Sunday in its number of COVID-19 deaths as the state surpassed another milestone: 30,000 fatalities. The pace of daily COVID-19 deaths has climbed since the most recent surge began in November. On Nov. 3, California was recording about 40 deaths a day; by Thanksgiving, about 70 deaths a day; and by Christmas, about 220 deaths a day. By Sunday night, California was recording an average of 481 deaths a day for the previous week, a record. It took roughly six months for California to record its 10,000th death, which came Aug. 6, and four more months to record its 20,000th death, which was logged Dec. 8. California recorded its 30,003rd death Sunday night, just about one month later, according to a survey of local health jurisdictions conducted by The Times. Five of the highest single-day death tallies for California have been recorded in the last week.