Good Morning. Officer Al Martinez needs our help. Following a bout with COVID, Al’s wife has been receiving very expensive cancer treatment. Officer Martinez was recently in an on-duty traffic accident which has left Officer Martinez in need of our help. A taco plate fundraiser is being conducted at VTD on 6/16 and 77th on 6/17 to raise money for his family. Click here for more information.
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Wounded LAPD Cop Still Hospitalized From Wild Gunfight In Sherman Oaks Apartment Garage
An off-duty Los Angeles Police Department officer remained hospitalized Thursday after being shot with his own service weapon during a rolling gun battle in Sherman Oaks that also injured the suspect, who allegedly broke into the officer’s car and stole his weapon and bulletproof vest. The dramatic confrontation occurred about 2:25 p.m. Wednesday when the officer, accompanied by a female companion, left his apartment and entered the subterranean locked parking garage of the complex in the 5200 block of Vesper Avenue, near Van Nuys and Magnolia boulevards. According to LAPD Chief Michel Moore, the officer discovered the suspect sitting in the officer’s car, wearing his bulletproof vest and in possession of the gun, which was in a duty bag inside the vehicle. “As he confronts the suspect … an altercation ensues,” Moore said. “That altercation turns into what we believe to be a gun battle between the both of them, with the suspect using the officer’s primary duty weapon and the officer defending himself from that attack. This ensuing altercation goes through the subterranean garage in an easterly direction to the back side of this apartment and into an east-west breezeway, where the suspect is struck … and falls to the ground.” Moore said the officer, who was armed with a backup handgun, approached the wounded suspect and retrieved his service weapon, then went back to his vehicle in the garage. The officer places the guns “next to the vehicle and collapses, as he has suffered multiple gunshot wounds — two to the chest and one to the side,” Moore said.
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Man fined $12m for police station arson during George Floyd protests
A man has been ordered to pay $12m (£8.6m) for his role setting a Minneapolis police station on fire during rioting last May. A man has been ordered to pay $12m (£8.6m) for his role setting a Minneapolis police station on fire during rioting last May. According to prosecutors, Robinson lit a Molotov cocktail which another person then threw at the Minneapolis Third Precinct headquarters - setting the building ablaze.Surveillance video at the precinct shows Robinson lighting an "incendiary device" held by another person and later setting a fire inside the station near a first floor stairwell, officials said.
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LAPD Chief Outlines His Case For Increased Funding Under Mayor’s Budget
Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore Thursday spoke before the L.A. City Council Budget and Finance Committee to outline his case for his department’s budget increase under Mayor Eric Garcetti’s 2021-22 fiscal year proposal, which would give the department about $1.76 billion. In the committee’s third of eight meetings to break down Garcetti’s proposed $11.2 billion budget, Moore spoke to the committee’s five council members about why he thinks the department needs the funding proposed, calling the budget “a good budget.” The Los Angeles Police Department would receive the most funding in the proposed budget, with a $1.76 billion budget, a 3% increase from when the Los Angeles City Council cut $150 million from the department’s budget last July. Moore spoke about an increase in violent crime and gun violence in the city in 2020 and 2021, which he attributed to “significant impact the pandemic has had on every aspect of our lives” after a decade of decreasing homicides and gun violence. He said that the budget increase would allow the department to increase sworn personnel to 9,751 officers. In July 2020 the department had 9,951 officers, but it is expected to decrease to 9,501 by June of this year due to attrition and a decrease in hiring due to the current fiscal year’s budget crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic. About 95% of the proposed budget goes to paying personnel, Moore said.
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5 Arrested In Shooting Of Lady Gaga’s Dogwalker And Theft Of Her Bulldogs In L.A.
When a middle-aged woman walked into a Los Angeles police station with two of Lady Gaga’s French bulldogs in late February, she claimed she had simply come across the dogs tied to a pole, police said at the time. She also inquired about a $500,000 reward the singer had offered for their return, according to police. Detectives remained mum as speculation, fueled by the pop star’s worldwide popularity, swirled over whether the woman really was a good Samaritan or was linked to the brazen robbery of the dogs during a nearly fatal shooting of Lady Gaga’s dogwalker a few nights prior. Prosecutors and police shed some light on the mystery Thursday, when they announced the arrests and criminal charges of five people in connection with the shooting. One of those taken into custody was 50-year-old Jennifer McBride, the woman who’d turned up with the dogs. McBride, the LAPD said, was in a relationship with Harold White, 40, the father of one of the men accused of assaulting Ryan Fischer, the dogwalker. Both McBride and White now face charges that they were accessories to the Feb. 24 shooting and robbery. White’s son, Jaylin White, 19, along with James Jackson, 18, and Lafayette Whaley, 27, have been charged with attempted murder and several other felonies stemming from the attack, police said.
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Mysterious Shots Shatter Minivan Windows On Northeast LA Freeway
Authorities are investigating a purported shooting which shattered the windows of a minivan while it was traveling along a freeway in Northeast Los Angeles early Wednesday morning. A man told CBSLA that he was driving to work when he heard two loud bangs — and the back passenger window and rear windshield of his Kia Sedona shattered — just as he was passing the Broadway exit on the 5 Freeway just before 6 a.m. The man continued driving, making his way onto the northbound 2 Freeway, before exiting at San Fernando Road in Glassell Park, where he pulled into a grocery store parking lot and called 911, he said. California Highway Patrol told CBSLA that no bullet or BB fragments were found. It’s unclear what kind of projectile caused the damage. The driver was not hurt. He told CBSLA it was too dark to see what direction the shots came from. This most recent incident comes after two vehicles were shot at along the 405 Freeway near Westminster in Orange County on Tuesday afternoon.
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LAPD North Hollywood Shooting Involved Suicidal Man With Knife, Chief Moore Says
Early one morning last week, a resident at a North Hollywood apartment complex heard a man struggling outside, peeked into her hallway and found a bloody knife. She called police, thinking there had been a stabbing. When two Los Angeles Police Department officers arrived on the morning of April 23, they found a man bloodied, lying in the building’s courtyard, with “a kitchen knife embedded in the front of his neck,” said Chief Michel Moore. The man told officers he had stabbed himself. “(The man) told the officers he was suicidal,” Moore said, reporting the shooting at Tuesday’s Police Commission meeting. “He threatened to push the knife deeper into his neck.” The incident ended with one of the officers shooting the man twice. Despite the stab wound and injuries from being shot, the man was taken to a hospital, underwent surgery, and is expected to survive, Moore said. What actually happened in the moments just before the shooting, however, is not entirely clear. LAPD has not yet released any body-worn camera footage officers captured during the incident. It also wasn’t clear from the chief’s comments how the man was holding the knife: whether he was brandishing it at officers, or if he was still threatening himself with the weapon. Moore said the man “moved toward the direction of the officers, still armed with the knife.”
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Man Killed In Rancho Dominguez Shooting
A man was shot and killed Thursday evening in the unincorporated Rancho Dominguez area near Compton. The shooting was reported about 9:45 p.m. in the 2600 block of Victoria Street, near Laurel Park Road, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene, the department said. A description of a suspect or motive for the shooting were not immediately available.
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Woman Arrested In Connection With Robbery Outside Beverly Hills High School
A 20-year-old woman suspected of stealing a gold necklace from a girl’s neck outside Beverly Hills High School was arrested Thursday. Beverly Hills Police Department officers came to the high school at about 4:20 p.m. Monday on reports of a strong-armed robbery, according to acting Capt. Max Subin, the department’s public information officer. Two girls told responding officers that two women stole a gold necklace and attempted to steal a cellphone from them before fleeing the area. Officers located the suspects and identified the vehicle they used to travel to the area, Subin said. Detectives followed up with the information and identified one suspect as Chakyra Sanford of Compton. Police arrested Sanford in Compton Thursday for suspicion of robbery. She was placed into custody at the Beverly Hills Police Department and her bail was set at $50,000. Sanford is set to appear at the Airport Courthouse on Friday.
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2 Men Indicted In Alleged Hate Crime At Beverly Hills Restaurant
Two men were indicted by a federal grand jury on conspiracy and hate crime charges for allegedly attacking people inside a Beverly Hills restaurant last year, officials announced Tuesday. Harutyun Harry Chalikyan, 23, of Tujunga, and William Stepanyan, 23, of Glendale, were named in an indictment unsealed Tuesday, charging them each with one count of conspiracy and five hate crimes, according to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. Chalikyan, who was arrested Tuesday, pleaded not guilty. Stepanyan is in state custody and is expected to appear in federal court in the coming weeks. According to the indictment, Stepanyan sent a text message on Nov. 4, saying he planned to go “hunting for [T]urks.” Later the same day, he and Chalikyan attended a protest held by Los Angeles’ Armenian American community to decry bloodshed overseas in Nagorno-Karabakh, where a war was waging after Azerbaijan, backed by Turkey, launched a military attack in September. The two men — and others who were not named in the indictment — then drove to Café Istanbul, a Turkish restaurant in Beverly Hills, and allegedly attacked the people inside.
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Southern California Man Accused Of Kidnapping Wife, Causing Her Death
A Covina man was indicted Wednesday on federal charges alleging that he kidnapped his wife five years ago in an incident that resulted in her death. Eddy Reyes, 35, who lived with his wife in Santa Ana when she was last seen, was arrested earlier this month on suspicion of kidnapping Claudia Reyes, who was reported missing in 2016. He has been held without bond since his arrest and is scheduled to be arraigned on the indictment on May 3. Claudia was last seen leaving work on the night of May 6, 2016, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement. She was 21 years old when she went missing. Prosecutors said that after Eddy Reyes filed a missing person report, they learned that Claudia's coworkers heard her fighting with her husband on the phone shortly before he picked her up the night she was last seen in a rented SUV. According to the criminal complaint, "detectives later found a drop of Claudia Reyes’ blood in that vehicle and a cadaver dog indicated that a dead body had been in the SUV," the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement. Prosecutors said that court documents detailed a history of alleged domestic abuse by Reyes against his wife, "including several threats to kill her, as well as temporary restraining orders Claudia Reyes obtained against her husband in 2014 and 2016," the statement said.
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Suspect, K-9 Killed During California OIS
A California police department is in mourning after one of its K-9s was shot and killed Tuesday night. According to KBAK, a Bakersfield police officer and K-9 Jango were responding to a reported car theft in the area. The armed suspect tried to flee as the officer and K-9 approached, reported KBAK. The suspect shot at Jango and officers returned fire, police said. The suspect died at the scene. Jango was rushed to a veterinary hospital but died from his wounds, according to KBAK. Police said a gun was recovered at the scene. Jango was a 5-year-old Belgian Malinois. The shooting remains under investigation.
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North Carolina Sheriff: 2 Deputies Killed, Suspect And 2 Others Dead
Two deputies were killed and three other people including a suspected gunman were found dead after a lengthy standoff in North Carolina, a sheriff's office said Thursday. The Watauga County Sheriff’s office said Sgt. Chris Ward and K-9 Deputy Logan Fox were dispatched to a home in Boone at 9:44 a.m. Wednesday after the homeowner and his family didn’t report to work or answer telephone calls. Both were hit by gunfire. Other officers were able to pull out Ward, who later died at a hospital. Fox died at the scene. “The individual suspected of killing the two officers is also suspected of killing two civilians in the residence. The names of the civilians are not being released at this time,” the statement said. A Boone Police officer also was hit by gunfire during an initial attempt to rescue the deputies, but he was uninjured due to his protective equipment, the statement said. Morganton Department of Public Safety Maj. Ryan Lander told The News Herald just before 11 p.m. that the suspect appeared to have killed himself, the newspaper reported. Sheriff Len Hagaman said Ward died at a hospital in Johnson City, Tennessee.
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U.S. Court Says ‘Ghost Gun’ Plans Can Be Posted Online
Plans for 3D-printed, self-assembled “ghost guns” can be posted online without U.S. State Department approval, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. A divided panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reinstated a Trump administration order that permitted removal of the guns from the State Department’s Munitions List. Listed weapons need State Department approval for export. In 2015, federal courts applied the requirement to weapons posted online and intended for production on 3D printers, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. However, three years later the State Department under then-President Trump settled a lawsuit by a 3D gun company and ordered their removal. California, 21 other states and the District of Columbia sued and a federal judge in Seattle issued an injunction last year, saying that posting the designs without restrictions could put unregistered weapons into the hands of terrorists. In overturning the injunction, the appellate panel found 2-1 that a 1989 federal law prohibits courts from overruling the State Department’s decision to add or remove a weapon from the Munitions List, the Chronicle reported.
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The Up-Beat: Police1's Top police heroes of April
From small gestures of kindness to incredible acts of heroism, police officers help their communities every day. Our monthly news roundup, The Up-Beat, aims to bring greater attention to these inspiring stories.
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Appointments For First Dose Of COVID-19 Vaccine Drop By Half In L.A. County, Alarming Public Health Officials
Appointments for the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine have decreased by about 50% in Los Angeles County, alarming public health officials who call it a worrisome trend that reflects the slowdown in vaccination rates across the state and country. The slowing demand probably means that, for the first time, the county will not reach its goal of administering 95% of its weekly supply, officials said. The revelation follows the announcement from officials earlier this week that about 18% of residents have missed their second-dose appointments. “I do know that across the county this past week we saw much fewer people coming in to get vaccinated. For the first time ever, we’ve had appointments at many vaccination sites that have not been filled,” said L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer during a news briefing Thursday. The drop in demand has prompted the county to allow for more walk-ins at vaccination sites, rather than requiring appointments. That flexibility will be allowed through next week, and is likely to extend.
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L.A. County Health Officials Say Fully Vaccinated Residents Don’t Need To Wear Masks Outside, Except In Crowded Settings
Los Angeles County residents who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus are now safe to walk around outside without a mask, health officials said Thursday. “Fully vaccinated people are safe to do outdoor activities like dining outdoors with friends from multiple households, attending small outdoor gatherings with fully vaccinated and unvaccinated people, and going out to take a walk or ride a bike,” L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said during a news briefing Thursday. On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear a mask outdoors unless they are in certain crowded settings. California health officials followed suit and aligned state guidelines with the CDC.
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Venice Residents Say 'There's Enough Beds To House Westminster Encampment, Bonin Won't'
The husband and wife who started Haaven – a shared housing, peer and community-focused living organization --and is responsible for putting the roof over more than 200 formerly unhoused residents is pushing back after they say they offered housing to more than 20 people near the Westminster Elementary School and were rebuffed by Councilmember Mike Bonin's office. The housing would be rooms through both Haaven and SHARE! Collaborative Housing-- a public-private organization providing affordable, permanent supportive housing to people in single-family houses throughout Los Angeles County. Heidi Roberts and her husband John Betz—said there has been a growing concern with an encampment near the elementary school and the Westminster dog park which is why they reached out to SHARE! Board president and Venice resident Brian Ulf to see if they had any open beds and to see if they could help. Durig their discussion--Ulf told Roberts he believed he had 20 beds. SHARE! Currently has 39 homes throughout Los Angeles. At anytime there are 20-30 vacancies.
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