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. Law Enforcement News Suspect firebombs LAPD's Topanga Station with Molotov cocktail The Los Angeles Police Department arrested a man seen on video lighting a Molotov cocktail and throwing it against the doors of the department's Topanga Station Sunday morning. Jonathon Rosin, 24, of Los Angeles was arrested shortly after the incident, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Just before 1 a.m. on Sunday, the suspect was seen lighting a glass bottle filled with a flammable liquid. The suspect threw it against the doors of the station, located at 21501 Schoenborn St., and began to walk away. Fox 11 Los Angeles Could See Nearly 350 Homicides In 2021 After Deadly First 4 Months The tide of murders and shooting violence that swelled as the coronavirus pandemic ravaged Los Angeles hasn’t ebbed much, with the pace of killings on track to nearly equal last year’s total. As of May 3, there had been at least 115 homicides in L.A. in 2021, according to the Los Angeles Police Department’s data. If the current trend holds, the city would see around 340 killings by year’s end, just under the 350 last year, the largest death toll in more than a decade. And the pace could quicken in the summer, when homicides tend to rise. LAPD Chief Michel Moore does see a bright spot: In April, the killings started to level off. “I take some comfort in seeing the slowing of the pace of this increase in violent crime,” Moore said. It’s gun violence that is driving 2021’s deadly pace, Moore said again on Tuesday, as he has said in every Police Commission meeting so far in 2021. In total, 445 people have been shot, an increase of nearly 200 victims. Much of the shooting has been over disputes between gang members in South L.A, he said, with killings of homeless people also up. And, he said, a type of aggravated assault is helping to kick up the numbers of deaths as well – brief and personal that can escalate with the addition of a gun. Los Angeles Daily News 1 Dead, 3 Others Wounded In Shooting At Mother's Day Party Near Hollywood Walk Of Fame An investigation was underway in the heart of Hollywood Monday morning after a shooting at a Mother's Day gathering left at least one man dead and three others hospitalized in critical condition, officials said. The shooting was reported at 10:15 p.m. Sunday in the 6200 block of W. Afton Place, said the Los Angeles Fire Department's Brian Humphrey. The victims are all men ages 29, 34, 35 and 50, according to the LAPD. Police say the suspect were males who were not part of the party and fled on foot. One of the guests at the gathering may have fired back at the gunmen, according to police. At 12:40 a.m. a tweet from the LAPD Hollywood Division noted that streets would remain closed in the area of Afton Place near Gower Street while the shooting investigation was underway. ABC 7 Woman Wounded In Downtown Los Angeles Shooting A 35-year-old woman was wounded Saturday morning in a shooting in downtown Los Angeles. Police responded about 12:15 a.m. to the area of Seventh Street and Broadway and found the woman with a gunshot wound to a leg, according to the LAPD. The victim was taken to a hospital with stable vital signs, the department said. A detailed description of the shooter or motive for the shooting were not immediately available. MyNewsLA.com Mother's Day Murder Haunts Pacoima Family “He was an angel in front of everyone’s eyes,” says Gerry Lang, remembering her 26-year-old son, Davon Pledger. “They murdered my son. My baby son. And it hurts. It just hurts so bad.” May 9, 2020 – the night before Mother’s Day – Pledger had gone to visit friends on Cornelius Street in Pacoima. The short road ends in a cul de sac where Pledger can be seen on surveillance video before the shooting speaking on a cell phone and pacing the street. Just after 10 p.m., LAPD Valley Bureau homicide detectives say a dark-colored, four-door Honda Civic drives up the street, passes Pledger and made a U-turn before pausing in front of a home. “Someone knows something,” says Detective Sharon Kim, the lead on the Pledger homicide case. “This area of Pacoima has a long historical standing of violence between Black and Brown gangs. Davon wasn’t a gang member at all but there are a lot of gangs in this area. Unbeknownst to him they were probably on a mission.” Using surveillance video and witness accounts, LAPD believes three men got out of the vehicle and fired multiple shots at Pledger. Emergency 911 calls flooded in with claims of hearing 15 to 20 rounds. Pledger collapsed in a driveway. NBC 4 LAPD Searching For Hit-and-Run Driver In Crash That Killed Man In East Hollywood Police are searching for a hit-and-run driver who fatally struck a man in East Hollywood early Saturday morning, officials said. The incident was first reported at about 5:26 a.m. near Melrose Avenue and North Edgemont Street, the LAPD said. Officials described the suspect vehicle as a black sedan. Surveillance video from a nearby laundromat provided to KTLA shows a driver in what appears to be a black vehicle fleeing the scene after hitting a person. The video shows the driver did not stop or even slow down after the crash. Officials have not released further details about the identity of the victim, who has only been described as a man in his 30s. Investigators are canvassing the area for witnesses and surveillance videos from nearby businesses for potential leads. KTLA 5 Stolen LAPD Vehicle Pursuit Ends With Driver In Custody After A Quick Push-Up Session A man led the Los Angeles Police Department on a bizarre chase after stealing a police vehicle Saturday evening. Newschopper4 was over the pursuit around 7:20 p.m. when the driver was on the 5 Freeway near East Los Angeles. The LAPD vehicle was stolen from the Olympic Division and the pursuit ensued southbound on the 101 Freeway. Details about the theft were not immediately available. The driver then merged into the 5 Freeway and was driving with no lights on through heavy traffic as he passed the Citadel Outlets. At around 7:42 p.m. the man began to show erratic behavior like singing through the police communications radio. As the stolen vehicle approached Irvine on the 5 Freeway, the CHP had placed some spike strips to try and slow him down, but around 7:47 p.m. the driver came to a complete stop and exited the stolen LAPD vehicle with his hands in the air. The man then dropped to the ground seemingly following orders, but then he began doing push-ups. LAPD then instructed him to lay still and began to close in on him. He was taken into custody with no retaliation at 7:48 p.m. NBC 4 LAPD Break Up Huge Underground Party Held Near 110 And 5 Freeways The Los Angeles Police Department issued a citywide tactical alert Saturday night after a Cypress Park party swelled to 1,500 to 2,000 people. Officers were called in to disperse the crowd. The party was held on Riverside Drive near the transition from the northbound Arroyo Seco Parkway (110) and the northbound Golden State (5) Freeway near the Los Angeles River. The first call came in to the LAPD about 7 p.m., according to Officer G. Todd of the Operations Center. There were reports of fireworks, he said, and some unconfirmed reports that people were walking onto the transition road. A citywide tactical alert was called to make sure there were enough officers to get the crowd to disperse and was modified to affect just the Central Bureau by 10 p.m., Todd said. The California Highway Patrol issued a SigAlert at 10:10 p.m. for the transition road from the northbound 110 to the northbound 5. FOX 11 Video Shows Flower Vendor Robbed Sunday In Harbor City Dash-cam video caught the exact moment that a flower vendor was robbed at the corner of Vermont Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway Sunday. According to the vendor, Juan Antonio Salvador, a woman in a white sedan pulled up, asked for four bundles of flowers. When he passed them to her through the window, she sped off without paying. Salvador said he has not reported the incident to the police, but that they did get a clear photo of the driver’s license plate. CBS 2 City Of Angels Becomes City Of Trash. LA Breaks Promise To Crack Down Hard On Illegal Dumping It was caught on camera by the NBC4 I-Team: a pickup truck enters a city alley in broad daylight, the driver illegally dumping box after box of garbage right on the ground. The truck is back day after day, night after night, the driver dumping more bags and boxes of trash. These are just a few examples of the illegal dumping that happens dozens, if not hundreds, of times every day all over LA, leaving some sidewalks so clogged with loose garbage that they are impassable. "I feel ashamed for my city," said Estela Lopez, who represents business owners east of downtown Los Angeles, one of the areas hit hardest by illegal dumpers. "This is a city that’s out of control with illegal dumping." The situation was already out of control two years ago when the NBC4 I-Team reported on some streets where rat-infested, illegally dumped trash covered entire blocks. In the wake of those reports, Mayor Eric Garcetti promised a citywide crackdown on illegal dumpers. "We will not tolerate businesses that use our public streets, spaces, or alleyways as their private dumping ground," the mayor said in June 2019. Garcetti promised to install a network of surveillance cameras and to levy stiff fines for those caught illegally dumping trash. But two years later, LA has only 22 cameras to watch 470 square miles; that's fewer cameras than cities like Philadelphia, which has 100 cameras to cover a much smaller area. To find out how easy it could be to catch illegal dumpers, the I-Team installed two cameras along a city alley east of downtown. NBC 4 Two Studio City Men Arrested In Burbank Shooting Which Left Man Wounded Two suspects have been arrested on attempted murder charges in connection with a shooting in Burbank last week which left a man wounded. Burbank police apprehended 29-year-old Sunni Kadijah Rasshad-Jahbari and 26-year-old Amaray Simone Matthews-Egerton Tuesday in a raid in the 10000 block of Bluffside Drive in Studio City, just across from Universal Studios. Both men are residents of Studio City. On April 27, a man was wounded in a shooting at an apartment complex in the 4200 block of Kling Street. Burbank police detectives identified Rasshad-Jahbari and Matthews-Egerton as the suspects in the killing. Investigators do not think the shooting was random. Furthermore, they believe the suspects and victim knew each other prior to it, police said. A motive for the shooting was not released, however. Each suspect is being held on $2 million bail and is scheduled to be arraigned Friday. CBS 2 California Sees Record Number Of Guns Confiscated Under ‘Red Flag’ Law Five years ago, California became one of the first states in the nation to enact a so-called red flag gun law, allowing family members and police officers to ask a court to block those believed to be a risk to themselves or others from having firearms. State officials said Friday that a record 1,285 gun-violence restraining orders were issued by judges in California last year, temporarily removing firearms from people deemed a danger. Though many courts were operating under restrictions or remotely because of the COVID-19 pandemic, they received petitions for the orders at a greater rate than the year before, when guns were taken from 1,110 people. “I’m glad that Californians have a tool to intervene to save lives and prevent tragedies,” said Assemblyman Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), who authored a bill last year that expanded those eligible to ask judges for orders to employers, co-workers and school employees. The law took effect in in 2016 following the 2014 attack in Isla Vista near UC Santa Barbara in which six people were killed and 14 were injured when a 22-year-old man went on a rampage of shooting, stabbing and striking people with a car before killing himself. Los Angeles Times At Funeral, Fallen North Carolina Deputies Remembered As ‘Heroes' The sheriff was already running late to the office when a woman pleaded for him to stop. She wanted to pay her respects to the families of Sgt. Chris Ward and K-9 Deputy Logan Fox, but didn't have much to offer. Less than a week ago in Boone, North Carolina, two deputies had been killed in the line of duty while performing what was supposed to be a routine welfare check. They were met with gunfire and killed after entering the home. “‘It isn’t much, but I would like for them to have it,'” the woman told Watauga County Sheriff Len Hagaman on Tuesday. She handed the sheriff a crumpled-up dollar bill, three quarters and a nickel, proudly noting it was her money. He seriously considered not taking it, realizing she was the one who needed it more. Then it hit him. “Her gift’s worth is not measured by the tactile touch of paper nor that of coin," Hagaman said. "It was, after all, her gift — a gift that cannot be identified by ink and paper, nor that of forged metal. Its worth transcends any worth that we could ever ascribe. It is, however, the quiet and simple gift of hope, faith and love. These are the three attributes of our two fallen brothers.” Associated Press As Pandemic Ebbs, An Old Fear Is New Again: Mass Shootings Brianne Smith was overjoyed to get an e-mail telling her to schedule a second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Hours later, her relief was replaced by dread: a phone alert — another mass public shooting. Before the pandemic, she would scan for the nearest exit in public places and routinely practiced active shooter drills at the company where she works. But after a year at home in the pandemic, those anxieties had faded. Until now. “I haven't been living in fear with COVID because I'm able to make educated decisions to keep myself safe,” says Smith, 21, who lives in St. Louis, Missouri. “But there’s no way I can make an educated decision about what to do to avoid a mass shooting. I've been at home for a year and I'm not as practiced at coping with that fear as I used to be.” After a year of pandemic lockdowns, public mass shootings are back. For many, the fear of contracting an invisible virus is suddenly compounded by the forgotten yet more familiar fear of getting caught in a random act of violence. A database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University that tracks mass killings — defined as four or more dead, not including the shooter — showed just two public mass shootings in 2020. Since Jan. 1, there have been at least 11. Associated Press Public Safety News 1 Person Found Dead Near Fire At Sun Valley Homeless Encampment Firefighters found one person dead while putting out a vegetation fire at a homeless encampment along the 5 Freeway in Sun Valley early Sunday, May 9. The fire was spotted along northbound lanes near Lankershim Boulevard at 2:26 a.m., California Highway Patrol officials said. Firefighters responded and found the body of a person who died at the scene, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey said. A representative from the Los Angeles County coroner’s office was called to the scene at 3:12 a.m., the CHP said. The identity of the person who died was not immediately released. The cause of the fire remained under investigation Sunday. Los Angeles Daily News LA Opening Up All City Sites For No-Appointment Vaccines Starting Monday, Los Angeles will offer appointment-free COVID-19 vaccinations at all of its city-run sites and open two additional night clinics in a new effort to expand vaccine access, Mayor Eric Garcetti said. The city is prepared to administer over a quarter million vaccinations for the second week in a row. "We stand at a critical juncture in our fight to end this pandemic, and our city will keep doing everything possible to knock down barriers to vaccine access and deliver doses directly to all Angelenos,” Garcetti said. "Our vaccines are safe and effective, and we will continue working to get shots into the arms of our local families, protect ourselves and our loved ones, and start Los Angeles on the road to health, economic growth, and a lasting recovery.” The city added a sixth day of service last week and started to offer appointment-free options at certain walk-up and mobile locations. This week, Los Angeles will continue to operate its fixed sites Monday through Saturday, and will add the appointment-free option at all of its drive-through locations: Crenshaw Christian, Hansen Dam and Dodger Stadium. FOX 11 Local Government News Could A San Francisco Experiment Be An Answer To L.A.’s Sprawling Street Encampments? On an unseasonably warm day in March, Michael Johnson lay in his tent, sweat dripping down his face, on Minna alley just off 6th Street in San Francisco’s Soma neighborhood. As they often do, a team of city outreach workers, sanitation workers, cops and a firefighter swarmed the alley, which was lined with tents. They were there to offer unhoused San Franciscans a choice. They could accept an offer of some form of shelter, or they could take down their tents and move along. What people like Johnson, who has been homeless two years, couldn’t do was stay on this street, where the sidewalk was blocked by dozens of garbage bags. A power washing of the block and a collection of trash would take place after the people departed. “The point is I want you out of the street, big homie,” one outreach worker told Johnson. The 38-year-old understood. He pulled down his tent, grabbed his bike and backpack and prepared to move along — but not before grabbing an ice cream from a nearby store. Instead of going to a large congregate shelter or a hotel, Johnson boarded a bus with a plastic sheet partition protecting the driver from the virus. He was brought to one of San Francisco’s six sanctioned tent encampments, which sprouted up at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and have become a key part of the city’s homelessness response and a lightning rod for debate among activists, politicians and homeless people. Los Angeles Times ‌ ‌ ‌ Visit our website LA Police Protective League | 1308 West Eighth Street, Los Angeles, CA 90017 Unsubscribe [email protected] Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice Sent by [email protected] powered by Try email marketing for free today!