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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Man Wounded In Sun Valley Car-to-Car Shooting
A man suffered gunshot wounds Monday in a car-to-car shooting in Sun Valley, authorities said Monday. The shooting was reported at 6:46 p.m. Sunday at Lankershim Boulevard and Strathern Street, said Officer F. Gonzalez of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Operations Center. The 50-year-old man got into an argument with another man outside their vehicles and when he tried to drive away, the suspect drove up to his car and fired shots into the victim’s car, Gonzalez said. The victim was taken to a hospital where he had stable vital signs, the officer said.
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Body Found On 110 Freeway Prompts Lane Closures In South L.A.
A body found Monday morning on the side of the northbound 110 Freeway forced the closure of numerous lanes of the roadway in south Los Angeles, authorities said. The body of man in his mid-30s wearing a gray sweater and black pants was discovered around 5:30 a.m. on the right shoulder of the 110, near the 105 Freeway interchange, California Highway Patrol officials said. There was blunt force trauma to the man’s head, authorities said, but additional information, including the man’s identity, was not immediately available. All lanes except the Metro ExpressLane were closed amid the death investigation, CHP Officer Ramberto Salcido said.
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L.A. Man Pleads Not Guilty To Killing Mother, 6-Year-Old Nephew
A man pleaded not guilty Monday to killing his mother and 6-year-old nephew and attacking his brother four days before Christmas. David Cordoba, 26, is facing two counts of murder in connection with the deaths of 60-year-old Maria Rodas-Lemus and Alan Cordova-Robles during a family dispute last Dec. 21. He could face up to 39 years to life in state prison if convicted as charged, according to the District Attorney’s Office. Cordoba, who is being held in lieu of $5.02 million bail, was ordered to return to court on June 21, when a date is expected to be set for a preliminary hearing. Cordoba’s mother died from multiple stab wounds and blunt force head trauma, while his nephew’s causes of death were listed as asphyxia, probable smothering or strangulation and stab wounds at or near the time of his death, according to records from the coroner’s office. Cordoba is also charged with attempted murder for allegedly stabbing his brother. The father of the slain 6-year-old boy suffered minor injuries, according to the District Attorney’s Office. Officers were called about 10:30 p.m. that night to a home in the 1800 block of 11th Place, where Cordoba lived with his mother, to conduct a welfare check and found the boy and his grandmother dead, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
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Man Detained Following Report Of Assault, Barricade Situation In Downtown L.A.
A man has been detained by police following an hourslong standoff in downtown Los Angeles Monday morning. Officers responded to an assault with a deadly weapon call about 1:44 a.m. in the area of Wall Street and East 5th Street, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson confirmed. A man in his 30s allegedly assaulted a neighbor before barricading himself inside his apartment. There was no immediate word on the victim’s condition following the assault. Police requested an armored vehicle to respond to the area about three hours into the standoff, the spokesperson said. Sky5 was over the scene just before 5:30 a.m. as a man was being detained by police. Authorities have not identified the assault suspect.
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Man Wounded In Sylmar Robbery
A 20-year-old man was stabbed and shot by two men who robbed him near the Sylmar Park Recreation Center, authorities said Monday. The robbery occurred just before 10 p.m. Sunday at Polk Street and Borden Avenue, according to Officer F. Gonzalez of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Operations Center. Two men in their 20s approached the victim on foot and demanded property from him, Gonzalez said. One suspect stabbed the victim and one shot him. The wounded man was taken by paramedics to a hospital where his vital signs were stable.
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Driver In High Speed Pursuit That Reached 120 MPH Evades Police Near LAX
A dangerous Monday night pursuit that reached speeds of 120 miles per hour started when Glendale Police flagged a vehicle for an illegal u-turn. The pursuit traveled a number of freeways, including the 5, the 101, the 405 and the 134. As the chase continued, the driver repeatedly turned off his lights while traveling at high speeds and got off the various freeways several different times. Police mainly tracked the speeding car from the air, but officials lost the assailant once he entered the area around Los Angeles International Airport.
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‘Constant Emergency Zone’: Calls For Change Mount As Homeless Encampment Fills Venice Boardwalk, Crime Increases
With a homeless encampment stretching across much of the Venice Beach boardwalk and a spate of recent crimes alarming residents, the calls for city officials to take action have grown to a cacophony. “I’m 75 years old. I need to be off this boardwalk,” said Michael Solomon, who lives in a tent on Venice Beach. “I want to be in housing so I can be stable.” Solomon is one of more than 100 people living in tents lining the boardwalk. The number of tents on the beach has grown since 2020, when the pandemic hit, leaving millions jobless and creating more housing insecurity in a city already dealing with a homelessness crisis. At last count, there were nearly 2,000 homeless people in Venice, according to a Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority count done in January 2020 that found more than 41,000 unhoused people citywide. This year’s count was skipped due to the pandemic, but experts expect those L.A. figures to continue climbing into 2023. The numbers were already climbing before the pandemic: 2020 data showed a 57% increase in the number of homeless people in Venice over the previous year — far greater than the increase in the city as a whole, which was 16.1%.
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Thieves Caught On Camera Stealing Catalytic Converters From LA City Yard
CBS Los Angeles has obtained nearly 100 videos showing people breaking in and stealing catalytic converters and other items from L.A. city trucks parked in a city yard in Boyle Heights. The cameras, set up by an employee, show thieves coming in through holes in the fence carrying saws and bolt cutters, only to return 40 minutes later carrying stolen catalytic converters — worth thousands of dollars due to the precious metals inside — back through the fence. The videos, taken between January and a few weeks ago, show some of the more brazen thieves not even wearing masks, making their faces easily recognizable. So, why haven’t any of the thieves been caught? “It’s still an open an active investigation,” Los Angeles Police Department Lt. Chris Mayberry said. Mayberry said the department has copies of the videos and believe that at least three or four people are involved, but no arrests have been made.
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Two USPS Employees Plead Guilty In Los Angeles To EDD Fraud
Two United States Postal Service employees pleaded guilty Monday in Los Angeles to federal criminal charges accusing them of unlawfully buying and cashing tens of thousands of dollars' worth of postal money orders with unemployment benefits fraudulently obtained with false claims of COVID-related job losses. Christian Jeremyah James, 31, of South Los Angeles, who worked in the Culver City Main Post Office, and Armand Caleb Legardy, 32, of Inglewood, who worked in the La Tijera Post Office on Crenshaw Boulevard in South Los Angeles, each pleaded guilty in separate hearings to one count of use of unauthorized access devices, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. From August 2020 to February, James and Legardy used debit cards that the California Employment Development Department had issued to other people for unemployment insurance benefits -- cards that were obtained by other unidentified individuals using stolen identities and false information, according to their plea agreements. James and Legardy admitted they used the EDD-issued debit cards in other people's names to purchase or cash money orders from the USPS and to withdraw thousands of dollars in cash from bank ATMs. The defendants also admitted that they deposited multiple fraudulently purchased postal money orders directly into their own bank accounts.
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Former UCLA Gynecologist Arrested On 21 Counts Alleging Sexual Assaults Of Patients
An obstetrician-gynecologist formerly employed by UCLA was taken into custody Monday, May 24, in a Los Angeles courtroom on a 21-count indictment accusing him of sexually assaulting patients. The indictment was handed down by a grand jury last Thursday, May 20, and announced on the day a preliminary hearing for Dr. James Mason Heaps had been scheduled to begin. Heaps, 64, of Woodland Hills, who had been free on bond, was taken into custody on bail of $1.19 million, according to attorneys who represent hundreds of victims in a civil case against Heaps and UCLA. A pretrial hearing was scheduled for June 3, and the case was moved to a downtown courtroom, a spokeswoman for the courts confirmed. Heaps had been facing a total of 20 felony counts in a criminal complaint charging him with sexually assaulting seven patients between 2011 and 2018.
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DNA Leads To Arrest For 2003 Rapes In Southern California
A California man accused of raping two women more than 15 years ago was arrested after DNA evidence from an alleged assault in December linked him to at least one of the earlier crimes, a newspaper reported. Rodolfo Franco Fernandez appeared in court Monday and pleaded not guilty to charges including rape, forcible oral copulation and assault, the Ventura County Star said. The 40-year-old was held without bail and ordered back to court on June 22. Franco Fernandez was arrested in Oxnard on Sunday. DNA evidence collected after a sleeping woman was assaulted at a home in Oxnard on December 20 linked him to an alleged rape of a woman in a car on February 16, 2003, police said. He is also suspected of raping a woman in a car in Ventura that same year, the newspaper said. It wasn't immediately known whether DNA evidence had been collected in that assault. Oxnard detectives believe there could be additional victims and are asking anyone with information to call police.
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CHP: Nearly 100 Freeway Shootings Have Been Reported This Month Across SoCal
A spate of unsolved attacks using BB or pellet guns continued Monday on the Riverside 91 Freeway in Riverside and Corona, where windows on four vehicles were blown out, according to the California Highway Patrol. Officer Ramon Duran said two cars were targeted within a 60-second span about 7:40 a.m. on the eastbound 91 between Magnolia and Tyler streets in Riverside. "On one car, the rear window was shattered. On another, the right rear passenger side window was damaged," Duran said. He said five minutes later, a car on the westbound 91 at Tyler sustained damage to the right rear window, and roughly four minutes after that, at 7:50 a.m., a sedan approaching McKinley Street in Corona was struck by projectiles that shattered the rear window. "There were no injuries, and no suspects were identified," Duran said. According to the CHP spokesman, two incidents were additionally reported Sunday night.
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Louisiana Detective Shot Serving Warrant In 2016 Dies Of Injuries
Stephen Arnold, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office deputy shot five times executing an arrest warrant in a New Orleans home in 2016, died of his injuries Sunday. Arnold, a detective and 12-year veteran of the Sheriff's Office, had been comatose since Jan. 26, 2016, when he was shot after he and other members of a federal Drug Enforcement Administration task force entered a residence in the 5300 block of Douglas Street in New Orleans, Sheriff Joe Lopinto said. Arnold, who was 35 years old when he died, "was just a great overall guy," Lopinto said. "He was not only a leader, but a leader on the narcotics (division), being assigned to the DEA task force and always answering the call for duty and in this community." Arnold and other law enforcement officers knocked on the door of Jarvis Hardy's home in Holy Cross before dawn and got no response. They forced their way inside and Hardy, who was was in possession of crack cocaine, began firing at them, striking Arnold five times.
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Police Capture Man Wanted In 4 Killings After Week On Run
A weeklong manhunt for a suspect wanted in the killings of four people ended without another shot fired Monday morning as hundreds of officers surrounded him in South Carolina, authorities said. Neither Tyler Terry nor the more than 300 officers searching for him were hurt during his arrest, the Chester County Sheriff’s Office posted on Twitter. The manhunt finally ended after at least three confirmed sightings of Terry since he ran from a wrecked car after firing on Chester County deputies on May 17. Deputies released photos of Terry's arrest showing an officer giving him a bottle of sports drink as he sat on a pickup tailgate with his hands cuffed behind him. Terry was wearing dirty pants, socks with no shoes and a T-shirt ripped nearly in half. Investigators didn’t think Terry was getting help from anyone but broke into vehicles — or possibly barns and sheds — and lived off the land. He managed to steal a gun, water, shirt and shoes from an unlocked work truck last week, authorities said. Terry apparently spent the week in the same small area, eluding dozens of officers who methodically shrunk where they searched and staying out of sight of helicopters that were overhead most of the time.
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Half Of L.A. County Residents 16 And Older Now Fully Vaccinated For COVID-19
Half of Los Angeles County residents 16 and older are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19, an encouraging milestone as the region — along with the rest of California — prepares to fully reopen in a few weeks. “It is truly thrilling to see us reach this landmark, and I want to thank everyone who’s done their part to get us to this point,” county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Monday. But in a county the size of Los Angeles, that leaves millions more people who have yet to reach that level of protection — a gap health officials are racing to close before June 15, when the state will lift coronavirus-related limitations on business capacity, as well as physical distancing requirements for attendees, customers and guests at almost all businesses and other institutions. “At long last, we’re putting the pandemic behind us,” L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis said. “This is only made possible due to our residents’ hard work to bring down cases and hospitalizations. And it’s also due to the willingness of residents across the county to get vaccinated as quickly as possible.”
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California Drought Hits Extreme Levels, Wildfire Threat Grows
California’s drought, already rated “severe” to “extreme” for most of the state, is expected to worsen throughout the summer, combining with higher-than-average temperatures and dry vegetation to steadily increase the risk of wildfires, according to the interagency National Integrated Drought Information System. That assessment comes in the wake of the state’s worst wildfire season on record, 2020, which saw five of California’s six largest recorded infernos and extended the trend of wildfire seasons here growing longer and more intense. There have been 2,436 wildfires in California so far this year, charring 14,717 acres, easily outpacing the 1,554 fires that burned 2,617 acres through May 18, 2020, according to Cal Fire. California is hardly alone, with much of the Southwest in the second year of drought — and several states are experiencing even worse conditions.
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