Law Enforcement News L.A. Police Union Offers $20,000 Reward For Information In Fatal Wilmington Shooting The Los Angeles police officers union is offering a $20,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrators in the fatal shooting of a 12-year-old boy and wounding of two other people in Wilmington on Monday. Craig Lally, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, expressed outrage in a statement Wednesday. “This is more than a cold-blooded murder of a child and the shooting of his mother and an innocent young girl playing at an elementary school,” Lally said. “This is an attack on the sense of safety of all Angelenos; it rips at the very fabric of our society.” The shooting occurred late Monday afternoon at North Blinn Avenue and East Denni Street, in front of Wilmington Park Elementary School. Coroner’s officials on Tuesday identified the boy as Alexander Alvarado. His stepmother, in her 30s, was injured in the shooting, as was a 9-year-old girl at the nearby school, police said. Lally also urged L.A. County Dist. Atty. George Gascón to hold any suspects arrested in the case without bail and to prosecute the case “using every enhancement legally allowed.” “Alexander’s murder should not be a time for social justice experiments,” he said. Tom Saggau, a spokesman for the police union, said members approved funding for the reward Wednesday. “What really moved the league to offer this reward was a sense of frustration,” he said. After seeing waves of smash-and-grab and follow-home robberies, among other crimes, officers have felt increasingly discouraged by what they perceive as a lack of action by city leadership and the district attorney’s office, he said. “We just had this feeling that we needed to do something,” Saggau said. “This one really struck a chord with us.” Los Angeles Times LA City Councilman Seeks Return Of Cash Bail For Non-Violent Felonies, Misdemeanors Los Angeles City Councilman Joe Buscaino Wednesday introduced a resolution to support the reinstitution of cash bail in Los Angeles County, which was suspended for low-level, non-violent felonies and misdemeanors. In a statement Wednesday, Buscaino said the suspension of cash bail has "created a free-for-all environment where criminals are charged one day and released the next." Los Angeles first suspended cash bail in June 2020 as a measure to prevent further spread of COVID-19 in county jails. When District Attorney George Gascón took office in January 2021, he directed deputy district attorneys not to seek money bail for "misdemeanor, non-violent and non-serious felony offenses." While the cash bail system was not eliminated for violent offenses, Buscaino's resolution cites a "substantial increase in violent crime and brazen robberies." Violent crime has increased in Los Angeles -- and across the United States -- during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore on Tuesday said that robberies in the city are 12.7% lower compared to the pre-pandemic levels of 2019. Last week, however, saw the highest number of robberies for the year, with 200 reported, the majority of which were street robberies. FOX 11 Studio City Family Looking For Missing 16-Year-Old Son The family of Trevor Joseph Keagy and the Los Angeles Police Department are asking for the public’s help in finding the missing 16-year-old. Keagy was last seen at about 9 p.m. Monday near his home in the 10900 block of Fruitland Avenue in Studio City. In a release, the LAPD said Keagy is a “high functioning autistic teenager,” and his family is worried about his safety. “I’m confused and I’m scared and I really miss him,” said Bart Keagy, the teen’s father. Keagy is about 6 feet, 2 inches tall and weighs 170 pounds, police said. He was last seen wearing a black T-shirt and pants. Anyone with information is asked to call the LAPD at 818-754-8301 or 213-996-1800. Anonymous tips can be provided by calling 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or by visiting lacrimestoppers.org. KTLA 5 Santa Arrives At Orthopedic Institute For Children Aboard LAPD Helicopter Santa is known to travel by sleigh, but on Wednesday he hitched a ride on the Los Angeles Police Department’s helicopter. The visit was part of the Orthopedic Institute for Children’s annual “Toy and Joy Celebration.” Following his arrival on the LAPD SWAT Team helicopter, Santa repelled down the side of the hospital to the cheers of children down below. Hundreds of children attended the event to visit Santa and walked away with bags filled with donated toys and sports equipment. CBS 2 Westside Residents Push Back On Bonin's Plans To Build Homeless Shelter Across From Elementary School Los Angeles City Councilmember Mike Bonin is looking to build a homeless shelter across the street from an elementary school in Westchester. A project residents say they only learned about through open records requests. "There has been zero transparency about this project," said community activists Lucy Han and Debra Huston. "They [Bonin's office] have been working on this since January," said Han. "We found out about it from open records when inquiring about information from Representative Maxine Waters office." Bonin proposed to build the shelter across the street from Visitation School in Westchester. The school, located at 8740 South Emerson Avenue, serves children from preschool through 8th grade. More than 400 letters from Westside residents expressing concerns about the shelter were delivered to US Rep Maxine Waters, The general manager of the Los Angeles World Airport ( LAWA), and Mark McClary, the Western Pacific Division Director of the Federal Airport Administration (FAA) Tuesday. In the letters, the community states that there are concerns about the safety of children if the shelter were to be built. The letter highlights the uptick in crime in Westchester Park when there were more than 80 homeless encampments there. "The park was crime-infested and not safe for children seniors, or for the people who were homeless." WestSide Current Daughter Of ‘La Tia' Faces Judge In Deadly ‘Back Alley Butt Lift' Case A woman charged alongside her mother for the murder of an aspiring adult film star after they allegedly injected the star's buttocks with silicone in a "back alley butt lifts" made her first court appearance Wednesday. Alicia Galaz and her mother, Libby Adame, are accused of practicing medicine without a license and causing the death of 26-year-old Karissa Rajpaul in 2019 after injecting her buttocks with a poisonous silicon mixture. In a chilling video posted to social media, Rajpaul starts on a selfie and soon reveals the buttocks augmentation happening behind her as she laid on a table in Encino in September of 2019. It was the second of three procedures within a month of each other. Immediately after the third, she would be dead. The Los Angeles Police Department says Rajpaul, an LA transplant from South Africa who came to Southern California to pursue a career in the adult film industry, recorded the video to share on social media for the woman performing the procedure, known as “La Tia.” “That’s how she would advertise it, everyone knows her as La Tia,” says LAPD Valley Bureau Homicide Detective Bob Dinlocker. He arrested Libby Adame and her daughter, Alicia Galaz. NBC 4 `Western Bandit’ Sentenced to Life Without Parole In Deadly Crime Spree An ex-con who killed two people and shot at numerous others on or near Western Avenue in Los Angeles in attacks attributed to the so-called “Western Bandit” over a three-year period was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole, with some victims and their families clapping as the term was handed down. Superior Court Judge H. Clay Jacke — who noted that the crimes involved “great violence” — also tacked on an additional term of 1,440 years to life for Patrick Watkins, 57, who was convicted Nov. 19 of first-degree murder for the Nov. 17, 2011, shooting death of Nathan “Cassidy” Vickers, a 32-year-old transgender woman near Lexington Avenue and Gower Street, and the Dec. 8, 2014, shooting death of a 56-year-old man named Larise Smith in the 2800 block of West 42nd Street. Jurors found true the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders. Watkins was also found guilty of 46 other counts, including attempted murder, assault with a firearm, shooting at an occupied dwelling or vehicle, robbery, attempted robbery and possession of a firearm by a felon. The defendant hurled an expletive at one of the victims, Frances Aguilar, as she spoke in court, with the judge telling Watkins the victims and their relatives were entitled to make victim impact statements. Watkins directed another expletive toward the victims’ family members as he was led out of the courtroom after the sentencing. MyNewsLA.com Sheriffs Group Rebuts White House Claim It Is Helping Combat Surge In Retail Thefts The National Sheriffs Association fired back at White House Press Secretary Jen Psaski's claim that the Biden administration is working with local law enforcement to help curb retail theft. "Several of the national trade groups representing local law enforcement have formed their own working group to coordinate a better localized response to the latest crime trend," the group said in a statement Wednesday. "This group aggressively sought federal law enforcement resources to assist in this effort. Thus far… we are unaware of any planned, orchestrated, or cohesive response by the federal government." The statement comes after Psaki said during Tuesday's press briefing that the White House was taking action to address the growing of problem of retail theft with federal support to local law enforcement. But the NSA argues that California law enforcement officials "tell us they have seen zero federal resources, and even the FBI says they haven’t done anything more. And Chicago is working this with the state alone. Zero new fed help." But the NSA argues that California law enforcement officials "tell us they have seen zero federal resources, and even the FBI says they haven’t done anything more. And Chicago is working this with the state alone. Zero new fed help." FOX News Car Thief Arrested After Driving Off With Victim’s Dog; Pasadena Police Tracked Suspect Using Pet’s GPS Collar A suspected thief who drove off with a victim’s car and dog was arrested last week after officers tracked him using the dog’s GPS collar, Pasadena police said Wednesday. The vehicle was reported stolen from the area of 1000 East Union St. Officers arrived at the scene to find that the suspect had already fled the scene in the vehicle, taking the victim’s dog with him as well, according to police. The thief also left behind another vehicle, which had previously been reported stolen. “What our suspect didn’t know, was that the victim’s canine companion had a special collar that was able to provide us with the GPS location of not only the dog but also the suspect and the stolen vehicle,” police said on Instagram. Officers were able to use the GPS tracker to find the suspect, and with the help from the Los Angeles Police Department, were able to stop him in the area of the 105 Freeway and Imperial Highway. During the traffic stop, police recovered the stolen vehicle and reunited the victim with her dog, Kazoo. Police released photos of Kazoo in the vehicle’s passenger seat and the suspect being handcuffed. “This is the story of how Kazoo the dog, helped us arrest a car thief,” Pasadena police officials said on Instagram. KTLA 5 Scott Peterson Resentenced To Life In Prison In Pregnant Wife’s Slaying Nearly 17 years after being sentenced to die, Scott Peterson was resentenced to life without parole Wednesday during an emotional hearing in which family members of his slain pregnant wife, Laci, called him out for the killing in 2002 and his apparent lack of remorse. “I still feel the grief every day, after 19 years,” said her mother, Sharon Rocha. “Your evil, self-centered, unforgiveable selfish act ended two beautiful souls. And for what reason? There was no reason other than that you just didn’t want them anymore. You didn’t want a baby nor the responsibility of being a father. You’re a coward.” “I have dreams about her,” she added about her daughter, who was 27 and eight months pregnant when she was killed carrying the boy the couple planned to name Connor. “And sometimes when I wake up, I cry because they’re so realistic and I know I’ll never see her again.” Laci Peterson’s brother and sister, Brent Rocha and Amy Rocha, added their own emotional comments during the hearing. The California Supreme Court ruled a year ago that Peterson’s jury was improperly screened for bias against the death penalty. Stanislaus County District Attorney Birgit Fladager, who came to fame as one of three prosecutors in Peterson’s trial, opted this time to settle for life without parole. CBS 2 Father And Son Arrested On Suspicion Of Starting California’s Caldor Fire Authorities in Northern California announced the arrest of a father and son in connection with the Caldor fire, which burned for 67 days and threatened the community of South Lake Tahoe as it grew to become the 15th-largest wildfire in recorded California history. David Scott Smith, 66, and his son, Travis Shane Smith, 32, were arrested on Ramey warrants, which are issued before criminal charges are filed, according to the El Dorado County district attorney’s office. Both men are accused of “reckless arson,” prosecutors said. Formal criminal charges are pending. The district attorney’s office could not be reached Wednesday for further comment. Mark Reichel, a defense attorney representing both men, disputed prosecutors’ allegations and said his clients were “salt-of-the-earth people” who have never been charged with a crime. “Nobody was out there besides them and some other campers,” Reichel said. “We shouldn’t charge people and we shouldn’t convict them on theories. We should do it on facts.” Los Angeles Times Amid Pandemic, California Murder Rate Shows Shocking Rise Preliminary numbers from California’s biggest cities suggest that 2020’s stunning 30-percent increase in the statewide murder rate – the largest since 1960 – has continued to rise this year, and crime experts have as many questions as answers. “We’re seeing a continued trend” in rising murder rates throughout 2021, said Mangus Lofstrom, a policy director and senior fellow at the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California. “We’re seeing increases in homicide year over year again.” Official numbers for 2021, a year with a few weeks remaining, are months away. (Thoroughly analyzed crime data takes time.) But, thanks to the record-keeping reliability of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland and San Diego, researchers have an almost real-time count that shows 2021 is going to be another unsettling year. People who study crime, like the PPIC’s Lofstrom, use those numbers, which are as fresh as last month, to compare current conditions to the past. That’s how they know, for example, that Los Angeles’ reported 331 homicides this year represent a 16 percent increase over the 284 murders in all of 2021. A 16 percent increase would be stunning if it hadn’t followed a year with a jump that’s twice as big. Capital Weekly Ohio Lawmakers Seek To Pass $250M To Fund Police, Other First-Responders Ohio lawmakers said Monday they plan to move this week to approve the use of $250 million in federal coronavirus aid to provide grants to police and other first responders. During a Statehouse press conference with law enforcement officials, lawmakers, and local officials, Gov. Mike DeWine outlined and touted the plan, saying the money would help law enforcement, firefighters, emergency medical services personnel, and other first responders recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, recruit new members, and help police more effectively fight crime. “This is clearly not the time to defund the police,” said DeWine, a Greene County Republican seeking re-election next year. “This is the time to fund the police and to fund them in new and creative ways that helps them protect us against the violent offenders.” Under the proposal, the state would dole out $175 million in grants via a competitive process to first-responders across the state. The recipients would have few restrictions in how they spend the money, DeWine said, though it would help them focus on things such as policing high-crime areas and collaboration with other departments across jurisdictions. PoliceOne Man Should Be Executed For Killing Orlando Cop, Jury Says Markeith Loyd should be executed for killing Orlando police Lt. Debra Clayton, a jury unanimously recommended Wednesday. The 12-member jury deliberated for about five hours over two days on whether Loyd should face capital punishment for Clayton’s 2017 killing. The same jury convicted Loyd of first-degree murder last month for fatally shooting Clayton when she tried to arrest him at the Walmart on Princeton Street Jan. 9, 2017, for killing his pregnant ex-girlfriend, Sade Dixon, in December 2016. Before they began deliberating Tuesday, jurors heard closing arguments from both sides. Prosecutors argued Loyd had lived his life blaming others for his criminal actions in at least 10 violent felonies, including both the Clayton and Dixon killings. “What you’ve heard from Mr. Loyd is that nothing is ever his fault,” Assistant State Attorney Ryan Williams said. “… It is Markeith Loyd’s choices that brought all of us here today, and we ask that for the first time you hold him responsible for his choices and vote to recommend a sentence of death in this case.” Orlando Sentinel New Data Suggests a Connection Between Pandemic Gun Sales and Increased Violence In March 2020, as the first COVID-19 outbreaks rippled across the U.S., Americans flocked to gun stores. In total, civilians purchased some 19 million firearms over the next nine months — shattering every annual sales record. At the same time, shootings across the country soared, with dozens of cities setting grim records for homicides. As the pandemic progressed, and gun sales continued to climb alongside shootings, researchers have puzzled over the connection between these two intersecting trends. Was the surge in violent crime related to the uptick in guns sold last year? We may not get a definitive answer to that question for years, but fresh data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives provides some of the first evidence that a relationship exists. ATF data shows that in 2020, police recovered almost twice as many guns with a short “time-to-crime” — in this case, guns recovered within a year of their purchase — than in 2019. Law enforcement officials generally view a short time-to-crime as an indicator that a firearm was purchased with criminal intent, since a gun with a narrow window between sale and recovery is less likely to have changed hands. Altogether, more than 87,000 such guns were recovered in 2020, almost double the previous high. And almost 68,000 guns were recovered in 2020 with a time-to-crime of less than seven months (meaning they were less likely to have been purchased the previous year). The Trace Public Safety News Over 80 Firefighters Battle Sun Valley Blaze For over two hours, 87 firefighters battled flames Wednesday at a commercial building in Sun Valley before taking control of the fire. Fire crews responded at approximately 11:30 p.m. Tuesday to 8142 N. Sunland Blvd. where they found a two-story structure with heavy flames and began defensive operations due to the intensity of the fire, said Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Nicholas Prange. Firefighters used at least four ladder pipes during the operation, Prange said. The majority of the fire was knocked down by 1:37 a.m. but firefighters remained on scene to access the remaining pockets of fire within the debris and LAFD Heavy Equipment was called in to assist, Prange said. No injuries were reported and the cause of the fire is under investigation. NBC 4 LA County Confirms Locally Acquired Case Of Omicron COVID-19 Variant Los Angeles County reported its fourth case of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 Wednesday, saying the case is possibly the result of local transmission, unlike the previous infections that are believed to been travel-related. According to the county Department of Public Health, the latest patient is fully vaccinated -- including a booster shot. The unidentified person had "mild symptoms" and had close contact with "multiple" people who have since tested positive for COVID-19, although it is still unknown if those cases involve the Omicron variant, which is blamed for a spike in infections in South Africa, where it was first detected. Some of the patient's close contacts were also fully vaccinated, but the status of some others is still undetermined, health officials said. The county did not provide other details of the new Omicron patient, only calling the case "a possible result of local transmission," meaning the variant is now being spread within the community. "The identification of a case of Omicron attributed to community spread is a reminder that we all need to take necessary precautions to prevent transmission of COVID-19," county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said in a statement. FOX 11 LA County Officials Urge Pediatric COVID Shots Ahead Of Holidays Saying unvaccinated teens are nine times more likely to be infected with COVID-19, Los Angeles County health officials made another plea to parents on Wednesday, Dec. 8, to get their children inoculated ahead of the holiday season. According to the county Department of Public Health, COVID cases among school-aged children dropped by 30% between late September and late November, but unvaccinated kids aged 12-17 were far more likely to be infected than their vaccinated counterparts. During the final two weeks of November, two children between 5 and 11 were hospitalized due to COVID, along with eight kids aged 12-17 — all of them unvaccinated, according to the county. The county had six confirmed cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C, in October and four in November. Overall, however, the county’s COVID numbers among children remain low, despite having more than 1.5 million children attending in-person school. Los Angeles Daily News LA County Expands Vaccine Mandate To Include Outside Contractors Los Angeles County contractors who work with the public or county employees will have to be vaccinated against COVID-19 under a new mandate approved Tuesday. The vaccine mandate takes effect immediately and applies to contractors who interact with the public or with county employees. Contractors have until Jan. 1 to comply, and both employees and contractors can request a medical or religious exemption. If an exemption is granted, workers would be required to undergo weekly testing. Supervisor Janice Hahn had recommended expanding a mandate covering the county’s more than 101,000 employees to include outside contractors. “Given the importance of vaccinations in our fight against COVID-19 and the expansive network of contractors that the county employs, the board should adopt an urgency ordinance that would require contractor employees who work alongside county workers, interact with the public and work on county property to be vaccinated,” the motion read in part. As of Dec. 7, more than 81% of county employees were fully vaccinated and another 1% were partially vaccinated. CBS 2 Local Government News LA Council Members Seek Independent Redistricting Commission One day after the Los Angeles City Council approved new borders for the city's 15 council districts, two council members Wednesday introduced a motion to start the process for a ballot measure in November 2022 for voters to consider establishing an independent redistricting commission. "In Los Angeles, the redistricting process that was created during the charter reform of 1999 has proven to be hopelessly flawed. First and foremost, the Los Angeles City Council Redistricting Commission is not independent of the City Council," the motion, introduced by Councilwoman Nithya Raman and Councilman Paul Krekorian, states. Raman and Krekorian were the two council members most impacted by the commission's draft map that was sent to the City Council before undergoing further revisions and finally being adopted on Tuesday. The commission finalized its recommendations on Oct. 21 but did not designate which district would be Krekorian's and which would be Raman's. Under the recommendations, one of them would have ended up with entirely new constituents. FOX 11 LA Sidewalk Repair Needs A Makeover, Say Council Members Councilmen Mike Bonin and Bob Blumenfield introduced a motion Wednesday aimed at improving Los Angeles’ system for repairing sidewalks based on a report by Controller Ron Galperin that found the city’s program was broken — like many of the sidewalks themselves. In his Nov. 17 report, Galperin called for a comprehensive assessment of the city’s 9,000 miles of sidewalks and a program that prioritizes fixing the damaged sections instead of replacing large swaths of sidewalks. “Tens of thousands of sidewalks throughout Los Angeles are impassable for the elderly, individuals with disabilities and pedestrians of all ages,” Galperin said. “Despite its recent focus on the issue, the city’s sidewalk repair program is simply not working as it should. The sheer scale of the problem, combined with the city’s inefficient and ineffective strategy to address it, means dangerous sidewalks aren’t getting fixed fast enough. In fact, most won’t be fixed for years or even many decades.” Los Angeles Daily News ‌ ‌ ‌ 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!