Law Enforcement News LAPD Officer Death: Alleged F-13 Gang Members, Suspect's Girlfriend Facing Federal Charges Four people who were arrested in connection to the off-duty Los Angeles police officer's death in South Los Angeles are now facing federal charges. According to an announcement from the U.S. Attorney's Office, three gang members and a "gang associate" are accused of violating a federal racketeering statute for their roles in the death of officer Fernando Arroyos. Federal prosecutors announced they are charging the following suspects: Luis "Lil J" Alfredo De La Rosa Rios, 29, an F13 member, Ernesto "Gonzo" Cisneros, 22, an F13 member, Jesse "Skinny Jack" or "Flaco" Contreras, 34, an F13 member, and Haylee Marie Grisham, 18, Rios' girlfriend. According to the USAO, two of the suspects confronted Arroyos and his girlfriend on January 10, robbed them and then shot the officer to death. All four suspects are charged with violent crime in aid of racketeering, USAO said. Prosecutors explained in a press release that F13 is a large "multi-generational street gang that previously has been the subject of federal prosecutions, including two large racketeering cases." Because the officer was murdered during the robbery, USAO explained that the charges against the suspects carry a possible death penalty – if convicted – and a possible minimum sentence of life in federal prison without the possibility of parole. FOX 11 LAPD, LA County Sheriff Find Homicides Up Again In 2021 Crime is on the rise in Los Angeles, and the increasing number of homicides is especially troubling to Los Angeles city and authorities. There was a 94% increase in homicides from 2019 to 2021 in areas patrolled by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. In 2019, there were 145 homicides in Los Angeles County, a number that went up to 199 in 2020. Sheriff Alex Villanueva did not specify last year’s homicides, but he said he believes that number is about 280. The LAPD is also reporting a similarly sharp increase in homicides for those years. In 2019, there were 258 homicides in areas patrolled by the LAPD, a number that jumped to 355 in 2020. Homicides continued to rise in 2021 to 397, according to numbers released Thursday by the LAPD — the highest number in nearly a decade. However, the LAPD noted that the City of Angels was nowhere near the most murderous city in the nation – that distinction went to Chicago, followed by Philadelphia, New York, and Houston. According to the statistics released by the LAPD, 1,499 people were shot in 2021 compared to 1,337 in 2020, and the number of guns recovered in LAPD-patrolled areas skyrocketed from 6,536 in 2020 to 8,661 in 2021. The number of untraceable “ghost guns” saw a similar jump from 813 recovered in 2020 to 1,921 in 2021. Last year also saw a major jump in follow-home and apparent flash mob robberies, which prompted the LAPD to form a violent crime task force. Since the task force’s formation, those crimes have waned, LAPD Chief Michel Moore said. “The follow-home task force resulted in three murder arrests and 11 arrests for robbery,” Moore said. “We’ve sharply impacted this brazen and disturbing trend that we saw where people were targeted for jewelry and other high-end valuables.” CBS 2 Employee Stabbed To Death Inside Hancock Park Store, Suspect On The Run A woman was stabbed to death inside the furniture store where she works at in Hancock Park, police say. The Los Angeles Police Department responded to a call in the 300 block of North La Brea Avenue around 2 p.m. According to LAPD, the woman was alone inside the store when a man entered the business and attacked her. The 24-year-old woman was the sole employee inside the store, LAPD believes. Police are unsure if the store employee and the suspect knew each other. The suspect was described as a Black male wearing a black hoodie, skinny jeans, a N95 mask and a backpack. The suspect was seen on security video causally walking down the back alley of the businesses. Officials have not released the deceased woman's identity as of Thursday afternoon. The suspect remains on the run, LAPD says. FOX 11 Transient Assaults Nurse At A Downtown LA Bus Stop, LAPD Says Police are investigating an assault on a nurse waiting at a bus stop in downtown Los Angeles Thursday morning at the hands of a transient, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. It happened at about 5:15 a.m. at the bus stop located near the corner of Cesar Chavez and Vignes Street, according to LAPD. A man in his 40s was taken into custody and booked for attempted murder, police said. LAPD says the woman, an L.A. County nurse in her 60s, was assaulted by a transient and taken to the hospital where she was listed in critical condition. Authorities noted a homeless encampment nearby but police are still looking into whether the man in custody lives there. A concerned mother who was waiting for the bus with her daughter told ABC7 that safety is what she worries about when she's at the bus stop waiting to catch a bus. "My concerns is safety issues. A lot of homeless people are out here harassing the patrons waiting for the bus. It's unsafe. They're down here trying to rob us, rape us, anything they can do, they're yelling at us, it's a lot of mental health. And I think that law enforcement needs to come out and kind of, address these issues, to make the city more safe" said Braneka Wilson. ABC 7 Police: San Fernando Valley Brothers Facing Grand Theft Charges Carried Entire Display Case Of Jewelry Out Of Kohl’s Moorpark Store A pair of San Fernando Valley brothers have been arrested in connection with a string of thefts from Kohl’s department stores throughout Ventura County. Vardan Gevorgyan, 30, of North Hollywood, and Raphael Gevorgyan, 37, of Van Nuys, were arrested last Friday at an apartment complex in Pacoima, where one of them had been staying, following an investigation into an organized retail theft spree, according to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office. The investigation into the Gevorgyans began with a Nov. 16, 2021 heist at a Kohl’s, 872 New Los Angeles Ave. in Moorpark. In that incident, deputies found someone had disabled a security cable attached to a large jewelry display case. The entire display case was walked out and put into a vehicle waiting right outside the store’s doors. Store management estimated the theft of the jewelry in the display case was worth in excess of $21,500, authorities said. Investigators later determined the same suspect was responsible for similar thefts at seven different Kohl’s locations throughout Southern California, with a total loss in excess of $124,000, according to sheriff’s officials. CBS 2 Tory Lanez Pleads Not Guilty In Shooting That Injured Megan Thee Stallion Rapper Tory Lanez pleaded not guilty Thursday through his attorney to felony assault and gun charges for allegedly shooting at fellow rapper Megan Thee Stallion’s feet, wounding her, while they were in the Hollywood Hills in the summer of 2020. Lanez — who had implied his innocence by posting on Twitter that “the truth will come to light” — was ordered Dec. 14 to stand trial on one count each of assault with a semiautomatic firearm and carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle. The charges include allegations that the 29-year-old Canadian rapper, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, personally used a firearm and inflicted great bodily injury. At last month’s hearing, Los Angeles Police Department Detective Ryan Stogner testified that he spoke with Meghan Thee Stallion and that she told him that she heard Lanez say, “Dance, bitch,” before firing at her at about 4:30 a.m. July 12, 2020, as the bikini-clad woman got out of a Cadillac SUV for the second time that morning following an argument. “No one heard, `Dance, bitch,’ except for Megan?” defense attorney Shawn Holley asked on cross-examination. “Correct,” the detective responded. The victim, identified in court and the criminal complaint only as “Megan P.,” described the injuries to her feet as “bleeding profusely” and that she fell to the ground and crawled to a nearby driveway, according to the detective. MyNewsLA.com Ye A.K.A. Kanye West Under Investigation After Being Accused Of Punching Fan Outside Downtown L.A. Nightclub Police are investigating after a battery report was filed Thursday against Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West. The incident that spurred the complaint took place in downtown Los Angeles at about 3 a.m. Thursday, LAPD spokeswoman Redina Puentes said. No arrests have been made. The street where the alleged battery happened is outside Soho West, a members-only downtown club popular with celebrities. An email seeking comment from a representative for Ye, the 44-year-old rapper, producer and fashion designer who legally changed his name last year, was not immediately returned. He is in the midst of divorce proceedings with Kim Kardashian West, who requested in December that she be declared legally single and have his former last name dropped. KTLA 5 French Bulldog Stolen In West Hollywood After Slipping Leash On A Walk Police are investigating another brazen French bulldog robbery in West Hollywood. Surveillance video from a local business shows Jag the Frenchie sprinting around the neighborhood after he slipped out of his collar during a walk. Several men in a black SUV noticed him and gave chase. The men followed Jag home and snatched him off the front porch, claiming it was their dog. Jag's owner Rachel Avery says he is a special needs dog, and requires medication and a special diet. "The minute that I found out that he was gone, I felt to the ground on my knees," Avery said. "Because I coudn't believe somebody would do this." "I don't have biological children, so he is my child. You just took my child from its home from me." She is offering a $5,000 reward for his safe return home, no questions asked. There has been a rash of thefts of French bulldogs in the area, a breed that can be sold at a high value. In December, a man was attacked and his French bulldog stolen, after he was dragged some 200 feet by the suspects' car in West Hollywood. ABC 7 LA City Attorney Warns Of Price Gouging Test Kids Amid Omicron Surge Amid reports of extremely expensive at-home COVID-19 test kits being sold in Los Angeles, City Attorney Mike Feuer reminded the public Thursday to beware of price gouging and report the crime, which is punishable by up to $1,000 in fines and six months in prison. “In the face of the largest onslaught of COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, Angelenos are working hard to follow public health guidance — including testing and isolating — to protect their loved ones, co-workers and community,” said Feuer. The city attorney’s office added that along with ripping off customers, price gouging fuels panic in communities when people see overly inflated prices and think there’s a scarcity of supplies. “Unfortunately, as happened at the beginning of the pandemic, some are seeking to profit from this emergency by jacking up the price of COVID-19 at-home test kits, making testing that much harder. Consumers should beware of high prices for these kits and report any suspected price gouging to my office. When we learn about possible violations we’ll take action,” Feuer said. MyNewsLA.com Authorities Seeking Public Assistance In Finding Missing Lynwood Woman Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies are asking for public assistance in locating a missing Lynwood woman who suffers from bipolar disorder. Sheila Nicole Diciolli, 21-years-old, has been missing since January 5, when she was last seen at around 6:30 p.m. on Elm Street near the 710 Freeway, wearing a black sweater and blue jeans. Diciolli is 5-foot, 8-inches and weighs about 100 pounds, with short blonde hair and hazel eyes. She also has a tattoo of a cat on her right thigh. LACSD noted that her family is extremely concerned for her well-being, and anyone with information on Diciolli’s whereabouts was asked to call the Sheriff’s Missing Persons Unit at (323) 890-5500. CBS 2 LA County Will Devise Plan To Stamp Out Fake COVID-19 Testing Sites The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors wants to prevent phony COVID-19 testing sites from harvesting personal information from people or charging them for what should be a free service. That effort comes amid a surge in demand for COVID-19 screening, and in response to growing concerns from residents about suspicious, potentially illegitimate pop-up testing sites, said Helen Chavez, a spokeswoman for Kathryn Barger, the supervisor who introduced a motion Tuesday that was passed Thursday. Some Angelenos said they have handed out their social security numbers, information from their passports, their health care status and other data that went beyond the typical questions asked by legitimate testing facilities. “As the urgent need for testing reaches a crucial point, it is imperative that we ensure residents can be confident they are receiving an accurate and legitimate test without risking their private information,” Barger wrote in a statement Tuesday. “We must do all we can to crack down on fraudulent COVID-19 tests and sites and prevent identity theft.” Los Angeles Daily News Woman, 70, Arrested In Cold Case Slaying Deputies have arrested a 70-year-old woman in connection with a cold case homicide in Twin Peaks, California, where a man was fatally shot in 1993, authorities said Thursday. On Feb. 27, 1993, San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies were called to a home in Twin Peaks, an unincorporated area 75 miles east of Los Angeles, following a shooting. The victim, 35-year-old Rick Hafty, was pronounced dead at the hospital. “At the time, investigators exhausted all leads and the case remained open,” the sheriff's office said in a statement Thursday. Detectives re-opened the case in June, with interviews and another examination of the case's physical evidence. Investigators took Diane Cook, 70, into custody on Wednesday. Cook is in jail on $1 million bail. It was not immediately clear whether she had an attorney who could speak on her behalf. Authorities did not specify what allegedly linked Cook to Hafty's death or whether they knew each other. NBC 4 Lawmakers Move To Tighten Restrictions On Sex-Offending Doctors Doctors who are convicted of sexually abusing patients would be permanently banned from practicing medicine in California under a bill introduced this week by state legislators. The move comes a month after a Times investigation found that the Medical Board of California had reinstated 10 physicians since 2013 who lost their licenses for sexual misconduct. They included two doctors who abused teenage girls and one who beat two female patients when they reported him for sexually exploiting them. “I read that article and my stomach turned. This is the sort of stuff you see in horror movies,” said the bill’s lead author, Assemblywoman Akilah Weber (D-San Diego), who is an obstetrician/gynecologist. “I was shocked. I was very concerned for patients and very concerned for the medical profession itself.” The measure would be a major overhaul of current practice, which patients and healthcare advocates contend favors leniency for doctors and provides victims of sexual misconduct no voice in the disciplinary process. The change would take the decision to reinstate such doctors out of the hands of the Medical Board and “make it very clear that this is something we will not tolerate in California,” Weber said. Los Angeles Times Video Captures Deadly Shooting Outside California Police Station The Stockton Police Department has released security video and bodycam footage of a deadly shooting that happened last month in a police station parking lot. The video, shared on Facebook, shows an armed man charging at officers on the evening of Dec. 8. The man, identified as 40-year-old Angelo Weitz, initially followed commands to get on the ground but refused to drop his weapon, video shows. Weitz then gets back on his feet and runs toward police. An officer fires several rounds as Weitz charges, striking him. Weitz was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police. No officers were hurt in the shooting. PoliceOne Seattle PD Releases Video Of Incident That Left K-9, Suspect Dead The Seattle Police Department released bodycam footage on Friday of an officer fatally shooting a burglary suspect. Police say the suspect stabbed another officer in the face and killed a police dog named Jedi following a brief pursuit on Beacon Hill Wednesday. According to the video posted on the Seattle Police Department's online blotter, a man told police an intruder with a knife was in his home. The incident occurred on the 2200 block of South Eddy Street, police said. The suspect threatened the homeowner with a machete, the resident told police. The footage shows officers spotting the suspect walking away from the residence barefoot and with a towel wrapped around his waist. A man with a baseball bat was following him and stopped as a police car turned, according to the footage. The video shows another officer on foot, assisted by Jedi, running after the suspect, closely followed by the police car. The footage shows the officer on foot yelling at the suspect to stop, and the suspect then crossing the road, still holding the machete. Seattle Times Public Safety News Greater-Alarm Blaze Engulfs Sherman Oaks Strip Mall A greater-alarm fire ripped through a strip mall in Sherman Oaks late Wednesday night. The fire was reported at 10:48 a.m. in a single-story strip mall containing five businesses in the 15000 block of Ventura Boulevard, off Noble Avenue. Dozens of Los Angeles Fire Department crews arrived on scene to find heavy flames and smoke billowing from the structure. Because of the size of the fire and the danger it posed to the integrity of the structure, crews were forced to take a defensive position. Firefighters also had to contend with “stubborn pockets of fire” burning in the attic of the building, LAFD reported. There were also charged power lines on the north side of the building. It took 75 firefighters about 80 minutes to bring the fire under control, LAFD said. There were no injuries. Firefighters remained on scene overnight to remove debris. CBS 2 LA County COVID-Positive Hospital Patient Number Tops 4,000 The number of COVID-positive patients in Los Angeles County hospitals topped the 4,000 mark Thursday as the highly contagious omicron variant continued to fuel a winter surge in infections. According to state figures, there were 4,175 COVID-19-positive patients in county hospitals as of Thursday, with 586 of them being treated in intensive care. That's up from 3,912 total patients and 536 in the ICU on Wednesday. The hospital number is the highest it has been since early February 2021. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Thursday the rise in COVID patients is pushing the county's overall hospital patient population to levels rivaling those during last winter's case surge. She said the daily overall patient census -- both COVID and non-COVID -- is about 15,000 in the county, close to last winter's peak of 16,500. She also noted that rising hospitalizations are a natural consequence of rising case numbers, as are deaths, which are likely to keep increasing, even after infection figures begin declining. ABC 7 California Omicron Surge Expected To Peak Within Weeks California officials remain highly concerned about how the explosion of coronavirus cases is hitting hospitals, which are already overwhelmed by staffing shortages because of infected workers, forcing surgeries to be canceled and worsening 911 ambulance response times. But there is also hope that the Omicron wave could begin to flatten in the coming weeks, offering some relief. Already, parts of the globe that saw Omicron explode are seeing the wave recede or flatten. New York is seeing potential early signs of having peaked. For the seven-day period that ended Sunday, it was reporting an average of 90,000 coronavirus cases a day. On Wednesday, it was reporting about 71,000 cases a day, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The nation’s capital also has seen a flattening. And Britain’s surge may have crested a week ago. For the week ending Jan. 5, Britain was reporting an average of 195,000 cases a day; by Wednesday, it was reporting about 149,000 daily cases. Los Angeles Times Local Government News L.A. City Council Will Consider Renaming A Street In Singer Vicente Fernández’s Honor Vicente Fernández, the Mexican singer, actor and cultural icon who died in December at age 81, could have a street in Los Angeles’ Boyle Heights neighborhood named after him. Los Angeles City Councilmember Kevin de León introduced a motion at the end of Wednesday’s council meeting to rename Bailey Street between First Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in honor of the man known as El Rey, the king of ranchera. “Unfortunately, with the council in recess in December, we didn’t have an opportunity to recognize this cultural icon, whose music and talent impacted generations of Latinos, not only in his native homeland of Mexico, but across the globe,” De León said as he moved to adjourn Wednesday’s meeting in Fernandez’s honor as well. For those unfamiliar with the performer, De León likened Fernández to Frank Sinatra. His awards and accolades are too numerous to mention,” the politician said, invoking Fernández’s multiple Grammys and Latin Grammys as well as his star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. 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