Good Morning. Please join us on Saturday, April 23rd for the DRPO Wellness Conference for First Responders, Police, and Military. The event will take place from 8:30am-12pm at the Los Angeles Police Academy. Click here for more information. |
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Family Of Men Murdered In 2008 In South L.A. Hoping Attention To Case Leads To Arrests
Clifford Hibbert, Jr., 22, and Kenneth Patterson, 23, were shot and killed on the 4200 block of Figueroa Street in South Los Angeles more than a decade ago. Investigators say they had just been dropped off at an apartment complex in Vermont Square when shots were fired. No arrests were ever made in the case, but detectives believe someone has information that could lead to an arrest. “We’re here today to bring to light, to remind the public and the community that we have not forgotten,” said Ayanna Parker, the sister of Hibbert. “Whoever the perpetrators are, the cowards, they will not get away.” Hibbert’s mother called her son a friend to his community as well as “an uncle, a brother, a grandson, and a mentor.” The family has created the Encouragement Project which is dedicated to supporting those who have experienced loss. Anyone with information about the murders of Hibbert and Patterson is urged to contact the Los Angeles Police Department at 1-877-527-3247. You can also submit an anonymous tip online through lacrimestoppers.org.
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Beverly Grove Nightclub Shooting Leaves 1 Hospitalized
At least one person was struck when gunfire erupted at the Nightingale Plaza nightclub in the Beverly Grove neighborhood of Los Angeles early Monday morning. Multiple gunshots were fired shortly before 2 a.m. inside the club located in the 600 block of La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles Police Department Officer Lomeli said. Arriving officers found one person down with multiple gunshot wounds to the lower body, according to an official at the scene. The unidentified victim was taken to a local hospital in stable condition, Lomeli said. Investigators believe the victim got into a verbal dispute with the gunman shortly before shots were fired. The gunman was described by police as a Black man, about 25 years old. Police believe the suspect fled the area on foot. There was no word on what may have prompted the shooting.
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Record Fentanyl Deaths Impact Local Families
Drug overdose deaths top 100,000 annually for the first time, driven by fentanyl, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Provisional data shows drug overdose deaths rose by 28.5% over a 12-month period ending in April 2021. Former Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs, actor Michael K. Williams, musicians Prince and Tom Petty, among the famous lives lost to the powerful and deadly synthetic drug, Fentanyl. While celebrities make headlines, across Southern California similar tragedies are unfolding - sons and daughters - deaths rising at an alarming rate. "I walked into his bedroom to give him his medication and I found him dead," Jaime Puerta said after losing his teenage son, Daniel, in April 2020. "It was just horrible. No parent should see something like that," Puerta said. "My son thought he was consuming a blue m-30 Oxycodone pill, but it turned out to be a counterfeit with enough fentanyl to kill anywhere between four to seven people and that took his life." The NBC4 I-Team analyzed data from the Centers for Disease Control and found since 2019 the number of overdose deaths caused by synthetic drugs in California is dramatically higher than cocaine and heroin. Nearly two thirds of annual overdose deaths now connected to synthetic opioids, according to the CDC. The Drug Enforcement Administration in Los Angeles tells the NBC4 ITeam that Fentanyl is responsible for nearly 50-percent of drug deaths in Los Angeles County and up to 64-percent in Orange County last year alone.
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2 Children Hurt After Car Crashes Into Their Bicycle In Sylmar, LAFD Says
Two children were rushed to the hospital Sunday afternoon after being injured in a vehicle collision in the Los Angeles community of Sylmar. Their age and gender are unknown. According to the Los Angeles Fire Department, both were "transported in at least serious condition" after a vehicle crashed into their bicycle. LAFD emergency crews and LAPD officers responded at about 4:30 p.m. to the 13300 block of W. Bombay Street. Aerial footage from AIR7HD shows a green bicycle, and other items such as clothing and shoes, lying in the middle of the street. What appears to be a white Jeep is also seen in front of a police patrol car near the crash site, but it's unknown if the vehicle was involved in the collision. Information on the driver was not available. No further details were immediately known. The cause of the crash is under investigation.
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LAPD Says Chris Rock Declined To File Complaint Against Will Smith Over Oscar Slap
Oscar presenter Chris Rock has declined to file a police report over actor Will Smith’s slap during the live broadcast of the Academy Awards ceremony, the department said in a release Sunday night. “If the party desires a police report at a later date, LAPD will be available to complete an investigative report,” the statement said. Actor and comedian Rock was presenting the Best Documentary Oscar when he made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, apparently alluding to her shaved head. Pinkett Smith disclosed in 2018 she had developed the hair-loss condition alopecia. “I can’t wait to see you in ‘G.I. Jane 2,’“ Rock said, referring to the 1997 film starring Demi Moore as a soldier with a shaved head. Smith rushed the stage, slapped Rock and shouted at him. “Keep my wife’s name out your f— mouth!” Smith said when he got back to his seat. The profanity was bleeped out on ABC and left audiences at the Dolby Theater and at home watching on TV or computers stunned. An LAPD spokesman said there was no deadline to file a complaint and that it would “complete a report at any time in the future.” “For misdemeanor crimes, the victim cooperation is important in successful prosecution,” the spokesman added.
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Police Seek Killer Of Teenaged Father To Be
At least two people know who killed 18-year-old Angel Ledesma. That's the belief LA County Sheriff homicide detectives are going on, nearly seven years since Ledesma was shot and killed in an alley in East Los Angeles. "Angel was a happy kid," said his mother, Minerva Howard. "He was full of energy, he was loving, he was caring." Ledesma was her first child. She says he taught her how to be a caring, loving mother. She says her son was interested in joining the military, that he found joy in his high school ROTC program. But all his dreams were destroyed by a single bullet to the back on April 13, 2015. "All I know is that somebody shot my son," Howard says, through tears. "I feel like he didn't mean nothing to nobody. But you know what? He means something to me. That was my son." LASD Detective Rich Tomlin was there the day Ledesma was killed and continues to investigate the killing. He says Ledesma was with two friends in an alley near Cesar Chavez and Alma Street when someone walked past them in the opposite direction. "Nothing was said, no confrontation when suddenly that individual stopped," Tomlin says. "He had a backpack, turned and retrieved a handgun and started firing at the three young men." As the teens scattered, Ledesma was the only one hit, leaving his family as the collateral damage all these years later.
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Man Fatally Wounded In Commerce-Area Shooting
A man was killed in a gunfight during an argument near a food truck on the border of Commerce and the unincorporated East Los Angeles area, and his killer was being sought Monday. The shooting is being investigated as gang-related, the Sheriff’s Information Bureau reported. The shooting was reported at about 9:50 p.m. Sunday in the 5500 block of Whittier Boulevard, near Atlantic Boulevard, according to the Sheriff’s Information Bureau. The mortally wounded man was taken by paramedics to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. His name was not released. “Investigators have learned the victim and a male Hispanic suspect exchanged words on the sidewalk at the location near a food truck,” a sheriff’s department statement said. “The suspect drew a handgun and began shooting at the victim. The victim also drew a firearm and returned fire.” The suspect escaped in a dark-colored pickup. Anyone with information on the shooting was urged to call the Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500, or Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
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Man Arrested On Suspicion Of Raping 14-Year-Old Girl At Knifepoint
A 41-year-old man was arrested Monday morning on suspicion of raping a 14-year-old girl at knifepoint in Bell Gardens, police officials said. The incident was reported Thursday to the Bell Gardens Police Department by the girl, who said that she was coerced into a garage by the suspect early that morning. Once there, the suspect and another man tied the girl up, and the 41-year-old raped her at knifepoint, police said. The reported accomplice was arrested Thursday while police continued to search for the 41-year-old. At 8:15 a.m. Monday, an anonymous tipster reported to the Long Beach Police Department that they had seen the suspect in the Los Angeles River area near Long Beach Boulevard and the 710 Freeway after recognizing him from a Bell Gardens police release. Long Beach police went to the area, and authorities said the suspect was arrested after trying to run. Police officials said the suspect had attempted to hide a distinctive facial tattoo using a bandage.
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Encino Man Convicted In $27 Million Coronavirus Scheme
An Encino man was found guilty Monday, March 28, of attempting to bilk the federal coronavirus Paycheck Protection Program out of $27 million by submitting more than two dozen bogus applications for loans. Robert Benlevi, 53, delivered the applications to four banks from April to June 2020 on behalf of eight purported companies he owned, although none of them actually had any employees, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. On Monday, a federal criminal jury in downtown Los Angeles found Benlevi guilty of multiple counts of bank fraud, making false statements in a loan application, and money laundering. Sentencing was set for June 27. In the applications, Benlevi sought a total of $27 million in forgivable PPP loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Benlevi claimed in the applications that each of his companies had 100 employees and an average monthly payroll of $400,000. Benlevi also submitted fabricated IRS documents falsely stating that each of the companies had an annual payroll of $4.8 million.
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Inglewood Police Seeking Assistance In Locating Assault Suspect
The search is on for the man wanted in connection with the reported assault of a woman returning home from work early Monday morning. The incident unfolded as the woman walked up to the door of her residence at about 1:35 a.m. Monday morning, when she was struck in the back of the head by an undisclosed object. The suspect wielding the item then began to pull the woman backwards out of her doorway. As he attempted to pull her back, she grabbed a different undisclosed object from near her doorframe and used to it strike the suspect multiple times before he took the object from her and swung it at her. She was able to grab another object, which she used to strike the suspect over the head just before using her phone to call 9-1-1, which prompted the suspect to flee the scene. Per Inglewood PD's incident report and a detailed description from the victim, the suspect is said to be a Black male with a light-complexion in his late 40s or early 50s, with salt-and-pepper colored hair styled like an afro. She continued to note that he had long, full sideburns that extended down to a similarly colored beard.
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Inmate Killed In Attack At High-Security California Prison
An inmate died after an attack by two other inmates in the recreation yard of a high-security prison in Northern California, officials said Sunday. Staff at California State Prison, Sacramento, deployed chemical agents to stop the brawl, which started on Saturday about 2:12 p.m., according to a news release. Despite lifesaving measures, authorities said, Nathan Marcus, 33, was pronounced dead by 2:38 p.m. Tyler Yates, 27, and Gregory Roach, 33, appeared to start the attack and are under investigation for homicide, prison officials said. Yates, who was sentenced in 2017 from San Diego County for burglary and assault with force, and Roach, who was sentenced in 2019 from San Diego County for assault with force, have been moved to a segregation unit pending the investigation. Marcus was sentenced to state prison in 2013 from San Joaquin County, and then again in 2016 from Kings County, for crimes including attempting to evade a police officer and possession of a deadly weapon by a prisoner.
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Suspect Arrested Months After Slaying Of D.C. Special Police Officer
A murder suspect has been arrested six months after a special police officer was killed in the line of duty. On September 21, 2021, Capt. Angela Washington, 41, was found dead of a gunshot wound at an apartment building. Washington had gone to check on some officers who were patrolling there, according to NBC 4. At the time, Washington was working for the Metro Special Police, a private security company of commissioned officers. On Wednesday, police said 22-year-old Jadohn Bracey had been arrested and charged with first degree murder, according to the report. Washington is survived by her four children and two grandchildren. “My mother was a hardworking woman,” said Washington’s daughter, Shanya. “She did anything for her kids. She did anything for whoever.” The motive is still unclear and the case remains under investigation, police said.
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North Carolina Police Union ‘Disgusted’ When Suspect Released 24 Hours After Shooting At Cops
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Fraternal Order of Police said it’s “disgusted” by the release of a felon less than 24 hours after he was jailed on charges of shooting at police in uptown early Saturday. Officers were breaking up fights outside a nightclub in the 200 block of North Caldwell Street when 27-year-old Tyler Drew of Rock Hill “retrieved a rifle” and began firing at police, according to a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department news release Saturday. Police tackled Drew but did not discharge their weapons, CMPD said. Drew was jailed on six counts of assault with a deadly weapon on a law enforcement officer and one count each of possession of a firearm by a felon and resisting an officer, jail records show. He posted the $67,000 bail a magistrate gave him and was released just before 2 p.m. Sunday, according to jail records. In a statement Wednesday, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 9 blasted the criminal justice system in Mecklenburg County for “failing the hardworking citizens who live here and the many more that drive here each day for work and leisure.” As a felon, Drew wasn’t legally allowed to have a gun, lodge officials said. The Observer was unable to determine what previous charge made Drew a felon.
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Boy, 13, Pleads No Contest To Attempted Murder In Police Shootout
A 13-year-old Florida boy who fled a children's home with a teenage girl and fired on deputies during a shootout last year has pleaded no contest to attempted murder. The boy entered the plea Wednesday in juvenile court and was sentenced to a maximum-risk commitment program, where he will likely spend about three years. He will then be on conditional release, the juvenile equivalent of probation. The Associated Press is not naming him because he is a juvenile. Volusia County Sheriff's Deputy Don Maxwell, who hid behind a tree as he was fired upon, told the boy during the hearing that he forgives him. "I challenge you to be better,” Maxwell said, according to The Daytona Beach News-Journal. “I want to see you one day be the person … the person that I know you can be. You have a big heart. You have a long life ahead of you. And I will say a prayer for you every day.” The girl, then 14, and the boy, then 12, fled the Florida United Methodist Children’s Home near Deltona on June 1 after she became angry that she was not allowed to go outside and catch lizards. They broke into a house where they found an assault weapon, a shotgun and other weapons. They began firing on deputies who were searching for them.
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Officer Uses CPR To Revive Premature Baby That Stopped Breathing
A police officer in Kansas is credited with saving a 4-week-old premature baby who was found not breathing at his home, cops say. Officers in Hays were dispatched at 7:53 p.m on Wednesday, March 23, for reports of a child not breathing. In three minutes, Sgt. Jason Bonczynski arrived at the home and found the premature child unresponsive, police said. Bonczynski began administering CPR to the young boy, who “began to show signs of life” in about two minutes, according to police. He was breathing on his own when medical officials arrived. The baby was transported to a local hospital before being taken for further treatment in Wichita, where family said he “is doing much better,” police said. Wichita is about 180 miles southeast of Hays. Police said Bonczynski has been with the department for 23 years and serves as a patrol sergeant and member of the special situation response team. “We are extremely proud of Jason and his quick response in providing life-saving medical care to the child,” Hays Police said. “Please join us as we continue to pray for the child’s quick and full recovery.
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U.S. lawmakers introduce bill to protect tax credit for retired cops, firefighters
Retired police officers and firefighters could see more tax relief in their future. A bipartisan bill introduced to Congress this week would make it easier for public safety retirees to access a tax benefit for their healthcare insurance premiums, according to a press release Monday from Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA). Spanberger, a former police officer, and Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH) are sponsoring the bill.
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Dog Rescue: LAFD Pulls Canine Out Of LA River
Crews with the Los Angeles Fire Department have safely pulled a dog named Scooby out of the Los Angles River in a dramatic rescue mission. Earlier Monday afternoon, crews made multiple efforts to get the dog back to safety, with the first rescue call being made around 2:15 p.m. The dog's owner, a 35-year-old woman, has since been rescued. Prior to pulling the dog out of the water and into safety in Studio City, crews were urging people in Los Angeles to stay away and do not attempt to save the dog. This comes after a 28-year-old male bystander had to be rescued himself after jumping into the water to try and save the canine. Captain II Erik Scott from LAFD held a press conference following the rescue. Scott is now pleading the public to leave it to the pros when it comes to water rescues like the one that took place Monday.
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L.A. County Courts To Lift Mask Mandate April 4
Los Angeles County Superior Court will end its mask mandate for courthouses beginning April 4, following similar moves in recent weeks by county and state public health officials. “Since the winter COVID-19 surge peaked in L.A. County in mid-January, [the L.A. County Department of Public Health] indicates that ‘case and test positivity rates and hospitalizations have consistently declined,’” Presiding Judge Eric Taylor said in a release. “These benchmarks have guided the court’s measured approach during the pandemic.” After the mandate expires, the court will still recommend the use of masks while indoors in accordance with public health guidance and “remain vigilant in monitoring emerging virus threats,” Taylor said. The county court system delayed start dates for criminal trials in January in response to a coronavirus surge driven by the highly infectious Omicron variant. In late February, after California had lifted its universal mask mandate for indoor public places, Taylor noted “hopeful signs that the winter surge has subsided” but said “the court will remain vigilant in providing safe access to justice in the nation’s largest trial court.”
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What To Know About BA.2 Variant Spreading In L.A. County
Mirroring trends seen across the country, Los Angeles County is seeing an increase in the ratio of coronavirus cases turning out to be the highly contagious omicron subvariant, BA.2. Here’s what to know about the variant: BA.2, sometimes referred to as “stealth omicron,” is considered a subvariant of omicron. It has become the dominant variant of the coronavirus around the world, the World Health Organization announced earlier this month. BA.2 is believed to be driving an increase in COVID-19 cases in several countries, including in much of Europe. Now, there are worries that the variant may soon push cases up in the U.S. too. The subvariant has mutations in its spike protein that makes it different from BA.1, which has been the most common omicron sublineage reported in the U.S. and the one believed to be behind the record-setting high case numbers during the winter surge. The nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has said that the subvariant is considered 50-60% more transmissible than the previous version. BA.2 is known to be more highly contagious than earlier variants, though it does not appear to be more severe than other versions of the virus, health authorities say.
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