Good Morning. Join us on Wednesday, March 11th for the George Bowens Fundraiser BBQ at 11 AM. Detective Bowens is fighting a long, hard battle with cancer. Funds from the donation-based event will help with the mounting cost of his treatment and support for his family. The event will be held at the West LA Station. Click here for more information.

A 24-year-old police officer in Virginia died after being dragged by a vehicle during a traffic stop, and the driver is facing charges that include felony homicide, Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew said Friday during an emotional news conference. Katie Thyne was one of two police officers who were standing by the driver's-side door of a vehicle when it accelerated forward and drove a block before slamming into a tree on Thursday evening, Drew said. Drew said the driver's side door was open, and the officers had just asked the driver to step out of the car. “One officer was able to step out of the way, and she was not,” Drew said. Drew said Thyne was pinned between the door and the tree. She was flown to a hospital in nearby Norfolk where she died from her injuries.

Two Los Angeles police officers were injured after crashing while they were in pursuit of a suspect in South Los Angeles early Monday morning, police said. The crash happened at Florence and Vermont avenues when LAPD officers were chasing a possible DUI suspect in a white BMW and hit a pole. The suspect in the BMW was last seen traveling eastbound on Florence from Vermont, according to police. The officers injuries were considered to be non-life threatening, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. Footage from the scene showed the police vehicle with severe damage after it hit the pole and caught on fire.

The death of an unidentified person whose remains were found behind a home in the South Los Angeles area has been classified as a homicide, authorities said Monday. Investigators were sent to the 100 block of West 49th Street, near Main Street, around 11 a.m. Wednesday after a resident at the property called to report the discovery of bones, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. LAPD Lt. Ryan Rabbett told reporters Thursday that it was unclear how long the partially buried bones were there. "The remains were found behind the home in between two smaller structures, we'll call them sheds," Rabbett said. According to the Los Angeles County coroner's office, the cause of the person's death was "multiple blunt-force traumatic injuries" and the manner of death was listed as "homicide." No gender was indicated. The investigation was ongoing.

A man was shot Sunday in South Los Angeles and was listed in stable condition at an area hospital, police said. The shooting occurred about 3 a.m. in the area of 91st Street and Western Avenue, said Officer Rosario Cervantes of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Media Relations Section. The victim was outside when several gunshots were heard and he was struck by gunfire, Cervantes said. He was rushed to an area hospital and listed in stable condition. No suspect information was released.

Authorities today sought two suspects seen running from a red vehicle involved in a crash that sent a U.S. Postal Service big rig over the side of the southbound Harbor (110) Freeway in South Los Angeles, critically injuring the truck driver. The crash occurred near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard about 9 p.m. Monday and sent the semi over the side of the freeway, causing it to land on its side near the intersection of 37th and Flower streets, near the University of Southern California campus, according to Brian Humphrey of the Los Angeles Fire Department. "The big rig lost control and struck the guardrail and went over the side of the 110 Freeway," California Highway Patrol Capt. David Dashiell told reporters at the scene. "The driver of the red vehicle fled the scene after the collision." Dashiell added the driver and a passenger "fled on foot and their whereabouts are unknown at this time." Los Angeles Police Department's South Traffic Division and the CHP investigated the crash.

A Los Angeles resident was convicted Monday of first-degree murder and carjacking for running over a 54-year-old man after stealing the victim's pickup truck in the Westlake area. Mitchell Ray Castillo, 38, could face 60 years to life in prison for the Dec. 11, 2017, murder of Ricardo Mota, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. A sentencing date has not been set. Castillo listened to the verdict in a room outside of the courtroom due to what Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mildred Escobedo characterized as continued outbursts. After the jury filed out of the room, Castillo was brought back before the judge to discuss a trial to confirm his prior convictions before sentencing. Castillo, dressed in orange jail clothes, spoke out of turn again and again, proclaiming himself not guilty and saying of his defense attorney, James Cooper, "He don't have no power here." The judge said Castillo "is still obstructing his own trial."

An East Los Angeles man who admitted to stabbing his grandmother to death was sentenced to 12 years in prison Monday, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. Armando Sepulveda, 28, pleaded no contest to a felony count of voluntary manslaughter with a special allegation of using a knife, according to prosecutors. He was living with his grandmother, Anna Sepulveda, when he killed her in 2014. Authorities were called to the 59-year-old’s East L.A. home to check on her on Oct. 20, 2014, after she didn’t show up for work at her daughter’s business in Alhambra. Deputies found her body in the home’s kitchen and arrested her grandson soon after.

Eleven people have been arrested on suspicion of participating in a recycling fraud operation in Nevada, Arizona and California, including the operator of a Pacoima recycling center, officials said on Monday. The suspects are accused of smuggling out-of-state empty beverage containers into California to defraud the state's Beverage Container Recycling Fund out of more than $2 million, according to Ken DaRosa, acting director of the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, known as CalRecycle. Since consumers in Nevada and Arizona do not pay California Redemption Value CRV deposits on their beverage purchases, those containers are not eligible for CRV redemption funds, DaRosa said.

Two years from now, Super Bowl 2022 will touch down in Southern California at the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. However, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and Inglewood police are already preparing for the big game and the massive security operation that comes along with the cheering crowds. "It's a national security event when you're talking about the Super Bowl, so it's important to collaborate with the city of Inglewood and the NFL to ensure we have enough assets," LASD Chief Jim Hellmold told Eyewitness News. Sheriff Alex Villanueva was originally part of a 10-person contingent from the department heading to Super Bowl LIV in Miami next week to take note of security operations. On Friday, however, he pulled out of the trip, citing a family emergency. Chief Hellmold, Assistant Sheriff Robin Limone and seven other highly specialized members of the department will shadow their counterparts with Miami-Dade Police and other law enforcement agencies providing security at Super Bowl 2020. The NFL requires local authorities to begin planning for the event two years in advance.

A California man has been arrested in the decades-old killings of five of his infant children. The Yolo County Sheriff’s Office says 57-year-old Paul Perez of Delano was arrested in the deaths of his children born between 1992 and 2001. “I cannot think of a case more disturbing than this one. There can be no victim more innocent than an infant and unfortunately this case involves five of them,” Yolo County Sheriff Tom Lopez said. Authorities started investigating after the decomposed remains of a 3-month-old baby were found by a fisherman in 2007 in an irrigation slough. The office says Perez is suspected in the the deaths of four other of his children. The remains of three of them have not been found. The arrest came after the infant found in a Woodland-area slough in 2007 inside a submerged box was identified in October, the Sheriff’s Office said. 

Authorities are in Los Angeles and Massachusetts are warning of an electrical “outlet challenge” video on TikTok after three incidents sparked concern, including two in schools. The incidents prompted the Los Angeles Fire Department to issue a warning about the viral challenge, which it described as “extremely dangerous” and said it “must be stopped.” In a Facebook post Friday, LAFD warned teachers to be vigilant and urged parents to talk to their teenage children. Fire officials also noted that the challenge could possibly lead to serious injuries or even death. “We can’t help but shake our heads in dismay at the lack of judgment and maturity of those creating these types of videos and circulating them – giving the false impression it is ‘harmless,'” the post stated. “It isn’t. Believe us.” 

A divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Trump administration and against the wishes of Los Angeles city leaders Monday, allowing federal officials to make changes to rules that could make it more difficult for undocumented immigrants to gain citizenship status if they use — or if the government determines they are likely to use — public benefits or housing. The rule changes — which alter the definition of a “public charge” — were proposed in 2018 and were planned to be effective by October before legal challenges blocked their enforcement. The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of allowing the rule changes to be enforced. “As the daughter of immigrants who worked their fingers to the bone to provide for their children, I am disgusted by this partisan ruling,” Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez said in a statement.