Results tagged “crime”

The LAPD is on the lookout for a man who impersonates a police officer and robs them. He's struck at least four times--twice in the Rampart area and once in Olympic and Pacific--over the last couple of months in various neighborhoods around the city. Usually operating in the late morning or early afternoon, he approaches victims dressed as a plain clothes police officer, complete with badge and gun. He'll search the victim and remove cash and wallets.

It's been a week of mourning in Long Beach after the death of 16-year-old Melody Ross between last week's Homecoming football game and dance at Wilson High School. She was an innocent bystander when two alleged 16-year-old gangmembers shot bullets into a crowd meant for two men who were wounded. Those teens were identified today--Tom Love Vinson and Daivion Davis--because they were charged as adults, according to the LA Times.

What a crazy story! Via the LA Times: "When U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents at the Port of Los Angeles opened a shipping container bound for the Netherlands, they discovered a 1965 Volkswagen bus stolen in Washington state 35 years ago."

Thousands of rape kits still remain untested, finds a follow-up to a year-old audit that revealed some 7,500 rape kits sat untested on the shelves of LAPD labs. City Controller Wendy Greuel plans to release the the full findings tomorrow morning. Her office said today that the backlog has been reduced to 65%. However, Greuel says the Department’s record keeping is inconsistent, making it difficult to give entirely accurate numbers. In early October, it was reported that 3,157 kits were left to go with the full backlog completion due in the summer of 2011.

Today is the big day. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will name our new Chief of Police. Per former Chief William Bratton's recommendation, the new LAPD leader is from within the department. The candidates are Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Charlie Beck, Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell and Deputy Chief Michel Moore.

It was the early morning on February 8th--Grammys night--when Chris Brown lashed out at his girlfriend Rihanna in Hancock Park. What exactly happened is unknown, but ABC says Rihanna will reveal publicly what happened on Good Morning America this Thursday and Friday (also on 20/20 on Friday evening) in an interview with Diane Sawyer. Brown eventually apologized publicly on YouTube after entering into a plea agreement. He was slapped with five years of probation and 180 days of community service. He also has to take a one-year domestic violence class and stay 50 yards away from Rihanna.

Crime Mapping is a website that "automatically retrieves data from a records management system," and tracks and maps the information for the public to view, explains KTLA. The San Gabriel Police Department has joined with about two dozen California law enforcement agencies to make use of the Google-powered mapping site so that are residents "can now track crime trends in their neighborhoods." The service for San Gabriel launched today, and marks the first time a police department within Los Angeles County is making use of the service, which "requires no man-hours from police."

Gunfire erupted outside Wilson High School in Long Beach at around 10 o'clock Friday night as about 200 students were inside the building enjoying their Homecoming dance. The bullets took the life of 16-year-old Melody Ross, a "popular honors student and athlete," and the "daughter of Cambodian immigrants," who died in hospital half an hour after the shooting, according to LA Now. Ross and friends had just left the Homecoming football game when the shots were fired. Police are working to determine who killed Ross and wounded two young men, but "said they have no suspects and no motive," and "don't have a description or many leads to go on."

Watch out, folks! As always, never, never, never, never drink and drive. Halloween weekend is no exception and the LAPD is keeping an eye out. Over at Sunset and HIghland, a sobriety and drivers license checkpoint will be set up tonight between 8 p.m. and 3 a.m. Since the beginning of the year, there have been 127 driving under the influence-related and 989 hit and run traffic collisions in the Hollywood area.

Travion Terrett Ford, 25, was sentenced Thursday to prison for 2nd degree murder in the fatal stabbing of a USC student in September of last year. Bryan Richard Frost, 23, was walking with two other students early morning on the September 18th near 28th Street and Orchard Avenue when Ford apparently approached and an argument turned fight. Frost was killed by his stabbing wounds.

Two men were shot as they headed into a North Hollywood temple for morning prayer early today. It was about 6:20 a.m. when the two Jewish men in their 30s were approached by a man who pulled a gun, which jammed at first, according to the LA Times. The men were shot in the lower torso and are listed in stable condition. Police do not believe it is a robbery and are investigating it as a hate crime. The synagogue is the Adat Yeshurun Valley Sephardic synagogue on the 12000 block of Sylvan Street. UPDATE: A man has been detained by police, but it is unknown if he is a suspect. Patrols have been kicked up around other synagogues as they determine of this was a solo or group effort.

   

Other than their celebrity, what do Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Audrina Patridge, Orlando Bloom, Rachel Bilson, Brian Austin Green, Ashley Tisdale and Megan Fox all have in common. They were all victims of burglaries apparently committed by the same group, mostly made up of teens.

We've seen our fair share of aggressive behavior while taking the Red Line, but this video, taken between Hollywood and Highland and Universal City, is pretty disgusting. Sure the kids are acting like total brats and rudely harassing the woman (called the "crackhead" in this video), but does one of them deserve mace in the eye?

UCLA officials are reporting that the 20-year-old female student who was stabbed and slashed earlier this month was released from the hospital on Sunday. The unidentified junior biochemistry major was said to be in "good condition."

Following the arrest of Alfonzo Landa earlier this month, officials today announced the identify of 23-year-old Ricardo Hernandez. A $50,000 reward for tips leading to the arrest of those involved was announced in late September, a couple days after the murder.

The suspected arsonist in the Old Fire that scorched some 90,000 acres of the San Bernardino Mountains was indicted by a jury on 5 counts of murder today. Six people died and 1,000 homes were lost in the October 2003 blaze. Months later on a rainy Christmas day, 14 people died when debris flows swept through a Church camp.

Fearing that she would turn him in, Joe Saenz kidnapped, raped and murdered the mother of his child, leaving her body at his grandma's house. That was in 1998, just days after he killed two rival gang members on the Eastside.

Yesterday morning, authorities in Larimer County, Colorado, revealed that they are pursuing a criminal investigation of Thursday's "Balloon Boy" incident, when the Heene family allegedly led the Sheriff's Department, the media, and stunned viewers all over the world, to believe their 6-year-old son Falcon was drifting over the countryside in a home-made weather balloon. While no charges have been filed yet, patriarch Richard Heene could face a hefty laundry list of accusations, including several felonies.

A standoff that began at around 10:40 last night ended just before 6 this morning outside an apartment building in North Hollywood where a man who'd been believed to have shot his wife was holed up. LAPD officers and members of the SWAT team and bomb squad units were "met by neighbor Nick Wilcox, who told them some bullets came through his apartment wall," at the building on the 6500 block of Simpson Avenue, according to KTLA.

Although his paintings were allegedly stolen fro his westside home last month, Richard L. Weisman waived the $25 million he could have gotten under his insurance policy, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Police are currently searching a Hollywood neighborhood after an after-school shooting near Helen Bernstein High School. At 1:55 p.m., police received a call about shots fired on the 1300 block of North Wilton Place. A 16-year-old girl was shot in the hip area, according to police. LAUSD officials say she is in stable condition.

Last month was a tragic one for the Van Nuys community. Andrew Garcia, just four months old, was killed when bullets flew into the car where he was being fed. Two others were wounded. The two suspects in the case got away until last Thursday when one of them was arrested. Alfonzo Landa, 17, will be charged with the murder of Garcia and the attempted murder (with a shotgun, no less) of six others in the September 27th shooting in Van Nuys.

The 20-year-old UCLA student who allegedly took a knife to a classmate's throat last week was charged with premeditated attempted murder today. Prosecutors believe Damon Thompson stabbed the female student during a chemistry lab class five times and slashed her throat without any provocation, according to the LA Times.

Statistics for 2008 crime in California were released today (.pdf) by the Attorney General's office, finding that homicides and many other crime categories were down. In 2007, there were 2,258 homicides, compared to 2,143 in 2008--a 5.1 percent change. Forcible rape slightly decreased 1.6 percent to 8,906 incidents. The other two violent crime categories, robbery and aggravated assault, also went down to 69,391 and 104,793, respectively. However, burglary and larcenty theft over $400 increased slightly.

An associate professor in UCLA's history department last year had concerns about the undergrad student suspected in last week's campus stabbing. E-mails from 20-year-old Damon Thompson to Stephen Frank indicated something was wrong.

Ah, life in the desert outskirts of Los Angeles. This incident happened this morning in Victorville when a 5'7" 200-pound Caucasian man gave a note to a teller that implied a threat if he did not receive some money. So far, no arrests, but not to fear, we hear barnyard animals are good crime stoppers. That's because of another great headline: "Barnyard animals help nab burglar." A suspect burgler Thursday in nearby Pinon Hills hid inside a building by a barn. Police were tipped off because all the animals were "fixated" on the building. "The donkeys, the geese and then pigs were just staring at this building," an official said.

Now here's a humorous ending to yesterday's manhunt for an armed robbery suspect. Although he evaded police during a five-hour search and closure of a few block area, his continued tomfoolery landed him in cuffs. As told by a local neighborhood watch via the LAPD Senior Lead Officer for the area, here's what happened:

Following a handful of fellows arrested for attempted murder in a September stabbing, another one, likely unrelated, happened this afternoon on campus. At about 12:20 p.m., UCLA police were called about a stabbing on the sixth floor of Young Hall. They responded and have already taken a suspect into custody. So far, a connection between the victim, who was taken to the hospital, and suspect is unknown. Police are asking if you have information regarding this incident contact UCLA PD at (310) 825-9371. [Update: More details are coming out. A male student slashed the throat of a female student, leaving her in critical condition.]

Some L.A. City Councilmembers are considering freezing the police department's budget in light of the economy and a downtrend in the city's crime statistics. Specifically, it would affect the goal of hiring 10,000 officers, a Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa campaign promise that is nearing completion. Proponents of the hiring freeze say it doesn't make sense to hire officers and then furlough them.

A perimeter has been set up in Sherman Oaks as police search for a robbery suspect currently at-large. At some point this morning, officers observed wanted robbery suspects in the parking of lot of Rite-Aid at Riverside and Fulton. One was taken into custody, but another ran, according to police.