Tacos can be exciting stuff, but for one Westminster taco stand things got a little too heated yesterday when a brawl involving about a dozen people erupted outside. The incident took place at Alerto's Mexican Restaurant just before one in the morning, when apparently "a man pulled a gun as one group [of customers] was leaving in their vehicle." According to the officers on scene, "Benjamin Nguyen, 19, suffered a gunshot wound to the......

At yesterday's LA Police Commission meeting, Chief William Bratton reported the crime stats for the summer. Statistically speaking, it was a good summer. From the LA Times: "From the beginning of June through the end of August, there were 84 homicides in Los Angeles -- a level of relative calm not seen since the summer of 1967, when the city had 79 killings over the same period. By comparison, summer bloodshed in the city peaked......

At least one disgruntled resident is not happy with the continued reported lack of security at the Lofts at NoHo Commons, which is next to the North Hollywood Metro Red Line station. The anonymously written blog (so take that for what it's worth) reports of stolen car parts, an armed robbery, a drug dealer and a prostitution ring. It also paints a not so cheery picture for the general experience there: "lights are off throughout......

The "Lost Fire" in Agoura Hills last Tuesday was under investigation by LA County Sheriff's after they found evidence of arson. The case soon was solved after the responsible parties turned themselves in. "Two juveniles have confessed to accidentally starting an 80-acre brush fire near Malibu Creek State Park while playing with fireworks, a sheriff's lieutenant said Thursday," reported the Associated Press. Witnesses told police earlier that they saw two boys running from the fire......

File this under things you need to read to get that warm fuzzy feeling: "For four years, police have known that a single madman is out there, a man whose audacity and sick good luck have made him the most enduring serial killer in California history and the longest-operating serial killer west of the Mississippi. In 1988, he stopped the slaughter for more than 13 years, then killed again in 2002 and 2003. L.A. Weekly......

Who knew? The Westside home invasion serial burglar who was caught last week had a name. In a notice about a press conference later today, they refer to the man as the "Silverware Bandit." During the investigation, Detective Jason De La Cova told us there were certain details they were not releasing to the public. This must have been one of them. Even media relations had know idea until last night. More details will come......

The Santa Monica Police Department and LAPD are saying they have a suspect in custody who may be responsible for a series of home invasions of elderly women on the Westside. If all are the cases are truly connected, fifteen reported incidents, mostly within Los Angeles city limits, were committed between May and August (see a map here). The suspect was arrested in Santa Monica on Friday around 3:00 a.m. while preparing to strike again,......

The eastbound 105 freeway was shut down in the Willowbrook area after a dead body was found a little before 5:30 a.m. near the Wilmington Avenue Exit. Initial reports said that all lanes would reopen by 9:30, but as of 9:05 a.m., SigAlert indicated traffic as a-okay, save for the 110/105 connector.......

Photo by Lord Jim ia Flickr The Melrose Action Neighborhood Watch reported this weekend that a possible 9th and 10th robbery occurred in the neighborhood, but went unreported to police. For the past two weeks, eight reported robberies have happened around the Melrose shopping district. "At least two persons, unrelated to each other, have said that they failed to report their particular incidents to the police, therefore the crimes have gone unreported," the group's......

Via the local neighborhood watch group, an 8th street robbery in a recent spate spanning the past week and a half occurred Wednesday afternoon around 4:30 p.m. on Genesee near Clinton in the Melrose corridor area of Hollywood. "3-4 persons jumped out of a car and mugged two women (not confirmed) walking together possibly with strollers," the watch's website reported. "The robbers stole the victims purses then jumped back into their car and took off.......

An interactive version is below the jump | View Larger Map In the past week, seven people have been robbed at gunpoint by either one person or a group of three around the Melrose corridor. The LA Times delved into the story and made this map, which is helpful for those who live, work or play in the area to be aware and stay safe. If you're invested in this neighborhood, there's a neighborhood watch......

David Markland of LA Metblogs posted this above video from a surveillance camera at the his apartment building in Hollywood. A man dressed up as a construction worker walks up to a bike, cuts the bolt of the lock and steals it shortly after 8:00 a.m. last week Tuesday. As Markland notes in his post, his local neighborhood council representative said this is occurring around town with DWP workers. In Sherman Oaks last week,......

Seven men were arrested and 55 others were charged today as part of a federal-local investigation that spanned 8 months. "The investigation marked the first time law enforcement agencies have broadly targeted peer-to-peer [think Limewire type services] users sharing child pornography," reported the Daily News. "The 55 suspects nabbed in the investigation lived in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties." Among the seven arrested, there was a police officer, a lawyer and......

Via Streetsblog LA And now CNN has picked up on the Mandeville Canyon bicycle vs. car story.......

All victims have been pedestrians | Photo by Dawn Ashley Police are asking for help in identifying at least three suspects responsible for seven Hollywood area armed street robberies that occurred last week. "These robberies occurred between August 8th to 17th within the area of La Cienega Boulevard and La Brea Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard and Beverly Boulevard," an LAPD release said. All occurring in the late evening or early morning hours in......

Former gang member, now community activist Najee Ali, 45, was sentenced to four years in prison yesterday after pleading guilty for attempting to bribe a witness in a case about his daughter. He normally would have recieved two years, but the doubling was due to a 1992 robbery conviction and a 2004 parole violation, according to the LA Times. Ali has been a consistent figure in local activism, once being appointed to a city commission......

Sleazeballs are still using that shtick of telling women that they could be models and if they take photos with him, he's got the connections to get them with the right industry people. Last week, the LAPD arrested Miguel Angel Barrera, 44, of Chino Hills, for doing just that and taking it one step further by sexually assaulting the women during the photo shoots. From an LAPD notice: The female victims are 14 through 23......

Photo by cwalkr71 via Flickr "It is imperative to know that when purchasing items on-line, if the price seems too good to be true, then it probably is too good and is possibly a stolen item," said an e-mail sent out this weekend by the LAPD announcing a press conference regarding hundreds of stolen tires and rims from newer model Mercedes Benz and BMWs. Two young men, ages 18 and 20, are prime suspects......

Three different news stories are making the rounds today, all of which involve cars and crimes, and all of which are best defined as "things that make you go hmm?" (Are we still allowed to say that?) First, a fiery car crash was the dramatic conclusion to a police chase that ended up in Rosemead last night, resulting in the death of the driver. But what alerted the police's suspicions and led to the chase......

Big Wangs is the Orange Building | Photo by : : coco Rina : : via Flickr LAist Contributor Michael Zampelli also runs a Kings hockey fan forum site called LetsGoKings.com. Last night, one of his members posted a story about his experience getting shot on the streets of Hollywood after an altercation at Big Wangs at Selma and Cahuenga. His story is pretty amazing: My friend Shaun and I were at Big Wangs......

Craig Robinson who starred in "Pineapple Express," who is also known as Darryl on "The Office," was arrested on June 29 in Culver City, according to TMZ. His traffic violation led police to find him in possession of a drugs, including meth and ecstasy, to which TMZ snipes "guess he's still researching his role!" Robinson has been charged with three felony counts.......

Photo by leochi via Flickr The City Council is voting today on one-year gang prevention contracts for six organizations to work with at-risk youth. But what defines a child as at-risk and likely to join a gang? The Daily News lays it out: lack of parental supervision; early childhood aggression; delinquent beliefs, including acceptance of antisocial behaviors; negative life events; having peers involved in deviant behavior; a commitment to street-oriented peers. If passed, six......

Construction noise on the weekends irritates those trying to sleep in. Noisy sex got one man banned from his girlfriend's apartment in London. And playing music too loud got one man shot and killed in the Valley neighborhood of Pacoima early Wednesday morning. The LAPD says that preliminary reports point towards one neighbor waking up around 2:00 a.m. to loud music playing from a car stereo, confronted and got into a struggle his other neighbor......

Four people were injured with superficial wounds on a Metro Red Line subway train at or near the Universal Red Line station after someone pulled out a pair of scissors this evening around 10:25 p.m. "Everyone is being detained and questioned at this point," said Lt. Greg Hinkel of the LA County Sheriff's. However, the Los Angeles Fire Department reported that paramedics transported at least one person to a local area hospital. Train service was......

Steve Lopez has a good knack for getting stories about the City of LA in their stupid moments. The latest is about a family store in Highland Park that was getting tagged by taggers and gangsters on an almost daily basis. The family would clean the graffiti, it would soon come back. So the family hired two respected street artists for $3000 to paint a mural and the tagging stopped. Well, someone complained about the......

A home invasion early Friday morning in Santa Monica could be the latest in a series of home invasions and burglaries with elderly female victims on the Westside since early May. Friday's incident took place on 1200 Ashland Ave. around 2:45 a.m. The septuagenarian woman who was at home at the time was not injured, but jewelry and other valuables were stolen, according to the LA Times. The suspect is described as a male Black,......

An 11-hour standoff between a man and Pasadena SWAT ended early this morning when the man, who was injured with two gunshot wounds by police at some point during the situation, surrendered himself. Carlos Artivia, 45, was holding his 9-year-old son inside on the 1500 block of North El Molino Avenue. On Sunday evening, LA County SWAT killed a man who shot and injured his wife and was holding his 2-year-old daughter hostage inside his......

A 17-year-old on a bicycle was shot and killed last night when a car with two men inside pulled up and shot the teen in the unincorporated area of Westmont. On Sunday night in the unincorporated area of Athens, four men were shot, leaving two dead, about one-mile away from last night's slaying. Both neighborhoods are located in the South LA area near the 110 and 105 Freeways. Updated: The Daily News reports that three......

A house at 1920 Lorain Road in San Marino, just south of Pasadena, where the previous owners of the property, Jonathan and Linda Sohus, vanished without a trace in 1985. (AP Photo/Nick Ut) It's a very strange story that spans nearly 30 years. A German man who lived in a guest house of a San Marino, CA couple that disappeared (and are presumed dead) in 1985 disappeared himself during the case, only to recently......

All the reported crime on August 7, 2008 within a 5-mile radius from 200 N. Fremont Street LAPD's interactive crime maps have been helpful since they launched a couple years ago. Today, they relaunched the tool, now using Google Maps instead of the old city map they were using. The new maps also let you double click on an area to browse crime in neighborhoods and also toggle between the graphic, satellite and hybrid......