L.A. Robber Stole Rolex, Got No-Prison Deal From D.A. Now He’s Accused Of Killing Tourist At Mall

The alleged leader of an armed robbery crew charged with killing a New Zealand tourist last week outside Newport Beach’s Fashion Island mall had been placed on probation for stealing a Rolex at gunpoint in Santa Monica. He avoided prison time in that case after Los Angeles County prosecutors agreed to a three-year suspended sentence, according to interviews and records reviewed by The Times. Leroy Ernest McCrary, 26, now faces a special circumstances murder charge that could carry the death penalty after authorities allege he ran over Patricia “Trish” McKay, 68, during a July 2 robbery attempt. Orange County prosecutors say McCrary and two other men targeted McKay’s husband, former chair of the Bank of New Zealand Douglas McKay, for his high-end watch. McCrary and the other defendants have not yet entered pleas, and their attorneys could not immediately be reached for comment. The Fashion Island slaying is renewing interest in the 2022 Rolex theft. Santa Monica Police Lt. Erika Aklufi said surveillance video in that case showed McCrary putting a handgun to the head of a man on Broadway. He and an accomplice demanded the man’s watch, she said. McCrary’s DNA also was recovered from the victim’s shirt, which he’d grabbed during the robbery, police said.

Los Angeles Times

LA County District Attorney Race Heats Up Over Latest Crime Statistics

The California Department of Justice crime statistics for 2023 were released this month, and one man is hoping they will play a big role in the upcoming Los Angeles district attorney election. Nathan Hochman, the former federal prosecutor who is running against incumbent District Attorney George Gascón, says the new statistics show that Gascón's policies have led to dramatic increases in violent crimes and property crimes. "Gascón's statements that crime has dropped during his tenure have turned out to be an entire lie," Gascón said Tuesday. "He is trying to manipulate those statistics in his favor. Turns out its failing." Hochman's claims are based on the latest California DOJ stats and compare crimes committed in 2023 to those in 2020, the year Gascón took office. During those three years, violent crimes in L.A. County rose 12%, robberies are up 16%, property crimes are up 20%, shoplifting is up 133%, auto theft is up 23% and burglaries are up 8%. In each single year, violent crimes, property crimes, shoplifting are up either double digits, single digits or in some cases with hate crime, triple digits," Hochman told Eyewitness News. "Gascón cannot dodge or gaslight the public."

ABC 7

Family Finds Man Dead In Apartment Complex Courtyard 

A man died after being stabbed in the neck outside an apartment complex in Canoga Park, police say. Initial reports from the Los Angeles Police Department indicate that officers were called to 7523 Vassar Avenue around 11:20 p.m. Tuesday, and upon arriving, they found a man lying with a stab wound in the complex’s courtyard. The man’s family had heard a noise from inside their apartment and came out to discover him with a “laceration to his neck,” LAPD stated. Despite lifesaving efforts from first responders, he was pronounced dead at the scene. His identity was not immediately released by authorities; however, KTLA 5’s Annie Rose Ramos spoke with the victim’s mother, who identified him as a man in his 30s named George. She also said that she did not know any information surrounding her son’s death. Police described the suspect as a Hispanic man in his 20s who remained at large as of 5:30 a.m. Wednesday. It was not immediately clear whether the incident was gang-related. 

KTLA 5

Man Hospitalized In Critical Condition After Hit-and-Run In Valley Glen; Suspect Sought

Los Angeles police are searching for a hit-and-run suspect who left a 29-year-old man hospitalized in critical condition. Tyler Orona was trying to cross Sherman Way after grabbing lunch in Valley Glen last week, but he never made it home. Security video shows he was hit and tossed in the air by a car described by police as a white four-door Infiniti sedan. He was left with so many serious injuries, doctors are performing new surgeries every day. Family told Eyewitness News that Orona's injuries include two broken femurs, a dislocated arm, a crushed pelvis, fluid in his lungs and a lost toe. When Orona's family first got the call from the hospital they were told he might not survive the night. "Then they told us that he's going to make it, but if he does make it he's going to be paralyzed," Orona's sister Gia Vidovic said. "But I guess now they're saying he'll be able to walk, it's just going to be a long time of therapy, like over a year of therapy, and he's going to be in the hospital for months."

ABC 7

Burglars Posing As Construction Workers In Reflector Vests Arrested In North Hollywood

Members of a burglary ring dressing as construction workers in Los Angeles may have traded hard hats for handcuffs. The group, dubbed the "Reflector Vest Crew," was arrested in a joint operation of North Hollywood Division detectives and the LA County Sheriff’s Department, the Los Angeles Police Department announced on Tuesday. The arrests took place on June 27 and July 3, following an extensive investigation into a string of high-end residential burglaries across affluent LA neighborhoods, Studio City, West Los Angeles and West Hollywood between March and June 2024. Their signature tactic involved sending a member in a reflector vest to knock on doors without raising much suspicion, assessing whether homes were occupied before other suspects proceeded with the burglary. The group allegedly focused on stealing luxury items such as high-end purses, jewelry, watches and cash. “The defendants used multiple rented vehicles and sophisticated techniques to prevent detectives from uncovering their identities,” the LAPD said in a statement. Investigators eventually caught the suspects during an in-progress burglary in Studio City on June 27. 

NBC 4

Board Of Supervisors Take Steps To Combat Street Takeovers In LA County

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors took steps to try and crack down on illegal street takeovers that have been plaguing the area for years. They're now calling on the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and other local agencies to prepare and present a verbal report at the end of the month on what specific actions they're taking to try and combat the crime. "In the last couple of years, the streets of the city of Los Angeles and the County of Los Angeles have been overwhelmed with dangerous and illegal street takeovers that cause damage to roadways, vandalism, arson, and place participants and spectators at high risk for serious injuries and even death," said a motion from Supervisors Hilda Solis and Holly Mitchell. The existing street racing ordinance makes it a misdemeanor to be a spectator at sideshows and includes penalties that include fines of up to $400, imprisonment for up to six months, or both. 

CBS 2

6 Foreign Nationals In Southern California Charged In Massive ATM ‘Skimming’ Scam

Six foreign nationals in the country illegally, all living in Southern California, have been charged by federal authorities for their alleged roles in a sweeping, multi-state conspiracy to install “skimming” devices on automated teller machines and checkout point-of-sale units at retail stores, officials announced Tuesday. Skimming devices allow fraudsters to read and capture account information and PIN numbers when customers swipe or insert their credit, debit, and EBT cards to complete a purchase on terminals where the devices have been attached,” a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s District of Rhode Island Office stated. “The information obtained from the skimming devices is then used to create counterfeit cards that can be used to fraudulently obtain cash from victims’ bank accounts, or to make purchases.” Authorities say that the individuals, four of which are citizens of Romania, one from Great Britain and another from Ireland who have all been living in Orange County, allegedly withdrew as much as $300,000 from the bank accounts of unsuspecting victims and have made a yet unknown number of retail purchases. 

KTLA 5

BWC: Driver Intentionally Rams Florida Deputy, Causing Serious Injuries To Both Legs

Deputies have arrested a man who they say intentionally ran over a Hillsborough deputy in Tampa last week. Deputies arrested William Todd Lewis Jr., 24, in Pasco County on Monday in connection to the incident in Tampa Palms that left Deputy Kalin Hall with serious injuries to both legs. Lewis, of Tampa, was in a rental car with a friend, and investigators believe he was trying to leave the area to avoid arrest, Sheriff Chad Chronister said Tuesday during a news conference in Tampa. “He knew that the time was up, the gig was up, and his only option once again was to flee, and he was going to try to get away,” Chronister said. Deputies also arrested Lewis’ girlfriend, Keilise Garrison, 23, on charges of being an accessory after the fact and tampering with evidence. Garrison was on the phone with Lewis the night of the incident, called his mother to pick him up afterward and then deleted text messages from her phone, deputies said. Chronister said Lewis was the person behind the wheel of a black BMW that Hall pulled over about 12:05 a.m. Friday on Bearss Avenue near Nebraska Avenue. A K-9 handler for the sheriff’s office, Hall was working overtime on DUI patrol that night and noticed that the BMW driver was not staying in his lane, Chronister said.

Tampa Bay Times

In The Fentanyl Crisis, Infants And Toddlers Become Unsuspecting Victims

Ezekiel Xavier Rivera idolized his father. The 2-year-old loved to follow Raul Rivera around the house and ride in the car with him, said Soluna Lora, Ezekiel’s mother. On June 3, 2023, Lora left the little boy with his father in Bakersfield while she took his older brother for a haircut. She and Rivera, who have three children together, are separated. When she returned to drop Ermias off too, Lora said, she spotted a bulge in Rivera’s sock. It was a roll of cash and what she said she later learned was a baggie of drugs. She demanded that Rivera let her take the children home with her, but he refused. She never saw Ezekiel alive again. Two days later, the toddler was dead from acute fentanyl toxicity; Ermias — who was 3 — had tested positive for the drug. Rivera now faces a first-degree murder charge in connection with one son’s death and a felony count of child cruelty, accused of exposing his other son. “They didn’t only lose their brother, they lost their father as well,” Lora said of Ermias, now 5, and his sister, EvaRose, 7. “They loved being with him. … Ezekiel loved [Rivera] so, so much.”

Los Angeles Times

Four Firefighters Suffer Heat-Related Illness While Battling Fire At San Fernando Church

Four firefighters required treatment from heat-related illness while battling a pesky fire at a church in San Fernando on Tuesday. The blaze was first reported just before 1 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church of San Fernando, located in the 1500 block of W. Glenoaks Boulevard, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. It took around 100 firefighters more than two hours to fully extinguish the flames, which broke out int he attic of the one-story church. "During the incident, four firefighters sought medical help from on-scene paramedics due to heat-related illness. Three of them rested and recovered on scene and then continue working, and one was transported to a local hospital for further evaluation and care," said a statement from the department. The cause of the fire remains under investigation, but crews believe it may have been sparked by rooftop construction.

CBS 2

Commercial Fire In University Park Knocked Down

A fire at a one-story commercial building in University Park was quickly extinguished Tuesday evening. Fire crews responded to 3111 S. Flower St. near West 31st Street and the Harbor (110) Freeway at 9:40 p.m., Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Nicholas Prange said. They used existing ventilation holes in the roof from a previous burn at the building to deploy hose lines in an effort to douse the flames, Prange added. It took 44 firefighters 18 minutes to extinguish the flames. No injuries were reported. The cause of the fire was under investigation.

MyNewsLA

About the LAPPL: Formed in 1923, the Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL) represents more than 8,900 dedicated and professional sworn members of the Los Angeles Police Department. The LAPPL serves to advance the interests of LAPD officers through legislative and legal advocacy, political action and education.