Police union pulls support for city attorney after leak of thousands of LAPD files
Police union pulls support for city attorney after leak of thousands of LAPD files
The disciplinary files of Los Angeles police officers are closely guarded secrets, protected by some of the nation’s strictest confidentiality laws. But now, many of those secret files have been splashed across the internet, along with tens of thousands of other sensitive records from the L.A. city attorney’s office. Last week, she earned the endorsement of the powerful Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents most LAPD officers below the rank of captain. But in a letter to the city attorney on Friday, union officials said they had withdrawn support because she was “repeatedly not forthcoming” about “the devastating data breach of sensitive LAPD files” from her office. “You never informed us of this breach, we learned about it by reading the newspaper and that is not how our union and our members will be treated,” read the letter, signed by the league’s president, Ricky Mendoza.
2 pedestrians hit and killed by suspected drunk driver in violent North Hollywood crash, LAPD says
A suspected drunk driver is in custody after two pedestrians were killed in a violent crash in North Hollywood overnight. The whole thing was captured on surveillance video. Eyewitness News spoke to a neighbor who woke up to the chaos in his yard. The suspected drunk driver crashed through three parked cars and slammed into a house, leaving a gaping hole in the structure while someone was sleeping on the other side of the wall. Police say it all happened after the driver hit and killed two pedestrians just blocks away. Surveillance video shows the driver slam into four cars and the gate of the home, totaling two of them. The video shows just how fast and violent the impact was. The driver was identified by the Los Angeles Police Department as 31-year-old Vidal Cruz Jr. of Pacoima. Police say Cruz was speeding in a gray Acura, heading north on Colfax Avenue in North Hollywood around 2:25 a.m., when he slammed into a man and a woman who had just stepped out of a parked Toyota Camry.
34-year-old woman killed by South Los Angeles hit-and-run driver while crossing street, police say
A pedestrian was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver in the South Los Angeles area late Saturday night and police are seeking help from the public in locating the suspect. It happened at around 10:50 p.m. near Manchester Avenue and Budlong Avenue, according to a news release from the Los Angeles Police Department. Police say that a 34-year-old woman was walking northbound across Manchester in a marked crosswalk when a black sedan struck her. Instead of stopping to help, the suspect fled from the area. The woman has not yet been publicly identified. A standing reward of up to $50,000 has been offered for anyone with information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of the driver through the Los Angeles Administrative Code's Hit-and-Run Reward Program Trust Fund. Anyone who knows more was asked to contact LAPD's South Traffic Division detectives at (323) 421-2577.
Hit and run in Winnetka leaves one person dead
A person was killed following a hit and run crash in the Winnetka area Friday night, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. The incident happened just before 10 p.m. near Winnetka Avenue and Sherman Way. When police arrived, they found a person laying on the street who had been hit by a vehicle. They were transported to a local hospital by the Los Angeles Fire Department and later pronounced dead. There were no details immediately available on the driver or the car that struck the victim. The investigation is ongoing.
Shooting Leaves Two Women Wounded in South LA
Two women were wounded in a car-to-car shooting in the South Los Angeles community of Green Meadows, authorities said Monday. The 44-year-old woman and 26-year-old woman were in a vehicle at Walnut Street and Wilmington Avenue at about 11:35 p.m. Sunday when they got into an argument with at least one suspect in another vehicle who shot them as they drove away, according to a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman. The victims stopped at 118th Street and Central Avenue where police and paramedics were summoned, he said. The women were taken to a hospital by ambulance and had stable vital signs, the spokesman said. A suspect description was not available, he said.
Woman stabbed on Metro bus in downtown LA, suspect at large
A woman was hospitalized Saturday morning after they were stabbed on a Metro bus in downtown Los Angeles, according to police. The assault was reported just before 7 a.m. aboard a Metro Line 76 bus near the intersection of Olympic Boulevard and Grand Avenue, the transportation agency said. A woman who was a passenger on the bus was stabbed by a man who remains at large. The victim was hospitalized with non-critical injuries, according to Metro. It’s unclear in what direction the attacker fled. Police described the assailant as a man about 20 to 30 years old who wore a black hat and a gray sweatshirt. A possible motive for the stabbing was not released. Anyone with information on the case is urged to contact Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477.
LAPD investigating 4 home burglaries within 24 hours in San Fernando Valley
Police are investigating several home burglaries in the San Fernando Valley that happened within the span of 24 hours this weekend. One home on Davana Terrace in Sherman Oaks was hit both Friday and Saturday night, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Police say the burglar broke a window to get inside, but it's unclear what was taken. Another home was also targeted around 9:30 p.m. Saturday on Macapa Drive in the Hollywood Hills. In that case, the residents came home during the middle of the break-in. One of them confronted one of the burglars and suffered minor injuries. Police say two men got away with about $100,000 worth of jewelry. Another home was targeted by burglars around 1 a .m. Saturday on Sylmar Avenue in Sherman Oaks. Nobody was home at the time and it's unclear if anything was taken in that case. It's not known if any of the burglaries are connected, but police are investigating amid a search for several burglary suspects.
Colorado officer shoots suspect after being stabbed in the head multiple times
An Aurora Police Department officer was stabbed in the head multiple times by a man who rushed at him with a butcher knife at an apartment complex near Cherry Creek Reservoir on Thursday, department officials said. The officer fatally shot the 23-year-old suspect during the attack. Aurora police responded to the complex in the 14000 block of East Stanford Circle at 3:30 p.m. after receiving a call from Aurora Mental Health about a man experiencing a mental health crisis, Chief Todd Chamberlain said in a briefing Thursday evening. A mental health clinician responded to the scene alongside police and talked with the man by phone. The man was threatening to kill himself and others and wanted to kill or be killed by police officers, Chamberlain said. The man refused to continue talking with the crisis response team after about 25 minutes. When the clinician tried to talk to him through a window, the man was seen holding a large butcher knife to his neck. A group of officers was staged nearby when the man suddenly burst out of the apartment, charged one of the officers and repeatedly stabbed him in the head with the butcher knife, Chamberlain said. The stabbing was so forceful that the tip of the knife broke off inside the officer’s head, Chamberlain said, but the officer was able to fire his gun and shoot the man during the attack.
Washington convicted felon charged with attacking, trying to stab K-9
A convicted felon with a history of brandishing knives apparently is not a dog person. The discovery came late last month when Spokane County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a domestic violence call at a mobile home near South Geiger Boulevard and West Lawton Road. As deputies rolled to the area at about 11 p.m. on March 28, they encountered a woman walking along Geiger Boulevard who was the alleged victim. The woman provided the deputies enough information to establish probable cause to arrest 25-year-old Mitchell D. Hyams for domestic violence assault, Cpl. Mark Gregory wrote in a news release. After running his name through their computers, the deputies also learned that Hyams was both a convicted felon and had active warrants seeking his arrest for the charge of second-degree assault and other misdemeanor crimes. They approached the mobile home from the earlier call and began using a public-address system seeking to compel Hyams to surrender, “but no one in the residence responded,” Gregory wrote. Then at 12:15 a.m., another man exited the trailer and told deputies that Hyams had left at about the same time as the woman. He also gave the deputies permission to enter the mobile home, Gregory wrote.
Public Safety News
LAFD Knocks Down Encino Residence Fire in 10 Minutes
Firefighters Sunday knocked down a fire in a one-story accessory dwelling unit in just 10 minutes. The Los Angeles Fire Department responded to reports of an oven fire at 16833 W. Halper St., just south of the Ventura (101) Freeway and the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area, about 5 p.m. Saturday, according to the department’s Lyndsey Lantz. First-arriving companies knocked down the fire in approximately 10 minutes with no injuries reported, Lantz said. The cause of the fire was not immediately known.
