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Law Enforcement News

15-year-old girl dies after overdosing at Hollywood high school
A 15-year-old student at Bernstein High School is dead and another teen was hospitalized after overdosing on pills they purchased at a park in Hollywood, officials said. According to investigators, the pills were laced with fentanyl. The parents of the two teen girls became concerned after their daughters did not return home from school and reported them missing Tuesday evening. The stepfather of one of the girls began driving around town in search of his stepdaughter and kept returning to the Hollywood high school. Around 8 p.m., he found her collapsed in the courtyard of the school campus.
FOX 11

LAPD Seeks Stiffer Laws For Street Racing
The Los Angeles Police Department is seeking legislation that would allow stiffer penalties to help it crack down on illegal street racing, Chief Michel Moore told the city’s Police Commission Tuesday. Los Angeles has grappled with an increase in street takeovers over the past year. Police say 705 street takeovers have been prevented or disrupted by the LAPD’s Street Racing Task Force so far this year, a 44% increase from the same period last year. Police have issued 674 citations and impounded 457 vehicles during street racing events, which are increases of 63% and 27%, respectively, from last year. Moore said LAPD officials would be sending recommendations to the mayor’s office. The proposals could include implementing a 30-day impound of vehicles involved in street racing with no waiver, driver’s license suspensions, points added to DMV records and potential forfeiture of vehicles for repeat offenders, according to Commander Al Pasos. Another possible recommendation is targeting people who lend their vehicles to street racing participants.
MyNewsLA

Celebrity, Bling And Danger: PnB Rock’s Killing Heightens Worries About Social Media Vulnerability
One of the first things attorney Dawn Florio told PnB Rock when she began representing the rapper was to be careful about what he posted on social media and when. Avoid sharing a specific locationn until you’ve left, and never post your current location, Florio recalls telling him. “You cannot tell people where you’re going to be,” she said. On Monday, Rock was having lunch at Roscoe’s House of Chicken & Waffles in South Los Angeles. He was killed during a botched robbery after being targeted for his jewelry, police said. A suspect brandished a firearm inside the restaurant and demanded items from Rock, who was shot after a brief struggle with the assailant. Chief Michel Moore said Tuesday that the Los Angeles Police Department is investigating whether the killing stemmed from an Instagram post by the rapper’s girlfriend that geotagged Roscoe’s, at Main Street and Manchester Avenue. It was shared minutes before the shooting. Police said they are searching for the gunman and attempting to determine a motive, so it may take time to know what role the post played in the slaying of the 30-year-old rapper, whose real name was Rakim Allen. But the shooting has reignited discussion of the dangers of the real-time use of social media by celebrities who post about their locations and luxury possessions.
LA Times

Gun Deaths Hit An All-Time High (Again) In 2021
Gun deaths continued to surge across the United States in the second year of the pandemic, reaching 48,832 in 2021, according to provisional data from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. It now stands as the highest single-year tally on record, up 8 percent from the previous record in 2020, when 45,222 people died of gunshot wounds. The data, published in July on the CDC’s WONDER database and first flagged by the gun reform group Giffords, suggest that firearms deaths, which surged past 40,000 for the first time in 2020, haven’t returned to pre-pandemic levels. The CDC tracks mortality information via death certificates collected at the state level, and the provisional data may change slightly before it is finalized early next year. But a look at what is available now reveals some key statistics for anyone monitoring the magnitude of gun violence in America. Firearm injury is now the 12th leading cause of death in the country, eclipsing car crashes for the fifth year in a row and jumping a spot from its 13th-place ranking in 2020. And the age-adjusted gun death rate, 14.8 per 100,000 people, was the highest since 1993, considered a high-water mark for American gun violence.
The Trace

Man Killed In Hit-and-Run Crash Near Sunset Boulevard In Hollywood, Police Say
Police are searching for a driver they say fled the scene after hitting a pedestrian on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. According to the Los Angeles Police Department, the driver of a white 2018 Audi S5 was heading westbound on Sunset Boulevard Monday night toward McCadden Place when he hit a pedestrian who was laying on the street. The driver made a U-turn and got out of the vehicle to flag down an LAPD officer who was in the area, according to police. Investigators said that's when the driver got back into the Audi and took off without identifying himself. The pedestrian was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said alcohol or drugs may have played a role in the crash, though the investigation remains ongoing. A detailed description of the suspect wasn't released by police. Meanwhile, a reward of up to $50,000 is being offered to anyone who provides information leading to the suspect's arrest. Anyone with information is urged to contact West Traffic detectives at 213-473-0234.
ABC 7

Man Charged In Fatal Trader Joe’s Shooting Wants To Act As His Own Attorney
A man accused of engaging in a gunfight with police that resulted in the death of an assistant manager at a Trader Joe’s store in Silver Lake in 2018 told a judge Tuesday that he wants to act as his own attorney. Superior Court Judge Lisa B. Lench noted that the case against Gene Evin Atkins is “very serious” and that she wants an evaluation done to determine if the 32-year-old defendant is “competent to represent himself” given a prior issue involving whether he was mentally competent to stand trial. Atkins — who was found mentally competent last year — had acted as his own attorney for about 3 1/2 months after being charged with murder for allegedly setting off a chain of events on July 21, 2018, that led to the death of Melyda “Mely” Maricela Corado, who was fatally shot by a police officer in front of the store in the 2700 block of Hyperion Avenue. He is also facing 50 other counts, including attempted murder, attempted murder of a peace officer, assault on a peace officer with a semiautomatic firearm, kidnapping, fleeing a pursuing peace officer’s motor vehicle while driving recklessly, grand theft of an automobile, discharge of a firearm with gross negligence, shooting at an occupied motor vehicle, false imprisonment of a hostage and mayhem.
MyNewsLA

Bike Theft Season Upon Us, According To LAPD Numbers
According to a report compiled by Crosstown, the Fall season is the worst time to be a bike owner in Los Angeles, as theft numbers skyrocket during that period — especially at USC, with the return of students who need a way to get around campus.
Yahoo! News Video

Lockdown Lifted At Hollywood High School, Superintendent Calls Reports Of Shots Fired A ‘Hoax'
A lockdown was lifted at Hollywood High School late Tuesday morning after authorities determined the reports of a shooting on campus were unsubstantiated. Officers with the Los Angeles Police Department were called to the historic high school located at the intersection of Highland Avenue and Sunset Boulevard just before 9:45 a.m. The department received reports of shots fired from one of the classrooms on campus. The school was placed on lockdown and several road closures went into effect in the area. SkyFOX flew over the scene that showed a heavy police presence of at least 20 patrol vehicles. FOX 11's Stu Mundel also reported seeing students scrambling to safety. Students and staff were told to shelter in place or were brought to safety on another part of campus. LAPD investigators canvassed the campus and did not find any evidence of a shooting.
FOX 11

Person Said To Be Threatening Cal State Northridge Is Arrested
A person who allegedly made threats of violence against CSU Northridge on Sunday was arrested by the school’s police department. The alleged threat was made around 5 p.m. and caused the school’s police department to advise the public to stay away from the campus, and for students who were already there to stay indoors or leave campus, according to KTLA5. The unidentified person was taken into custody about three hours after the online threat was posted on a private social media account. The person was not a student and police learned the suspect had been arrested in 2016 for making threats against a local high school, channel 5 reported. The school has since reopened, according to the report. The suspect was not immediately identified.
LA Daily News

High School Staffer Shot While Breaking Up On-Campus Fight In Northern California
A staff member at Vallejo High School in the San Francisco Bay Area was shot while breaking up an on-campus fight Tuesday, police said. Around 3:45 p.m., a fight broke out among several students and “some unknown males,” Vallejo police said in a release. The staff member broke up the fight, but some of the people involved shot back toward the scene as they fled into a vehicle. Three males fled, the Vallejo City Unified School District said in a letter to the campus community. The staff member was struck by at least one bullet and was taken to a hospital with an injury that was not life-threatening. “This is a senseless act of violence committed by some individuals who do not value human life,” Vallejo Police Chief Shawny Williams said in the release. “Enough is enough. It’s a sad day anyone is shot in front of our children at school where they should feel safe.” Three classes were in session at the time of the shooting, and the campus was hosting a college fair as well as about 200 student-athletes, police said.
LA Times

Millions Of License Plates Are Scanned In Order To Combat Crime. Is Storing That Information A Violation Of Privacy?
Police departments in Northern California and across the state and country are taking millions of pictures every day with automated license plate readers to help catch ‘moving criminals’ where officers are not present. Your license plate could be photographed without you ever knowing and the plate number fed into a law enforcement database and cross-checked with those of people wanted on warrants. Critics are concerned the growing use of this technology could violate your privacy, describing it as having a police officer at every busy intersection, all day, every day, taking pictures of your license plate, identifying where you drive, when you go, and how often. Law enforcement leaders say it helps stop crime, but police departments are holding onto this data for prolonged periods of time. Privacy experts say, if you are not doing anything wrong, why should your license plate data be saved? Local police and sheriff’s offices, along with state and federal agencies, are mounting these special cameras, called automated license plate readers (ALPR), along city streets.
FOX 40

Suspects Accused Of Killing Deputy Were Out On Bond For Other Murder Charges
Two suspects are being charged in connection to a murder after Omar Ursin, a Harris County Precinct 3 constable deputy, was shot on his way home while picking up food for his family. The suspects, Ahsim Taylor Jr., 20, and Jayland Womack, 20, were both out on bond from separate murder cases at the time of Ursin’s death, according to ABC 13 News. Ursin was driving home after getting dinner on August 28 when he was shot around 6:30 p.m. A dark-colored sedan with tinted windows pulled next to the off-duty deputy and multiple rounds were fired from the driver’s side. Ursin, who was taken to a hospital, died. “You know that this person has killed somebody. Then you give them a bond to be able to get out, and once they're out, they are out back doing the same thing,” Royal Ursin, Omar's father, said. One of the suspects was arrested with Ursin’s handcuffs. “In the midst of this tragedy, a picture of Deputy Ursin's cuffs being used on the suspect as he's being arrested for his homicide, is priceless,” Pct. 3 Constable Sherman Eagleton said in a social media post. Police believe the motive behind the shooting stemmed from road rage, but the investigation is still ongoing.
PoliceOne

Florida Narcotics Unit Seize Over 100 Grams Of Drugs, $17.5K In Cash From Traffic Stop
Narcotics detectives in West Central Florida, were busy on Wednesday morning. According to a Facebook post from the Hernando County Sheriff’s office, two officers made not one, but two arrests in the same area. The first bust happened at around 10:40 a.m. The release says two detectives who were conducting “proactive patrols” observed a man riding his bike down the center yellow line of California Street in Brooksville. Homes on this street run around $32,000, according to Realtor.com. Because the individual was traveling on the center line, instead of the right side, deputies made a traffic stop. The operator of the bicycle, later identified as Shane McKinney, raised suspicion because he was wearing a hoodie sweatshirt in 90-degree weather. The detectives say they immediately observed a glass smoking pipe protruding from the large center pocket of the hoodie. A further search of the same pocket revealed a small plastic bag containing a powdery white substance, weighing in at 0.3 grams, as well as a plastic container containing a crystal-like substance, clocking in at 6.7 grams.
PoliceOne

Public Safety News

Public’s Help Sought Identifying Man Hospitalized For 3 Days In L.A.
Officials are asking for the public’s help identifying a man who has been hospitalized for three days at Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center in Boyle Heights. The man is between 55 and 60 years old, is 6 feet tall and weighs 144 pounds, officials said. He has a slim build, gray hair, beard and mustache and a receding hairline. His eyes were described as being brown or hazel. The man also had “LGS” tattooed on his right eyebrow, “Fuente” on his right cheek, “SNR,” or possibly “SUR” across his chest, “El Mike” on his right arm and “Robin” on his right hand. No further details about the man have been released. Anyone with information about the patient is asked to contact Cristol Perez, a licensed clinical social worker at the hospital.
KTLA 5

Masking Policies In LA County Could Start To Ease Soon
Transmission of COVID-19 in Los Angeles County continues to fall, with the public health director saying Tuesday the plummeting rate will likely lead to a further loosening of the county's indoor masking recommendation. Barbara Ferrer told the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that the county averaged roughly 1,700 new COVID infections per day over the past week, a roughly 21% drop from 2,100 per day the previous week. The county's current weekly rate of new COVID infections was 127 per 100,000 residents as of Tuesday. According to Ferrer, when that rate falls below 100 per 100,000 residents, which could happen within days, the county will change its recommendation for indoor mask-wearing. Masks are currently "strongly recommended" in most indoor settings, but when the county's weekly case rate falls below 100 per 100,000 residents, masking will become a matter of "individual preference." She noted that masking will still be mandatory in places where it is specifically required, including healthcare facilities, in correctional facilities, homeless shelters, aboard public transit and in businesses that choose to mandate them. Mask-wearing will also continue to be required indoors for 10 days -- including at schools -- for people who have been exposed to the virus.
FOX 11

Local Government News

LA Council President Calls For AC Requirement In Residential Rental Units
Residential rental units in Los Angeles would be required to have cooling appliances, such as air conditioners, under a motion introduced Tuesday by City Council President Nury Martinez. Citing the past two weeks of record heat in Los Angeles — with temperatures in the San Fernando Valley reaching up to 110 degrees — Martinez’s motion seeks a report from the city’s Housing Department on options to amend the city code to require “sufficient cooling apparatuses” in rental units. “Two weeks of almost 100-degree temperatures is not normal for our city, and while we’re doing our best to fight climate change in the long-term, we have to address how it’s affecting Angelenos right now,” Martinez said. “Our city needs to be prepared to provide relief during these times of extreme heat. This is becoming a matter of life-and-death, especially for low-income families in older housing units.”
MyNewsLA