Law Enforcement News

Search for suspect in Watts prompts school lockdown
According to the Los Angeles Police Department, officers were serving a warrant in the area of Success Avenue and E. 96th Street when the suspect got away.
Fox 11 Video

Arrest Made In Sexual Assault Of Teen At El Sereno Park: LAPD
Officials with the Los Angeles Police Department said an arrest has been made after a man is accused of sexually assaulting a minor at a park in the El Sereno area. LAPD investigators said the incident happened on Oct. 11 at El Sereno Recreation Center. Police say a suspect approached a 14-year-old and threatened the victim with a weapon. The suspect then forced them into a bathroom and sexually assaulted the victim. Police say the suspect then fled; however, parts of the incident was caught on security cameras. The suspect is described as a Black man with curly hair, a goatee and was last seen wearing a white shirt with green and red striped and dark-colored jeans. Anyone with information is urged to contact LAPD's Juvenile Division at (213) 486-0570 or 1-877-LAPD-24-7 (877-527-3247). Anyone wishing to remain anonymous can call LA Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (800-222-8477) or visit lacrimestoppers.org.
FOX 11

Woman Charged In Alleged Hit-Run Death Of Man In Griffith Park
A woman who allegedly killed a 70-year-old man by running him over with his own car in a Griffith Park parking lot and then fled the scene was charged Tuesday with murder and other counts. Sonia Sovereign, 31, is set to be arraigned Nov. 9 in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom on one count each of murder, hit-and-run resulting in death and driving or taking a vehicle without consent, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. The crash was reported as an assault with a deadly weapon at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in the 2400 block of Fern Dell Drive, Los Angeles Police Officer J. Chaves told City News Service. Valeriy Saakyan lost his footing and fell to the ground and was intentionally run over by his own light blue 2006 Lexus in the parking lot at the park's Western Canyon Road, according to a police department statement. Paramedics took Saakyan to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Officers from the LAPD's Hollywood Station were on patrol around 10 a.m. Sunday in the area of Lexington Avenue and Vine Street when they saw a vehicle with collision damage and a blue tarp over it, then discovered it was wanted in a felony hit-and-run, police said.
NBC 4

Police Offer $25,000 Reward To Find Driver Ran Over A Mother And Her 3-Year-Old Son
Police are offering a $25,000 reward for any information that can help find the driver accused of running over a mother and her 3-year-old son. According to the Los Angeles Police Department, Elsa Zelaya and her 3-year-old son Dominick were crossing the intersection of Broadway and 80th Street when an SUV crashed into them on Oct. 1. The impact threw the 3-year-old boy into the air before he struck the roadway. The suspect drove away from the crash site without helping Zelaya and her son. The mother suffered minor injuries but her son was left with severe life-threatening injuries. He underwent surgery and remains at the Children's Hospital. The Department will hold a press conference on Wednesday at 10 a.m.
CBS 2

Man Shot In South Los Angeles Near Fremont High School
A man was wounded in a shooting in the Vermont Knolls neighborhood of South Los Angeles, police said Wednesday. Officers from the Los Angeles Police Department’s 77th Division were called at 1:16 a.m. to the intersection of 76th Street and San Pedro Street near Fremont High School regarding a shots fired call, a LAPD spokeswoman told City News Service. The victim was walking on 76th when he heard gunshots and then discovered he had been shot. He was taken to a hospital in stable condition. There was no suspect description.
MyNewsLA

Bicyclist Fights Reduced Charge Against Driver Who Hit Him With Pickup
A retired LAPD lieutenant who was severely injured during a hit-and-run crash while riding his bicycle last year is now fighting for justice. He says the driver was initially charged with a felony, but has reached a deal that drops the charge to a misdemeanor.
Yahoo! News Video

Ex-NBA Player Ben Gordon’s Latest Arrest For Allegedly Striking Son Part Of Troubled History
Former NBA player Ben Gordon’s latest arrest in New York City adds to an already troubled past with a string of disturbing busts to his name and a publicly documented battle with depression. The 39-year-old Mount Vernon native was most recently nabbed for allegedly hitting his 10-year-old son at LaGuardia airport late Monday as they were waiting for a Chicago-bound flight, law enforcement sources told The Post. The former shooting guard — who earned an estimated $84 million during his NBA career — was barred from getting on the plane by cops, while his son was escorted by an aunt to the Long Island Jewish Children’s Hospital for evaluation. Now, as Gordon awaits his arraignment in Queens Criminal Court, here’s a look back at his checkered history and what we know about him: Gordon, who once played for the Chicago Bulls, was nabbed in June 2017 for pulling fire alarms in his Los Angeles apartment complex — despite there being no blaze. The basketball star apparently went into “meltdown mode” after getting locked out of his apartment, TMZ Sports reported at the time. The LAPD and City Fire Department had responded and Gordon was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of falsely activating a fire alarm.
New York Post

Police Investigating Pair Of Possibly Related Deaths In South Gate
Authorities are investigating two deaths that occurred within a half mile of each other in South Gate on Tuesday. Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies were called to the 2700 block of Missouri Avenue at around 1 p.m. after receiving reports of a man down in the area. Responding deputies arrived to find a man dead at the scene. It was not immediately clear what his cause of death was due to the ongoing nature of the investigation. Investigators had previously been called to the area early Tuesday morning under similar circumstances, after a man was found dead in the 2500 block of Indiana Avenue a little before 1:20 a.m. His cause of death was also not known, and his identity withheld pending notification of next of kin.
CBS 2

Man Sentenced In Deadly 1993 LA Arson Fire That Killed 10
A Montebello man who was initially charged along with two others with murder in the deaths of 10 people, including two pregnant women, in a 1993 arson fire at an apartment building in the Westlake area of Los Angeles was sentenced today to 11 years in state prison. Superior Court Judge Curtis B. Rappe gave Joseph Alberto Monge, 47, credit for time he has already served behind bars and ordered him to be released from custody after the sentencing. Monge pleaded guilty in February 2020 to one count of voluntary manslaughter involving the death of Olga Leon. He and co-defendants Ramiro Alberto Valerio, now 49, and Johanna Lopez, now 57, were charged in 2017 with 12 counts of murder in connection with the May 3, 1993, blaze at the 69-unit complex in the 300 block of West Burlington Avenue. Authorities said in 2017 that they believed the fire was set in retaliation because a building manager was trying to crack down on drug-dealing at the apartment complex.
LA Daily News

Nearly 1 Million Cannabis Plants Seized During California Crackdown
Nearly one million marijuana plants were seized in California during a statewide blitz to combat the illegal cannabis market. The crackdown was led by the California Department of Justice’s Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP) program. During the 2022 program, authorities seized nearly one million illegally cultivated cannabis plants and over 200,000 pounds of illegally processed cannabis in the state, according to the California Attorney General’s Office. Counties across Northern, Central and Southern California were targeted over the course of 449 operations. Along with illegal cannabis, authorities also seized 184 weapons and removed almost 67,000 pounds of cultivation infrastructure, including dams, water lines, and containers of toxic chemicals.
KTLA 5

Alleged $100M California Brink's Jewelry Heist Highlights History Of Costly Schemes: 'Destroyed'
Three months after what was arguably one of the country’s most high-value jewelry heists in recent memory, law enforcement agencies have filed no charges in a case, which also served to highlight a history of costly jewelry heist schemes. A pair of Brink's security guards hauling a tractor-trailer of jewels worth millions were robbed in California while one of the workers was sleeping inside the vehicle and the other had left to buy food, according to lawsuits related to the heist. The Brink's truck, which was transporting the valuable gems from San Francisco to the Pasadena Convention Center, was stopped near a rest stop in Lebec when the thieves snapped a lock and broke in. Court papers describe how one of the security guards was snoozing inside the truck while the other had stepped out for food. The truck was loaded with 73 bags — 22 of which were stolen, officials said. A lawsuit obtained by the Associated Press describes how the criminals got away with the 22 bags of jewelry that the victims say were collectively worth more than $100 million, which would make the theft the costliest jewel heist in recent history.
FOX News

Tennessee PD Mourns Loss Of Deputy Killed In Solo Vehicle Car Crash
The Union County Sheriff’s office is morning the loss of Deputy Matthew Kirrman, 27, who died in an early morning crash last weekend. According to WATE News, Kirrman was traveling near Maynardville just after midnight on Oct. 9 when his patrol car veered off the road, striking a fence before coming to a stop in a field. Kirrman’s partner, Deputy Andy Oliver, spoke of his unyielding loyalty to the badge and his fellow officers. “There’s not a door I wouldn’t go through that I wouldn’t feel confident in Kirrman having my back,” Oliver told WATE News. Kirrman previously served with the Knox County Sheriff’s Office before moving to Union County. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Tennessee Highway Patrol are currently investigating the cause of the crash.
PoliceOne

Public Safety News

Los Angeles County’s COVID Hospitalizations Drop Below 500
Los Angeles County reported more than 3,000 new COVID-19 infections over a four-day period that ended Tuesday, along with 32 additional virus-related deaths. The county Department of Public Health reported 1,274 new cases Saturday, 792 Sunday, 548 Monday, and 462 Tuesday. The county no longer reports COVID numbers on weekends. The 3,076 new cases lifted the county’s cumulative total from throughout the pandemic to 3,467,319. Daily case numbers reported by the county have been falling steadily for weeks, although health officials have conceded that the official figures could be misleading due to residents primarily using at-home tests that aren’t reported to the county. The additional 32 fatalities from the four-day period gave the county an overall virus-related death toll of 33,772.
MyNewsLA

Public Safety News

Nury Martinez Also Makes Crude Comments About Jews And Armenians In Leaked Recording
In the same leaked audio clips posted to Reddit in which former Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez made racist remarks about Black people and Oaxacans, she also made crude remarks about Jewish people and Armenians. Martinez said Tuesday that she would take a leave of absence from the City Council, two days after a recording surfaced on which she was heard deriding some of her colleagues and making racist remarks. Martinez stepped down as City Council president Monday. In the recording reviewed by The Times, Martinez can be heard saying the “judíos” — which means Jews in Spanish — “cut their deal with South L.A.” Martinez was responding to former Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera, who had concluded, “I’m sure Katz and his crew have an agenda,” referring to former state Assemblymember Richard Katz. Katz served on the city’s 21-member redistricting commission that worked on council district boundary maps. He was an appointee of City Councilman Bob Blumenfield. “They are gonna screw everybody else,” Martinez said in the recording.
LA Times

LA Councilwoman Nury Martinez Resists Calls To Resign, Takes ‘Leave Of Absence’
Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nury Martinez, who is facing a torrent of criticism and calls for her resignation over racially charged remarks she made in a recorded conversation last year, has announced she is taking a “leave of absence” from the council. “This has been one of the most difficult times of my life and I recognize this is entirely of my own making,” Martinez said in a statement. “At this moment, I need to take a leave of absence and take some time to have an honest and heartfelt conversation with my family, my constituents, and community leaders. I am so sorry to the residents of Council District 6, my colleagues, and the city of Los Angeles.” Her announcement came one hour before the City Council was scheduled on Tuesday to convene its first meeting since the weekend leak of the recorded conversation from October 2021, which has unleashed a firestorm of criticism toward Martinez and two other council members in the meeting — Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo. Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera, who also took part in the conversation, resigned from his post Monday night.
MyNewsLA

Karen Bass, Rick Caruso Face Off In Mayoral Debate With LA City Council In Turmoil
Rep. Karen Bass and Rick Caruso made their pitches to Los Angeles voters Tuesday night in the final debate between the two candidates seeking to become the city's next mayor. The landscape of the race to succeed Mayor Eric Garcetti changed dramatically in the days leading up to Tuesday night's event at the Brokaw News Center in Universal City -- the final live debate ahead of Election Day on Nov. 8. The candidates will take the stage two days after a leaked recording was made public of three City Councilmembers and a now-former top LA County labor official in an October 2021 conversation about redistricting that included several racist remarks. The fallout intensified after the weekend with calls for the resignations of Councilmembers Nury Martinez, Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo, and LA County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera. Martinez stepped down from her role as council president Monday and announced a leave of absence. Herrera has resigned from his position. Both Bass and Caruso have said all four people in the room should leave office, a sentiment echoed Tuesday during the City Council's first meeting since the recordings were made public.
NBC 4