Gunman Sought By LAPD After Shootout With Police Outside Hollywood Nightclub

A gunman fled after exchanging fire with Los Angeles police outside a Hollywood nightclub early Saturday morning, prompting a search for the suspect, authorities said. Officers who were patrolling the area responded to the nightclub near the intersection of Ivar Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard shortly before 2 a.m., the LAPD said. After a fight on the street led security guards at the club to flag down the police, a man in a white sedan brandished a gun and shot at the arriving officers, according to authorities. Police then returned fire as the suspect fled. No officers or bystanders were injured, the LAPD said. Whether the suspect was struck by gunfire was unknown. After the incident, the patrol vehicle of the officers involved in the shooting was seen with an apparent bullet hole on the driver's side of the windshield. As detectives conducted an investigation at the scene, the street and sidewalk were strewn with green evidence markers, many of them placed near spent bullet casings. The circumstances that resulted in the initial altercation were unclear.

ABC 7

Suspect Arrested In Man's Fatal Stabbing On Metro Train In Downtown Los Angeles

The man accused of stabbing a passenger to death on a Metro Red Line train that stopped at Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles is in custody. Officers with the Los Angeles Police Department responded to a call of a stabbing just after 5:15 p.m. Thursday. Both the suspect and the victim, who appears to be a man in his early 20s, were passengers on the train when officials said they got into an argument. The exchange of words ended when the suspect pulled out a knife or another sharp object and stabbed the victim multiple times in the chest, investigators said. It’s unclear if the train stopped because they knew there was a problem on the train or if it was just a regular stop. Authorities said the victim then stumbled off the train where he collapsed onto the platform. Metro Transit Police officers were nearby and immediately rendered medical aid. He was taken to an area hospital where he died. Meanwhile, the suspect ran away from the scene. He was arrested Saturday night, according to authorities. 

FOX 11

87-Year-Old Woman Struck And Killed By DUI Suspect As She Got Out Of Car On Sylmar Street

An 87-year-old woman was killed late Thursday in a crash involving a DUI suspect in Sylmar. The crash was reported just before 9 a.m. on Foothill Boulevard. The driver struck a parked car as two people were getting out of the vehicle, police said. One of the victims was 87-year-old Aurora Reynozo, who was killed, her family said. The second victim was hospitalized, but details about that individual's condition were not immediately available. "Adjectives don’t even explain the kind of person she was, and it’s not just because she was my grandmother. Countless people around her who are not relatives just loved her dearly, so I believe that was the fruit of who she was," said Felicia Reynozo, the victim's granddaughter. After striking the victims, the driver crashed into at least five more parked cars, police said. The driver was arrested on suspicion of felony DUI.

NBC 4

Man Meditating Shot On Hollywood’s Walk Of Fame

A man who was meditating on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood was wounded in an apparently random shooting early Sunday morning, authorities said. The victim, identified only as an approximately 44-year-old white man, was meditating on the sidewalk just after 3:20 a.m. in the 6300 block of Hollywood Boulevard, according to Los Angeles Police. That’s when another man walked up to him and opened fire, striking him at least once, police said. The victim was taken to a local hospital where he was said to be in stable condition. No suspect description has been released. The victim was not homeless, LAPD said. 

KTLA 5

Crimes Against LA Taco Stands, Food Vendors Highest In Over A Decade, Report Says

Taco trucks and stands across Los Angeles are being targeted by criminals at an alarming rate, according to a recent report. Crosstown, a nonprofit publication, compiled public data and pointed out that in July 2023, there were 43 reports of street vendors being victims of a crime, with 25 of the incidents being linked to robberies. The 43 reported incidents is the highest monthly tally since 2010 and more than double the June 2023 figures. June 2023 saw about 20 reports that month, Crosstown reports. From the beginning of 2023 to the end of August, there were more than 200 incidents with street vendors being victims of a crime, Crosstown reports. That figure marks a 18% spike from the same period in 2022, Crosstown said. These numbers come as Crosstown believes that figure may be much higher due to the victims being hesitant to come forward due to immigration status concerns or language barrier. In some of the incidents covered by FOX 11 over the summer, the vendors lost hundreds of dollars and some had their cell phones stolen.

FOX 11

Gun Threats Against San Diego Police Officers Are At A Five-Year High

Gunfire erupted within 20 seconds of San Diego Police Officer Darwin Anderson’s arrival at the Encanto home. A neighbor had called 911. A woman and her dog were lying in a driveway, shot. As Anderson pulled up, a man approached, distraught. “I see my mother dead right there!” he shouted, pointing to a home on Iona Drive. The officer made his way toward the 74-year-old woman. As he began to kneel next to her, a gunshot rang out. Anderson jumped up. Another shot. “Oh my god, they’re shooting at the police officer,” the 911 caller told a dispatcher. The Aug. 28 incident was the fourth time last month and the eighth time this year that someone used a gun to threaten or shoot at a San Diego police officer. In June, an officer was shot in the arm while chasing a man who ran from a stolen vehicle. Less than a month later, a gunman fatally shot a 4-year-old police dog named Sir. Officers have faced more gun threats in 2023 than the previous two years combined, according to data maintained by the department’s homicide unit. The figures include incidents when people allegedly threaten officers with guns, point guns at officers or shoot at officers. This year’s total was the highest seen over five years. “It’s horrifying,” San Diego Police Chief David Nisleit said. “It just seems like I’m getting more and more calls. ‘Chief, we had an officer-involved shooting. We have officers being fired upon. A canine was just killed.’ It’s just all too common.”

Los Angeles Times

California Moves To Decriminalize Use Of Magic Mushrooms And Other Natural Psychedelics

California lawmakers on Thursday narrowly approved a bill supported by veterans and criminal justice reform advocates to decriminalize the possession and personal use of a limited list of natural psychedelics, including “magic mushrooms.” Gov. Gavin Newsom will now decide the fate of Senate Bill 58, which would remove criminal penalties for the possession and use of psilocybin and psilocin, the active ingredients in psychedelic mushrooms, mescaline and dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, known as ayahuasca. The bill also would require the California Health and Human Services Agency to study the therapeutic use of psychedelics and submit a report with its findings and recommendations to the Legislature. The measure passed the Senate 21 to 14, with several Democrats opposing. “California’s veterans, first responders, and others struggling with PTSD, depression, and addiction deserve access to these promising plant medicines,” state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) said in a statement after the bill passed the Assembly in a bipartisan 42-11 vote. “It’s time to stop criminalizing people who use psychedelics for healing or personal well-being.”

Los Angeles Times

California Driver Arrested After Ramming Into Multiple Patrol Vehicles, Striking Officer

A suspect has been arrested after being accused of intentionally ramming into multiple cruisers and fleeing a traffic stop, ABC 30 reports. When officers conducted a traffic stop on Sep. 7, the suspect, identified as Wayne West Jr., was sitting in the passenger seat, police said. As the officers spoke with the driver, West Jr. suddenly moved on top of the driver in an attempt to drive away. Police pulled the driver from the car, and attempted to get into the car with West Jr. He drove the car forward, crashing into one police car, and then backward into another, hitting an officer in the process. He then drove the wrong way on the highway to get away. Out of concern for public safety, police did not pursue the car. Officers found the car and West Jr. less than an hour later, police said. He was found to have several outstanding warrants and was arrested with additional charges including attempted homicide of a police officer and evading arrest. 

PoliceOne

Man Sentenced To 35 Years For Plotting To Kill Georgia Deputy While Incarcerated On Drug Charges

A Hogansville man was sentenced to 35 years in prison for conspiring to kill a Troup County deputy in 2020 while he was in jail on drug charges, officials announced Thursday. A jury convicted 31-year-old Jonathan Taylor Lawrence of conspiracy to commit malice murder, threatening a witness in an official proceeding and trafficking methamphetamine. In July 2020, Lawrence was back in jail on possession of meth charges after violating his bond conditions for an earlier arrest amid the coronavirus pandemic. About a month after his bond was revoked, a fellow inmate informed sheriff’s office investigators that Lawrence had a “hit” on a drug investigator who testified at his bond revocation hearing and had been involved in his earlier arrests, prosecutors said. Before his reincarceration, officials said Lawrence had already been sending “menacing and threatening” messages to two people he believed were helping prosecutors prove he was violating his bond agreement. In the investigator’s case, “Lawrence took this investigator’s involvement particularly personally because they lived in the same neighborhood in Troup County,” District Attorney Herb Cranford said in a statement.

Atlanta Journal Constitution

LA County To Mark 9/11 Anniversary

Ceremonies marking the 22nd anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks will be held throughout Los Angeles County Monday, including at the Los Angeles Fire Department's Frank Hotchkin Memorial Training Center. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore will ring "10-Bells" during the ceremony near Dodger Stadium, which will also include bagpipers and a helicopter flyover by the LAFD Air Operations Section. The ceremony will "remember those who lost their lives, the families who lost their loved ones and those who sacrificed in order to restore communities and shape a path forward," Bass told City News Service. In connection with the anniversary, volunteers from the volunteer action center L.A. Works will paint indoor rooms, assemble and refurbish tables and planter boxes and weed and plant at the training center, and create 1,000 disaster readiness kits. Sept. 11 is a federally recognized National Day of Service and Remembrance. Opportunities to volunteer can be found at americorps.gov/911-day.

CBS 2

2 L.A. Paramedics Among 4 Hurt In Violent Collision 

A crash involving an ambulance and a pickup truck sent four people to the hospital, including two responding paramedics, early Sunday morning. According to the Los Angeles Fire Department, an LAFD Paramedic Rescue ambulance was responding to a medical emergency when it was broadsided by the pickup at the intersection of Van Nuys Boulevard and San Fernando Road around 12:35 a.m. As a result of the collision, the pickup truck careened into a nearby utility pole, trapping two men who were inside the vehicle. “The two adult male occupants…were badly trapped in the wreckage of their severely damaged truck before being freed by a team of LAFD responders,” LAFD said in a release. Both men were transported to a nearby hospital in critical condition. The two LAFD paramedics were able to remove themselves from the wreckage of the ambulance. They sustained non-life-threatening injuries and were also transported to a nearby hospital.

KTLA 5

Councilwoman Traci Park Stops Demolition Of Marilyn Monroe's Historic Brentwood Home

The Los Angeles City Council Friday approved a motion seeking to save Marilyn Monroe's Brentwood home from demolition by having it declared a historic-cultural monument. The council voted 12-0 with council members Heather Hutt, Eunisses Hernandez and Curren Price absent during the vote. Following the vote, the Department of Building and Safety issued an official notice to "stop construction," as well a "notice of intent to revoke" the permit for the demolition of Monroe's home. "Under the Cultural Heritage Ordinance, this action immediately triggers a temporary stay on all building permits while the matter is under consideration by the Cultural Heritage Commission and City Council," the notice reads. It also notes that the property shall not be "demolished, substantially altered or removed." The motion was introduced Friday during the Council meeting by Councilwoman Traci Park, whose 11th District includes Monroe's home. Park was able to get her motion through the Council pursuant to Rule 23 -- a state law that allows immediate action on agenda items that came to the attention of the city prior to the posting of a day's agenda.

Westside Current

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.