LACP.org
..
Daily Local & Regional NewsWatch
LA Police Protective League

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.
 

Los Angeles
Police Protective League
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
the union that represents the
rank and file LAPD officers

  Daily Local & Regional NewsWatch

Daily News Digest
from LA Police Protective League

May 10, 2019
Law Enforcement News

2 More Men Arrested For Mississippi Officer's Murder
Two more people have been arrested after a Mississippi police officer was gunned down outside his police station. Harrison County Sheriff Troy Peterson tells WLOX-TV both men were arrested Wednesday on charges of accessory after the fact in the capital murder case. Twenty-year-old Dalentez Brice and 21-year-old Joshua Kovach are being held without bond. It wasn't immediately known whether they have lawyers who could be reached for comment. Veteran Biloxi police Patrolman Robert McKeithen (muh-KEETH-en) was shot several times in the back Sunday in the police station parking lot. Nineteen-year-old Darian (DEHR-uhn) Atkinson is accused of killing him. Atkinson's 21-year-old brother, Davian Atkinson, is also charged as an accessory after the fact. Authorities say he drove his brother to Wiggins after the killing and let him make phone calls.
Associated Press

Texas Trooper Shot In Head Last Month Remains Hospitalized
The family of a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper who was shot in the head while responding to a crash last month issued a statement Sunday updating the community about his condition. Trooper Moises Sanchez remained at the neurology intensive care unit at Doctors Hospital at Renaissance Sunday night, but is listed in stable condition and his health is improving, his wife Yvonne Sanchez said via a statement released by DPS Spokesman Johnny Hernandez. “His vitals remain strong,” she wrote. “We are pleased to see a little improvement every day with movement in his face and body.” The trooper was shot a month ago on April 6 in Edinburg, sparking a massive manhunt for the man accused of shooting him, Victor Alejandro Godinez, 24 of Edinburg. Godinez was apprehended hours after the shooting and was arraigned on three counts of attempted capital murder of a peace officer, a first degree felony punishable by up to life in prison.
The Monitor

Bicyclist Killed, Driver Injured In Suspected Street Racing Crash In South LA
A bicyclist was killed after being hit by a vehicle that was suspected to be street racing in South L.A. Thursday night, authorities said. The accident occurred around 8:35 p.m. in the 2100 block of South Alameda Street, south of Washington Boulevard, according to a Los Angeles Fire Department spokesperson. According to authorities, the bicyclist was found on the sidewalk while the driver of the vehicle was trapped inside of the vehicle and was freed by firefighters. The bicyclist was pronounced dead at the scene while the driver was transported to a hospital. The driver's condition was not immediately available.
CBS 2

Man Suspected Of DUI In Shadow Hills Crash That Left Pedestrian In Grave Condition
A man suspected of DUI is in custody and a pedestrian is in grave condition Thursday after a hit-and-run crash in the Shadow Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles. The crash occurred about 10:55 p.m. Wednesday on Sunland Boulevard near the Stonehurst Avenue intersection, a Los Angeles Police Department new release stated. A black Infiniti SUV and a black Honda Accord were traveling westbound on Sunland when the Honda, traveling at a high rate of speed, hit the SUV, the news release stated. The impact caused the Infiniti driver to lose control and strike a curb. The SUV overturned on an unpaved sidewalk and struck a pedestrian who was walking his dog. The pedestrian, identified only as a man between 50 and 55 years old, was severely injured and taken to a local hospital. “He's in grave condition,” Detective Fuentes said.
KTLA 5

Police Say ‘Prolific Thief' Wanted To Build His Own Cop Car
The sun had yet to rise when a Los Angeles Unified School District police officer unlocked a gate to a station parking lot northeast of downtown. As he pulled into the fenced lot about 5:30 a.m., motion detector lights blinked on, illuminating a man walking through the gate behind him. He carried a flashlight, gloves, a gun and a two-way radio as he tried breaking into eight patrol cars at the police subdivision near Wilson High School. The officer requested help. Minutes later, Christopher Kish was in handcuffs. Police said the April 16 arrest yielded not only one of the most active auto thieves in the area but someone with an alarming obsession with stealing law enforcement vehicles and the gear inside them. Kish, authorities said, was an LAPD cadet in the early 1990s. “He's a prolific thief of police vehicles,” Hollenbeck Division Capt. Richard Stabile said Wednesday at a weekly meeting of top commanders and area captains to discuss crime statistics. “He was trying to build his own police vehicle. This is a cause for concern.”
Los Angeles Times

Suspect Arrested In 1985 Killing Of TV Director Barry Crane
A North Carolina man has been arrested in connection with the 1985 killing of Barry Crane, a prominent television director and bridge expert, who was found dead 34 years ago in his Studio City townhouse. Edwin Hiatt was arrested Thursday by the FBI Fugitive Task Force in North Carolina and is awaiting extradition, the Los Angeles Police Department said. Crane directed shows including “The Incredible Hulk,” “The Love Boat,” “Fantasy Island” and “Dallas.” He was also a world-class champion bridge player who competed all over the country. He was 57 at the time of his death. A housekeeper discovered Crane's body wrapped in bedding on the garage floor of his home in the 4200 block of Colfax Avenue; he appeared to have been bludgeoned and strangled, according to the LAPD. His wallet and late-model Cadillac were missing, but there were no signs of any additional burglary or forced entry into the Studio City home, authorities said at the time of his death. The case went unsolved for more than three decades.
Los Angeles Times

One Of Two Sought For Questioning In Highland Park Fatal Hit-and-Run, Surrenders, Released
One of the two men sought for questioning in the deaths of two brothers in a hit-and-run collision in Highland Park turned himself in and was later released, police said Thursday evening. Alejandro Nuno Coronado surrendered to police within two hours of being identified as one of the two persons of interest in the case, according to Officer Mike Lopez of the Los Angeles Police Department's Media Relations Division. “Coronado submitted to an interview with investigators, denied involvement in the crash and was allowed to leave,” Lopez said. Coronado, 25, of Highland Park, and Christian Mario Camarena Ramirez, 24, of Van Nuys, were named as persons of interest, according to the Los Angeles Police Department's Central Traffic Division. Ramirez remains at-large. Investigators believe both were in the suspect vehicle, although they are unclear on who was driving, according to Central Traffic Division Detective Juan Campos.
MyNewsLA.com

A Run-Down Mansion, The Getty Connection & A Man The Neighbors Never Saw: The Tale Of The Huge Weapons Cache At A Los Angeles Home
The scene was straight out of a B movie: Run-down mansion. Tony neighborhood. Anonymous tip. The whiff of celebrity. And a jaw-droppingly large cache of weapons, some of questionable legality. Investigators with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives descended on the tatty Bel-Air mansion along with members of the Los Angeles Police Department in the early morning darkness. What they found there Wednesday was both lethal and perplexing. The sprawling white clapboard house — two stories, five bedrooms hidden behind a discolored gate and a tall hedge — was in complete disarray. Guns were everywhere in what authorities described as a hoarder's paradise in the 100 block of North Beverly Glen. There were AR-15 military-style automatic rifles, what appeared to be a World War II-era Thompson submachine gun, .44-caliber handguns, .357 magnum revolvers, long guns with intricately carved stocks, an Uzi 9-millimeter submachine gun — complete with silencer — and a 9-millimeter Luger pistol. More than 1,000 firearms in all. 
Los Angeles Times

Two Men Convicted In Fatal Ambush Shooting In Leimert Park
Two men were convicted Thursday for their roles in an ambush shooting that killed a 25-year-old South Gate man in Leimert Park. Tyree Davion Woods, 24, of Los Angeles pleaded no contest to a charge of first-degree murder, along with the special allegation that he personally used a firearm in the July 20, 2015, killing of 25-year-old Derron Jamaine Jones of South Gate, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office and coroner's officials. Co-defendant Dondre Fitzgeral Williams, 25, of Palmdale, pleaded no contest charges of assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury and shooting at an inhabited motor vehicle, prosecutors said in a written statement. They were both initially charged with murder, along with the special circumstance of murder during the course of a robbery, making them potentially eligible for capital punishment if they had been convicted as originally charged.
KTLA 5

109 Federal Charges Filed Against Accused Synagogue Shooter
Federal prosecutors on Thursday charged the man accused of opening fire inside a Poway synagogue last month with more than 100 counts in a hate-crime case that could lead to the death penalty. John T. Earnest, 19, faces a total of 109 charges stemming from the April 27 shooting that killed one person and wounded three others at the Chabad of Poway and an arson fire at an Escondido mosque in March. U.S. Attorney Robert S. Brewer, Jr. announced the charges against Earnest at a downtown news conference where he was flanked by state and federal law enforcement officials. The charges are not a complete surprise — the FBI had said on the day of the shooting they were conducting an investigation — but they do set up a rare dual prosecution between state and federal prosecutors. According to the complaint, Earnest faces 54 counts of obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs using a dangerous weapon, resulting in death and bodily injury; 54 counts of hate-crime acts related to the shooting at the synagogue and one count of damage to religious property by use of fire.
San Diego Union-Tribune

Gunmakers Are Profiting From Toy Replicas That Can Get Kids Killed
When 12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot and killed by police in 2014 mere seconds after their arrival at a park in Cleveland, the officers said they believed they were in imminent danger because Rice was holding a gun. They didn't know it was a toy. According to a report released by the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office, the plastic replica, an airsoft gun that fires 6mm plastic BBs, was so close to the original that “even to a trained eye, careful side-by-side comparison is required.” Modeled after a .45-caliber 1911 pistol and originally purchased from Walmart, the fake gun was complete with Colt trademark inscriptions, and produced by Cybergun, a French airsoft manufacturer and longtime partner of Colt's Manufacturing. This kind of partnership is not uncommon. In fact, gun companies have longcut lucrative licensing deals with toy manufacturers allowing their products to be reproduced. Some replica airsoft guns share the same branding, weight, and materials as their real-life counterparts; the only difference is they shoot small plastic BBs. And in the half-decade since Tamir's death, little has been done to rein in the spread of these ultra-realistic replicas. 
The Trace

Public Safety News

L.A. County Is Second Most Vulnerable To Measles Nationwide, Study Shows
A new study ranks the US counties at highest risk of a measles outbreak, with the areas surrounding Chicago, Los Angeles and Miami topping the list. The authors say places like these should be kept under close surveillance because they “could serve as the fulcrum of continuous importation of the measles virus into the USA.” Their paper was published Thursday in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases. “What we're trying to do is identify what are the areas that are most likely to be affected by this [anti-vaccination] movement that's happening,” said study co-author Lauren Gardner, an associate professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. In order to rank the counties at greatest risk, the authors didn't even have to consider the locations of actual measles cases in the United States. Instead, they looked at factors including nonmedical vaccine exemptions, international air travel and the incidence of measles in countries people are traveling from.
KTLA 5

Southern California Prepares For A Busy Fire Season Thanks To Recent Storms And A Possibly Hot, Dry Summer
It's May in Agoura Hills and its slopes scorched by the Woolsey fire last November are now green with tall grass rising from charred soil. Yellow blossoms dot the hills, and flurries of painted lady butterflies float through the moist air that seven months ago was suffocated by embers and ash. “It got so smoky that it felt like you were in a room that was on fire, and you couldn't breathe,” said Lawrence Linick, 55 while sitting on the front porch of his Agoura Hills home that hugs the grassy slopes. He remembered Nov. 8, when the sky had turned from blue to yellow to brown, and by nightfall, he and his wife packed a few valuables and left their home behind, along with more than 295,000 others in the Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Consuming 96,000 acres, killing three, and destroying 1,643 structures, the Woolsey fire was the worst fire on record to burn in both counties. “We got really lucky,” Linick said, staring out across the street to a neighbor's home that was gutted by flames.
Los Angeles Daily News

Local Government News

Election For Measure EE — Proposed L.A. Property Tax For Education — Goes Forward But Challenges Remain
Los Angeles voters will be able to cast ballots on a proposed property tax for schools, but the measure will face a hearing on its validity after the June 4 election. If approved by two-thirds of voters, Measure EE would raise an estimated $500 million per year over 12 years to help fund traditional and charter schools within the boundaries of the Los Angeles Unified School District. But the measure faces a lawsuit over whether the district improperly altered the ballot language without a public hearing and vote by the Board of Education. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mary H. Strobel Thursday declined to dismiss the lawsuit filed by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. — a disappointment for lawyers representing L.A. Unified. On the other hand, Strobel also refused to halt the election, which opponents of the tax had requested.
KTLA 5
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

About the LAPPL Formed in 1923, the Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL) represents the more than 9,900 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. The LAPPL can be found on the Web at:

www.LAPD.com


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~