Two Beverly Hills Police Officers Injured In Crash During Pursuit

Two Beverly Hills police officers were injured when their patrol car overturned while they were pursuing a stolen vehicle, authorities said. It happened at 2:24 a.m. Saturday on Sunset Boulevard, according to a Beverly Hills Police Department news release. The officers were attempting to assist in the pursuit when the officer driving the patrol car lost control and it overturned west of Sunset Plaza Drive, police said. Both officers suffered minor injuries. Sunset Boulevard was shut down between Veteran Avenue and Sunset Plaza Drive during the accident investigation.
FOX 11

LAPD Increases Patrols Near Synagogues After Stabbings At New York Hanukkah Event

Los Angeles police have stepped up patrols in and around Jewish communities and synagogues after a man stabbed and wounded five people gathered for a Hanukkah celebration at a rabbi's home in New York. The increased patrols are “out of an abundance of caution,” LAPD Chief Michel Moore tweeted Sunday morning. The LAPD did not elaborate on the extra security measures. “The LAPD stands with members of our Jewish community,” Moore tweeted. “There is no place for hate in Los Angeles.” The stabbings happened on the seventh night of Hanukkah, which the victims had been celebrating in the rabbi's home north of New York City. One person was seriously wounded and is in critical condition. It follows a series of attacks targeting Jews in the region, including a shooting at a kosher grocery store in New Jersey earlier this month that left six dead, including a police officer and three people inside the store.
Los Angeles Times

Police Station Is Evacuated After Man Turns In Several Grenades

A man turned in several live grenades to the LAPD on Friday. At around 4 p.m. a man walked into the South East LAPD Station and turned the grenades in to the front desk, according to police. The building had to be evacuated so the bomb squad could safely detonate all of the grenades. The building was rendered safe at 7:53 p.m., the LAPD said. The man was not arrested. He said he found the grenades at his home.
NBC 4

Downey Man Arrested In Death Of 6-Year-Old South L.A. Boy

On Christmas Day, David Nicholson Jr. dropped off presents for his son and daughter at the South L.A. apartment where they lived with their mother. For D'Vine, 4, he brought a doll set; for Dayvon, 6, a skateboard, walkie-talkies, a Nerf gun and a playsuit of body armor. His daughter was there, Nicholson said, but Dayvon wasn't. His mother said he was with a man she called “Coach Ty.” On Thursday, Dayvon's mother called the boy's grandparents to tell them he was at the hospital, unable to breathe. Nicholson raced to St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, where a police officer took him aside and told him Dayvon had died. “My heart just fell,” Nicholson said in an interview with The Times on Saturday. “I couldn't breathe. No matter how many kids you got, it's a piece of you.” The Los Angeles County Coroner ruled Dayvon's death a homicide. Tyler D'Shaun Martin-Brand, 23, a friend of the boy's mother and a supervisor for a Los Angeles Unified School District after-school program, was arrested Thursday by Downey police in connection with Dayvon's death. He is being held in lieu of $2-million bail.
Los Angeles Times

Pellet Gun Shatters Tommy's Restaurant Window In Valley Village, Police Say

Los Angeles police are investigating after they say a pellet gun shattered the window of a hamburger restaurant in Valley Village Sunday evening. Police say they received a 911 call at about 9:50 p.m. after the pellet gun was fired and shattered a window at the Original Tommy's World Famous Hamburgers restaurant located at the intersection of Laurel Canyon and Burbank boulevards. The location is blocks away from Los Angeles Valley College. The restaurant remained open as police investigated the incident, which is being handled as an act of vandalism. No information regarding a suspect was available. Police are also attempting to figure out if the incident is connected to another act of vandalism at Yoshinoya restaurant in Reseda, where police say they found a shattered window. The cause of that shattered window was not known.
ABC 7

Man Arrested After Allegedly Threatening To Kill Uber Driver In Van Nuys

Authorities say a man has been taken into custody on suspicion of making criminal threats after an Uber driver says he threatened to kill him. The incident unfolded just after 3:30 a.m. Sunday when the ride-share driver flagged down a CHP unit and reported that his passenger was armed with a gun and had made threats to kill him. That's when multiple CHP units responded, and conducted “call outs” to the suspect in both English and Spanish. Authorities say the passenger refused to get out of the vehicle and would not respond to their commands. Authorities ultimately used less than lethal shotgun rounds, and eventually were able to get the suspect out of the car. He was taken into custody and booked. He was identified by the CHP as Sergio Gonzalez, and had allegedly been armed with a knife, authorities said.
CBS 2

Woman Set To Be Arraigned In Tesla Crash That Fatally Injured Pedestrian

A woman who allegedly struck a pedestrian with a Tesla and left him fatally injured in the Pico-Union area last month is set to be arraigned Monday on a felony charge. Vanessa Gutierrez, 35, of Los Angeles, is charged with one count of hit-and-run driving resulting in death or serious bodily injury to another person, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. The charge stems from a Nov. 21 crash in which Emilio Perez was struck by a light-colored Tesla Model 3 in the area of Olympic Boulevard and Lake Street. Perez, 38, never regained consciousness, according to Los Angeles Police Department Detective Moses Castillo. Perez died at a hospital four days later as a result of blunt force injuries, according to the Los Angeles County coroner's office.
MyNewsLA.com

U.S. Mass Killings Hit New High In 2019, Most Of Them Shootings

The first one occurred 19 days into the new year when a man used an ax to kill four family members including his infant daughter. Five months later, 12 people were killed in a workplace shooting in Virginia. Twenty-two more died at a Walmart in El Paso in August. A database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University shows that there were more mass killings in 2019 than any year dating back to at least the 1970s, punctuated by a chilling succession of deadly rampages during the summer. In all, there were 41 mass killings, defined as when four or more people are killed excluding the perpetrator. Of those, 33 were mass shootings. More than 210 people were killed. Most of the mass killings barely became national news, failing to resonate among the general public because they didn't spill into public places like massacres in El Paso and Odessa, Texas; Dayton, Ohio; Virginia Beach, Virginia; and Jersey City, New Jersey. The majority of the killings involved people who knew each other — family disputes, drug or gang violence or people with beefs that directed their anger at co-workers or relatives.
KTLA 5

Public Safety News

Firefighters Rescue 2 Trapped In Vehicle Following Reseda Crash

Firefighters cut the roof off of a car that slammed into a light pole in Reseda early Sunday, Dec. 29 to rescue two people who were trapped inside but expected to survive their injuries. Traffic investigators believe a burgundy Toyota was speeding along Sherman Way near Wilbur Avenue when it struck a pole on the northeast corner of that intersection at about 1:40 a.m., Los Angeles Police Officer E. Houser said. The driver and passenger of the sedan became trapped inside the damaged vehicle and had to be extracted. More than a dozen members of the Los Angeles Fire Department responded to the collision. One was seen standing on the sedan's mangled hood in photos posted by the agency to Twitter as first-responders used the jaws of life (hydraulic cutters) and other heavy equipment to free the car's occupants.
Los Angeles Daily News

Decade Of Disasters: Wildfires, A Gas Leak, Earthquakes In Southern California

A disaster is never more than the failure of aging infrastructure, a slip of tectonic plate or a spark away from affecting thousands of Southern California residents. Such disasters often come with long-term consequences and can be drivers for change and improvements to keep us safe. Here's a look at a trio of such events that made headlines: a natural-gas leak in Porter Ranch, a pair of earthquakes in the High Desert, and increasing wildfire danger.
Los Angeles Daily News

Local Government News

End Of The Decade: With Garcetti's Rise, Scandal And #MeToo, Valley Politics Scene Heated Up And Never Cooled Down

They say all politics is local, and the 2010s went a long way toward affirming that around the 818 area code. Consider the 25th Congressional District, the northern LA County district that covers a snippet of the San Fernando Valley. That's where Democrat Katie Hill scorched a path to Congress in 2018, upsetting incumbent GOP-er Steve Knight in a pivotal 2018 race. Hill's success flipped the district from red to blue, and affirmed its move left from a recent past of Republican seat-holders. But Hill's skyrocketing ascent in Congress fizzled in late 2019, when nude photos of her were released by a right-leaning website and allegations of affairs with staffers led to a congressional ethics investigation. Hill would resign, opening up a newfound battleground for the 25th.
Los Angeles Daily News