LASD Announces COVID-19 Death Of Deputy

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department on Tuesday announced the passing of a deputy after battling COVID-19. The Sheriff’s Department announced the death of 20-year veteran Timothy Tellez of LASD’s Parks Bureau. The Sheriff’s Department did not comment on how Tellez may have contracted the virus. Sheriff Alex Villanueva said on social media he was “in shock and heartbroken over the loss of one of our dedicated (LASD) family members.” According to LASD’s website, 1,913 department employees have tested positive for COVID-19, with 1,242 being sworn officers.

Garcetti Vetoes Plan To Use Reallocated LAPD Money For Disadvantaged Communities

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has vetoed a proposal backed by the City Council to spend money diverted from the Los Angeles Police Department’s budget on an array of services, including sidewalk repairs. Employing a veto power that he rarely uses, Garcetti called for the money to be focused on addressing racial justice and income inequality, avoiding layoffs and more. “Far too many of the proposed expenditures do not meet the demands of the moment or the call of history,” Garcetti wrote in a letter to the council late Monday about its proposal. Craig Lally, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, accused the council earlier this month of laying off hundreds of police officers to fund curb cuts, landscaping, and other initiatives. The council is weighing layoffs for city employees, including hundreds of police officers, to help manage the City Hall fiscal crisis brought about by the pandemic. On Tuesday, Lally said that Garcetti’s veto “validates our concern that the $90 million City Council slush fund does nothing to reduce the dramatic increase in shootings and murders in our neighborhoods and reeks of old-school political patronage.” “We’re pleased that the mayor is placing a priority on protecting employees of color from disproportionate layoffs,” he added, noting that the vast majority of police officers targeted for layoffs are people of color.

LA Police Say Woman, Boy Found Dead In Apparent Case Of Domestic Violence

A woman and a young boy, possibly her grandson, were found dead in a Westlake area apartment, and Los Angeles police indicated Tuesday that a family member was suspected in the double homicide case. Officers made the discovery when they went to the 1800 block of West 11th Place at 10:25 p.m. Monday on a requested welfare check, the Los Angeles Police Department reported. The woman was in her 60s and the boy's age was not specified by the coroner's office, which did not immediately release their names. LAPD Officer Rosario Cervantes said only that "the motive is family violence." Another LAPD public information officer told reporters at the scene that investigators were looking at a family member as the suspect, but would not elaborate.

Man Barricaded In South LA Home After Allegedly Assaulting Father Taken Into Custody

A man suspected of assaulting his father with a metal object barricaded himself inside of a South Los Angeles home Tuesday night. According to initial reports, when officers with the Los Angeles Police Department arrived on scene, the man began throwing knives and other weapons at the officers before locking himself in the home in the 800 block of West 55th Street. The suspect remained barricaded into the evening and his father was taken to a local hospital in unknown condition. It was not immediately known if any officers were injured. Police said the suspect was taken into custody shortly before 10:30 p.m.

Police: Attempted Kidnapping Suspect Arrested After Trying To Abduct 2 Other Kids In South L.A.

A woman suspected in a pair of attempted kidnappings in October was apprehended after allegedly trying to abduct two other children in South Los Angeles late last week, police announced Tuesday. Claudia Guerrero, 30, was arrested last Friday after officers responded to a radio call regarding a kidnapping attempt of an 8-year-old girl and a 9-year-old boy in the 7900 block of Broadway, in the Florence neighborhood, according to a Los Angeles Police Department news release. They found that the suspect had been detained by two citizens, who recognized the woman from surveillance video previously released by LAPD in connection to abduction attempts two months earlier, the release stated. The citizens held her until police arrived. Guerrero has been charged with four counts of attempted kidnapping by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, according to LAPD. In addition to the incident last Friday, she’s suspected of trying to abduct two young boys separately in the Florence area on the evening of Oct. 18.

Men Wanted For Armed Robbery Of 2 Rampart-Area Stores In 1 Night

Help is needed to identify two men the LAPD says robbed two stores at gunpoint in one day in the Rampart area. Both robberies happened on Dec. 5, according to the LAPD. In each incident, the two suspects pointed guns at store employees while demanding cash. The first robbery happened at about 3 p.m. at a convenience store in the 1300 block of Temple Street. The second happened just before 8:30 a.m. at a discount store in the 2200 block of Beverly Boulevard, where also appeared to demand lottery tickets and other products from behind the cash register. The getaway car was the same at both robberies, according to the LAPD – a brown or gray Chevy Malibu. Both robbers were described as Hispanic men about 5-foot-8, 20 to 30 years old, with black hair and brown eyes. The first man was described as weighing 240 pounds with facial hair, and wore a red Golden State baseball cap, a gray shirt and black pants. The second man is about 150 pounds, and wore a dark-colored Lakers hat, a white shirt and blue jeans.

Arson Suspect In Custody Following Early-Morning Blaze At Canoga Park Apartment Building

An arson suspect is in custody following an early-morning blaze Tuesday at an apartment building in Canoga Park. The fire was reported shortly before 2 a.m. at the garden-style apartment building in the 21300 block of Roscoe Boulevard, the Los Angeles Fire Department stated in a news alert. Heavy flames were showing from a second-floor unit when firefighters arrived, according to the alert. Video from the scene showed flames shooting out of windows and burning near vehicles parked outside the building. At least one of the vehicles appeared to have caught fire during the incident. About 80 firefighters at the scene extinguished the blaze in just over 30 minutes. Authorities later confirmed that an arson suspect, identified by the Los Angeles Police Department as 24-year-old Michael Johnson, was in custody.

Overall Crime Decreases, But Car Theft Increases In Bel-Air And Rancho Park

Overall crime has decreased by 11% during the pandemic compared to last year, but car thieves are driving numbers up in communities such as Bel-Air and Rancho Park, according to a report released Tuesday. Data from the Los Angeles Police Department — complied in a report by Crosstown, a nonprofit news organization — showed that the overall number of criminal incidents from January through November was down, but Bel-Air has topped the list of Los Angeles neighborhoods that actually saw a spike in crime. Bel-Air recorded 235 crimes in the first 11 months of the year, a nearly 41% increase over the 167 incidents during the same time in 2019. There were 40 burglaries in the neighborhood during the first 11 months of the year, up from 24 during the same period last year. Bel-Air also registered 40 reports of breaking into a vehicle, an increase from 18 last year. Police tallied 21 instances of trespassing and 19 reports of stolen vehicles. The increase in crime has led to community outreach, including a Dec. 2 Zoom meeting in which police showed a video depicting how quickly a thief can break into a car.

Inmate Walks Away From Los Angeles Reentry Program Facility

A convicted burglar walked away Tuesday evening from a Male Community Reentry Program facility in Los Angeles. About 7:50 p.m., officials determined Jones Booker had left without authorization and agents from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s Office of Correctional Safety were dispatched to locate and apprehend Booker. Booker is 5 feet, 6 inches tall and weighs 162 pounds with dark hair and dark-colored eyes and tattoos near his eyes and mouth and on his neck. Booker was received by CDCR from Los Angeles County on Oct. 20, 2019, while serving a 32-month sentence for first-degree burglary. He was transferred to the MCRP on Nov. 24 and was scheduled to be released in February 2022. The Male Community Reentry Program allows eligible offenders committed to state prison to serve the end of their sentences in the reentry center and provides them with programs and tools necessary to transition from custody to freedom. Anyone seeing Booker or with any knowledge of his whereabouts should immediately contact law enforcement or call 911.

Public Safety News

Chief Moore Discusses the Impact of COVID-19 on LAPD

With over 1,500 LAPD employees contracting COVID-19, Chief Michel Moore discusses the challenges the Department has faced in dealing with the virus.

How Will L.A. County Police, Fire Agencies Get Vaccinated? They’ll Enlist Their Own, Including Search-and-Rescue Paramedics

As COVID-19 infections surge across the region, Los Angeles County’s law enforcement and fire agencies are trying to figure out how they’ll distribute tens of thousands of vaccines to their employees on the front lines responding to the pandemic. For now, they’ll have to wait until after emergency room nurses and doctors are vaccinated first — the L.A. County Department of Public Health through its guidelines is prioritizing health care workers, as well as the huge population of elderly people living in long-term care facilities where hundreds have died. But soon after that, most police officers, sheriff’s deputies, firefighters and paramedics will start receiving vaccines, likely in mid-January, officials said. LAPD Chief Michel Moore said Tuesday he expected many of his officers to start receiving vaccines around Jan. 14-15. He said the department was still “working to understand the distribution channels” in order to figure out how to get the vaccines to its officers and civilian employees. For those agencies with their own paramedics, the process is likely to begin with them vaccinating their own. A spokeswoman for the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department said deputies likely would start being vaccinated around mid-January as well. That process is likely to involve the sheriff’s Special Enforcement Bureau.

LA County COVID-19 Death Toll Tops 9,000, As Hospitalizations Continue To Set Records

Los Angeles County's death toll from COVID-19 crossed the grim 9,000 mark Tuesday, while hospitals continued to post record numbers of coronavirus patients days ahead of a Christmas holiday that could further exacerbate the pandemic as residents flout protocols banning gatherings. The county reported another 88 coronavirus-related deaths on Tuesday, and that number didn't even include a single-day record of 14 deaths confirmed by the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services and one additional fatality announced by Pasadena health officials. The new fatalities lifted the cumulative countywide death toll to 9,031. County health officials said more than 1,000 people have died from the virus in the past two weeks alone, with the county averaging 73 deaths per day during that time -- roughly one fatality every 20 minutes.

California Shatters Daily COVID-19 Record With More Than 62,000 New Cases As Hospital Conditions Worsen

California once again shattered a new daily record for most number of coronavirus cases in a single day on Monday, a troubling sign days before a Christmas holiday that officials fear could bring still greater spread of the virus. A county-by-county tally conducted by The Times for Monday found 62,661 new coronavirus cases reported — the most in a single day since Friday, when 53,326 coronavirus cases were reported. The state is now averaging nearly 45,000 new coronavirus cases a day over the past week — more than seven times the comparable figure from six weeks ago. The Times’ tally found 252 COVID-19 deaths across California Monday, which is the fifth-highest single-day death tally so far in the pandemic. California is now averaging 247 COVID-19 deaths every day over the past week, a new record and more than five times the comparable tally from six weeks ago. There are now 1.93 million confirmed coronavirus cases in California, and 22,928 COVID-19 deaths, according to The Times’ tally.