Two young children who were inside a car when the vehicle was stolen from outside a Norwalk dry cleaners were found safe nearly three hours later in Compton.
Two deputies apparently mistook a cellphone for a gun when they fatally shot an unarmed 22-year-old man in Athens, authorities said.
A Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokesman said Woodrow Player Jr. twice pointed a "dark object" at deputies during a foot chase Friday, causing them to believe that he was armed with a handgun. The second time he pointed the object at deputies, they opened fire.
The regional accrediting commission that oversees Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science has placed the South Los Angeles institution on probation because it has failed to meet certain assessment standards, the latest blow in what has been a tumultuous year for the university.
In its report, the commission said there were problems with the university’s systems of educational assessment and quality control.
University officials said the panel recommended improvements in “campus-wide communication, financial and budgetary systems and data-based systems … greater stability at the university presidential level and increased board involvement in fiduciary and strategic planning.”
The commission scheduled a special visit in the spring of 2011 to evaluate the university's progress.
Interim President Keith C. Norris, who along with other school officials was notified of the probation ruling last week, said he plans to use the commission’s recommendation to “strengthen the university and ensure the highest level of quality education for our students.”
University officials stressed that the school maintained its accreditation and that they are committed to serving poor, minority communities.
[Updated at 2:34 p.m. Four people were shot and injured this afternoon in Athens while standing in an alley where another man was killed Friday night by sheriff’s deputies.
Paramedics had responded to the shooting and were transporting the injured, three men and one woman, to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Sheriff’s deputies ordered a gathering crowd to calm down after what appeared to be a drive-by shooting.
Witnesses said that at about 2:30 p.m., an old model gray Buick with three men inside stopped in front of the alley and about a dozen shots were fired from the car, which then sped away.]
Civil rights leaders had planned to meet today at the site of the fatal shooting of a 22-year-old man by sheriff’s deputies in the unincorporated Athens area.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, said he and several other local leaders plan to gather this afternoon to talk to witnesses about the shooting of Woodrow Player.
"We’ll be talking with anyone who witnessed the shooting, get their version of the circumstances and their names and we’ll determine if the shooting was justified,” Hutchinson said in a statement. “If not, we’ll call for a federal probe.”
Hutchinson said civil rights leaders were concerned because “there are conflicting reports about the shooting.”
Player's relatives told television news crews at the scene last night that Player had been harassed by deputies after he was acquitted on murder charges in 2008. They also said he was shot multiple times.
Player was shot after he fled from deputies who were attempting to arrest him during a traffic stop near West Imperial Highway and South New Hampshire Avenue at 8:45 p.m. Friday, according to sheriff’s reports.
Deputies had stopped Player because he fit the description of an armed suspect who had been reported in the area, said Sheriff’s Sgt. Steve Jauck said. When Player fled, they chased him, Jauck said. “They saw what they believed to be a weapon in his hand and fired at him,” Jauck said.
It is unclear how many times deputies shot Player. He died at the scene and investigators later recovered a firearm from his car, Jauck said.
-- Molly Hennessy-Fiske in Athens
Photo: Woodrow Player’s wife, Tyisha, left, is comforted by her friend Talonnie Smith near the location where Player was shot. Credit: Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times
The family of a teenager slain in Compton by a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy will hold a news conference today to talk about the shooting.
Avery Cody Jr., 16, was shot and killed Sunday afternoon near the intersection of Poinsettia Avenue and Alondra Boulevard by a deputy on routine patrol.
An attorney for Avery's family has said the shooting was unnecessary and that the teenager posed no threat to authorities or anyone else.
"He was running away and he was gunned down in the streets of Compton," said attorney John E. Sweeney. "It's just a horrible, horrible shooting."
Sweeney said the news conference would be held at noon today at the scene of the shooting. Sheriff's detectives have declined to comment on Sweeney's accusations.
The teen, whose name is being withheld due to his age, had a loaded handgun when he was shot by a deputy on
a routine patrol in Compton, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff's Detective Steve Blagg. He was taken to a hospital, where he died.
Blagg would not release other details such as the name of the deputy or the circumstances of how the shooting occurred. The incident is under investigation.
The shooting, which occurred near south Poinsettia Avenue
and Alondra Boulevard, was reported at 3:43 p.m. Sunday, according to the sheriff’s department. Officials initially said the person who was killed was an adult.
Homicide detectives are investigating the circumstances of an officer-involved shooting in Compton.
The shooting, which occurred near south Poinsettia Avenue and Alondra Boulevard, was reported at 3:43 p.m. Sunday, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
The suspect, listed as a male adult, was transported to the hospital where he died. His name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has been arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in the Baldwin HIlls/Crenshaw area of South L.A., authorities said today.
Hon. Judge John Thaddeus Doyle, 56, was arrested about 11:15 p.m. Thursday after officers with the LAPD’s South Traffic Division pulled him over in the 4500 block of Don Felipe Drive for an unspecified traffic violation.
Doyle, a criminal court judge, is assigned to the Compton Superior Courthouse, where last August he oversaw the conviction of two men in the 2006 murder of two gas station employees in Carson.
The Compton courtroom was closed Friday for the 4th of July holiday. No further details about the arrest were available.
Doyle was released on $30,000 bail, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Aurora Ponce, the 18-year-old South L.A. valedictorian who was barred from giving a speech at graduation because she participated in a student protest over growing class sizes and other concerns, was allowed to speak at Saturday's ceremony.
The teenager, her family and supporters met with officials of the Accelerated School for two hours Friday but the matter remained unresolved, Ponce said. She prepared her speech and school officials reviewed it Saturday morning before giving her approval minutes before the ceremony.
"It meant a lot to me," said Ponce, who is heading to UC Davis in August to study engineering. "All the seniors were supporting me, my parents were there supporting me, my teachers...I was really happy."
The arrest of a nationally recognized anti-gang leader in Los Angeles today underscores the difficulties some gang intervention workers face in staying out of their old lives. Here are some other examples of anti-gang leaders accused of misdeeds:
MARLO 'BOW WOW' JONES
In January, Jones, a well-known gang intervention worker in South Los Angeles, was arrested on charges of robbing and beating a member of the rap group Bone Thugs-N-Harmony at the Universal City Hilton hotel. Jones, a former member of the Grape Street Crips, helped prevent retaliatory shootings and had worked on a gang reduction effort with USC football Coach Pete Carroll.
Jones had served seven years in state prison after being convicted of robbery and narcotics charges. Even after he became a gang intervention officer, he continued to have trouble with the law. In October, he pleaded no contest to felony spousal abuse and was placed on five years' probation, according to police and prosecutors. His trial in connection with his January arrest is pending.
MARIO CORONA
A year ago, Corona, once a top official with the Communities in Schools group, which helped former gang members secure jobs, was sentenced to 32 months in prison for drug violations after his arrest by Los Angeles police for possession of a pound of methamphetamine.
HECTOR 'BIG WEASEL' MARROQUIN
Marroquin, the director of the anti-gang organization No Guns, pleaded guilty last year to illegally selling assault weapons to federal undercover officers and was sentenced to eight years in state prison. In 1996, Marroquin formed No Guns, which he said was dedicated to mediating gang wars and stopping gun violence in besieged neighborhoods. Marroquin told The Times that he had turned away from a life of crime and gangs.
He claimed to have helped more than 60 gang members find jobs in labor unions. The city's anti-gang program, L.A. Bridges, eventually contracted with No Guns to provide gang intervention services, to fill a void of Latino anti-gang organizations in the area. The city ended up paying No Guns $1.5 million over a three-year period. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department even used Marroquin as a mediator in race riots at the Pitchess Detention Center. The case that led to Marroquin’s imprisonment grew out of an investigation by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives into gun sales by the 18th Street gang.
Los Angeles police said two sisters would be charged with assault after one of them rammed her SUV into the rear of the Newton Community Police Station on South Central Avenue, seriously injuring a 4-year-old passenger in the SUV.
A Ford Explorer careened into the station about 1:15 p.m. Sunday, police say. The 49-year-old driver and the 33-year-old passenger, both from North Hollywood, were injured. Both remained hospitalized Monday; their injuries were not considered life-threatening.
The girl, the daughter of the passenger, was not wearing a seat belt and was pinned against the windshield in the crash. Officers tore through the wreckage to free her. The girl, who was taken off life support and breathing on her own Monday, was in critical but stable condition at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center.
The women's names were not released because they were still in the hospital and had not been formally charged. Upon their release, they are to be charged with assault with a deadly weapon and child endangerment, said Capt. Mark Olvera.
A man in the Green Meadows area of South Los Angeles was shot to death late Saturday, police said.
Los Angeles police said the man was standing in front of a liquor store near 92nd Street and Central Avenue when an unknown number of men in one car drove by and started shooting about 10:50 p.m.
The victim, whose name was not released, was shot in the head and neck and taken to a hospital, where he died, said police Officer Bruce Borihanh.
The 109th Street Swimming Pool, located between the Nickerson Gardens and Jordan Downs housing projects in South Los Angeles, opened today for the summer season with stepped up police patrols.
Last year, during a heat wave, Los Angeles Recreation and Parks officials shut down the pool after violence broke out when a group of young men took over the pool deck, attacked the manager and threw him, a lifeguard and a locker room attendant into the water.
The incident also led Yvonne B. Burke, the former Los Angeles County Supervisor for the 2nd District, which includes Watts, to dedicate $331,000 in funds to increase police patrol in the area.
Olivia Kelly, communications director for councilwoman Janice Hahn, said community leaders and officers with the Los Angeles Police Department were stepping up patrols to avoid a repeat of last year’s violence.
At least four unarmed security guards have been hired to control unruly crowds as well as two LAPD officers. The Watts Gang Force -- a coalition of community leaders and representatives of neighborhood organizations -- will also take part in patrolling the swimming pool.
Homicide detectives are investigating the death of man who was shot shortly after he had been spinning his car in circles outside his Compton home, authorities said.
The shooting occurred in the 1600 block of Mona Boulevard near Rosecrans Avenue, and was reported about 11:30 p.m. Friday, said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Derrick Thompson said. Before the shooting, the man had been doing “doughnuts,” a maneuver in which the rear of a car rotates around the front wheels continuously, creating circular skid marks.
Three men approached the man after he had parked his car on the driveway and shot him multiple times, Thompson said. The three then fled on foot, he said. Paramedics took the man to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call homicide detectives at (323) 890-5500.
Khadijah Williams is known as "Harvard girl," the "smart girl" and the girl with the contagious smile who landed at Jefferson High School only 18 months ago.
What students don't know is that she is also a homeless girl.
As long as she can remember, Khadijah has floated from shelters to motels to armories along the West Coast with her mother. She has attended 12 schools in 12 years and lived out of garbage bags among pimps, prostitutes and drug dealers. Every morning, she upheld her dignity, making sure she didn't smell or look disheveled.
On the streets, she learned how to hunt for their next meal, plot the next bus route and help choose a secure place to sleep -- survival skills she applied with passion to her education.
Members of the San Gabriel Valley Arson Explosives Task Force have seized more than half a ton of illegal fireworks from a residential neighborhood in Boyle Heights, averting a potentially explosive and deadly situation, authorities said.
“Given the amount of fireworks in the residence, and the densely populated area ... we could have had a detonation of all that material, and it would have destroyed a good portion of the block, or several houses,” said Alhambra Fire Department Assistant Chief John Kabala.
The investigation originated after arson investigators from the Alhambra Fire Department found dangerous fireworks and unlawful explosives being advertised for sale on Craigslist, Kabala said. The department conducts regular checks of the free classified advertising site, Kabala said.
During the search of the site, an individual selling the contraband began corresponding with investigators, and arrangements were made for the exchange of the illegal product for money, Kabala said. Investigators subsequently met with a man and woman at a designated location at 9 a.m. Thursday and arrested them after they conducted the illegal sale.
About 100 pounds of illegal fireworks were recovered from the trunk of a compact vehicle, Kabala said. Investigators then obtained search warrants for locations in South Los Angeles, Boyle Heights and Lincoln Heights.
At the South L.A. location, a small amount of illegal fireworks were retrieved from the bedroom of one of the suspects, Kabala said. But a search of the Boyle Heights address in the 550 block of South Mathews Street and directly opposite a middle school and high school, turned up a huge cache of illegal fireworks.
“It was stored all over the house ... In the living room, the hallway, in cabinets,” Kabala said.
Los Angeles homicide and arson detectives are investigating the death of a man whose partially burned body was found in a wheelchair outside a store in South Los Angeles early this morning, authorities said.
Fire officials responded to reports of “a person allegedly on fire,” at 2:45 a.m. in the 1800 block of West Manchester Avenue, said Devin Gales, a service officer with the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Officer Bruce Borihanh, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department, said investigators were still at the scene and no further details were available about the victim or the circumstances of his death.
Police officials told television reporters at the scene that the body had been badly burned, and a candle and some alcohol had reportedly been found nearby. The victim also was reportedly wearing a hospital identification wristband, according to reporters at the scene.
The state attorney general and Los Angeles city attorney announced today they are seeking a court injunction creating a 1.4-square-mile gang-free zone around a high school in South Los Angeles.
The injunction, which would create a safety zone around Fremont High School in the 7600 block of San Pedro Street, would impose a daytime curfew on four gangs, including the Swan Bloods, Florencia 13, Main Street Crips and the 7-Trey Hustlers/Gangster Crips.
Under the injunction, gangsters would be prevented from being on the streets while students walk to and from school, harassing citizens or assembling with other gang members. The zone would be bound by Florence Avenue to the north, Central Avenue to the east, Manchester Avenue to the south and the 110 Freeway to the west and extends 100 yards beyond each of these boundaries.
[Updated at 11:20 a.m.: Four people sitting at a bus stop in South L.A. were wounded in a drive-by shooting in which at least two suspects pulled up in a car and began firing indiscriminately, police said. Officials said there was no immediate motive for the shooting and that they were looking for at least two men.]
At least three people were wounded this morning in a shooting in South Los Angeles, authorities said.
Four people have been taken to the hospital with injuries sustained in the 10:45 a.m. incident near the intersection of Western and Vernon avenues, said Fire Department spokeswoman D'Lisa Davies.
Police officials said the victims were in their 50s and were conscious and breathing after being shot. There was no immediate information on a suspect or suspects.
For at least 18 years, Los Angeles County has
repeatedly received urgent and sometimes gruesome reminders that its
agencies don't share vital information about potentially abused or
neglected children, according to a Times investigation.
There have been numerous calls for reform --
but little action. In the passing years, an unknown number of children
have been harmed or killed.
At least a dozen reports have landed on county leaders' desks since the
early 1990s saying agencies that work with troubled families must
improve their ability to talk to each other. County supervisors have
freely admitted that the system is broken, and even have voted several
times to establish computer systems to open communication channels.
Solutions have been doomed by bureaucratic infighting, turf wars,
privacy concerns and limited political attention spans. When horrific
deaths or abuse drop out of the news, the board and department heads
often focus elsewhere, leading to long stretches of inaction -- until
another case gives them a terrible jolt.
Redondo Beach police have arrested the founder of a Marina del Rey drug and alcohol abuse prevention group on narcotics charges.
Kendall Craig Farris was arrested Thursday at 3:40 p.m. at a Starbucks in El Segundo after narcotics officers set up the drug buy over the phone. Farris, who arrived by taxi, was given an envelope containing $480 by an undercover officer in exchange for methamphetamine and ecstasy tablets, according to police.
The drugs turned out to be fake. He was arraigned Friday on charges of selling a substance he alleged was drugs.
Farris, according to his website, is the founder of the Over the Wall Foundation and a recovering alcoholic and addict.
His mission, he says, is "to help youth, schools and families prevent drug and alcohol abuse before it starts, and intervene in any drug abuse which may already have begun."
Several gang members celebrating a “gang holiday” were taken into custody today for warrants and parole violations during a police raid at a nightclub in Studio City, authorities said.
At least 17 members of the Rolling 60s Neighborhood Crips were taken into custody for parole violations, including associating with other gang members, said Sgt. Dan Horan of the Los Angeles Police Department’s 77th Street Gang Enforcement Unit. His unit led the raid after receiving a tip about the party.
At least three others had outstanding warrants, and five were arrested for probation violations, Horan said. The Los Angeles City Attorney's office has a gang injunction against the Rolling 60s that severely limits members' activities.
The raid began shortly after 1 a.m. today at Platinum Live near Ventura Boulevard and Tujunga Avenue. Undercover officers were observing the party and moved in when they began to smell marijuana smoke at the front door, Horan said.
The club had been rented for June 10 because the month and date are associated with the gang’s name. Members were celebrating the "holiday," police said.
The gang's turf covers neighborhoods along Crenshaw Boulevard and Slauson Avenue in South Los Angeles, Horan said.
[Updated at 2:15 p.m.: A previous version of this post said the L.A. County district attorney's office had an injunction against the gang.]
When it comes to youth, the Southside of Los Angeles is the place to look. The Times' Mapping L.A. project found that L.A. neighborhoods with the lowest median ages tend to be in working-class areas of South L.A. and vicinity. Watts has the youngest population, with a median age of 21. The Top 10 list of youngest neighborhoods includes several neighboring districts (as well as Wilmington down in the harbor area).
Median age reports the age of the person who falls exactly in the middle of the pack.
A 37-year-old man who was shot and killed in front of a home in South Los Angeles, allegedly by a man he had assaulted earlier in the day, was identified today by coroner officials.
Laquinn Tucker was shot in the chest shortly before 10 p.m. Friday in the 800 block of West 43rd Street. Jimmy Hernandez, 21, was arrested and charged with murder in the man’s death, according to a police statement.
A 37-year-old man was shot and killed in front of a home in South Los Angeles, allegedly by a man he had attacked earlier in the day, authorities said today.
The victim, whose identity was not immediately released, was shot in the chest shortly before 10 p.m. Friday in the 800 block of West 43rd Street. Jimmy Hernandez, 21, was arrested and charged with murder in the man’s death, according to a police statement.
According to police, Hernandez was at a market earlier Friday in the 4200 block of South Hoover Street when he was approached by a man who asked for $5 in what police said was a “panhandling type” of situation. Hernandez said he didn’t have any money and walked outside, and then the man’s friend attacked Hernandez with a stick, police said.
Later, Hernandez, accompanied by three gang members, approached his attacker, who was standing on the front porch of the South L.A. home. One of the men asked the victim if he had been involved in the earlier incident, and when he replied that he had, Hernandez allegedly shot him, according to police.
Detectives arrested Hernandez at his home in South Los Angeles. The three others who were with Hernandez at the time of the shooting were still at large. Anyone with information on the incident is asked to call Southwest homicide detectives at (213) 485-1383.
The KTLA Traffic Blog provides regular updates of the Southern California traffic situation during the morning drive. This feed is live from 4 to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday.
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