Spokane police officers responded around 3 a.m. to 616 S. Helena St. and found two victims with life-threatening stab wounds. The two men, one in his 20s and another in his 40s, may be related, police said. The victims, who were not identified, were taken to a local hospital where they were in stable condition Saturday afternoon.
An initial investigation revealed that the incident may be gang-related. The investigation is ongoing.
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Robert Zavala Carrillo and Mark Gil were arrested in a parking lot on Wednesday evening. Carrillo and Gil are two of 20 people charged in three federal complaints that were unsealed earlier Wednesday. Investigators say Carrillo is the leader of East Side Riva, one of two violent criminal street gangs that were engaged in what authorities called a deadly race war. The East Side Riva is allegedly controlled by the Mexican Mafia and targeted another gang with mostly black members. Prosecutors say Gil is Carrillo's second-in-command.
Six men, several of them said to be senior members of a Garden Grove street gang, were arrested this morning in a pre-dawn raid that uncovered a stash of weapons.Over the last six months, the city has seen an outbreak of violence due to a turf war between two of the city's gangs, Lt. Travis Whitman of the Garden Grove police said.A Garden Grove Police gang unit officer stands near a cash of seized firearms from search warrants that were served in several locations in Garden Grove, Thursday morning, Jan 28.One of the men was not publicly identified because he may be a juvenile. The other five, all from Garden Grove, were Edward Argueta, 26, Ysrael Garza, 28, Fernando Garza, 29, Oscar Padilla, 19, and Gregorio Pinto, 27.Investigator Pat Gildea of the Garden Grove police was the lead detective on the case, which resulted in a search of seven locations in Garden Grove and Anaheim.The warrant was served at 5:30 a.m. by 65 police officers from the Garden Grove and Santa Ana police departments and the Orange County Probation Department.Pinto and the possible minor were arrested on outstanding misdemeanor warrants; the others were arrested on weapons charges, Whitman said.Police found 13 firearms, including four shotguns, four rifles, and five handguns. Two of the rifles were assault rifles: an antique SKS semi-automatic, which was the predecessor to the AK-47, and an M1A rifle with scope and detachable magazine.
Police also found more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition, including a bandolier of shotgun shells.
Police will conduct ballistics tests on the weapons to see if they were used in any shootings, Whitman said.
Police also found more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition, including a bandolier of shotgun shells.
Police will conduct ballistics tests on the weapons to see if they were used in any shootings, Whitman said.
Special squads from the Bulgarian Criminal Police Directorate have arrested Ivaylo Borisov aka Torino, after a lengthy search operation. Borisov is a known associate of Zlatomir Ivanov aka Baretata.The police had been actively tracking him over the last days in the area of Samokov, a town some 60 kms south-east of the capital Sofia.He was finally discovered at the apartment of his friend, nicknamed Veseloto (Cheerful), and arrested without putting up any resistance, the Interior Ministry press office has announced on Thursday. Investigations are continuing.Borisov, better known in Gorublyane as Ivo the Torino, is also one of the circle close to Nikolay Kolev, who was shot and murdered some years ago by unknown gunmen.'Ivo the Torino' has a criminal record and is well-known to the Interior Ministry. He has a reputation as an expert in "lifting" trucks from superstore and other car parks.There are two outstanding legal cases against him, and he has been bailed in both procedures.
In August 2004, the police located two blackmailers who had bullied people with vehicle thefts, threats of explosion and telephone harassment. Angel A. aka Acho from Samokov and 20-year-old Ivaylo Borisov were discovered, following the alarm raised by one of their victims.Both were charged with racketeering for purposes of stealing a car. The men had demanded BGN 3 000 to return the man's stolen car, and then insisted on yet another BGN 5 000 not to blow up the offices of the companies managed by the victim.On February 8, 2009, the Torino was accused of complicity with former commando Zlatko Ivanov in being the head of a gang involved in drug trafficking and murder.
In August 2004, the police located two blackmailers who had bullied people with vehicle thefts, threats of explosion and telephone harassment. Angel A. aka Acho from Samokov and 20-year-old Ivaylo Borisov were discovered, following the alarm raised by one of their victims.Both were charged with racketeering for purposes of stealing a car. The men had demanded BGN 3 000 to return the man's stolen car, and then insisted on yet another BGN 5 000 not to blow up the offices of the companies managed by the victim.On February 8, 2009, the Torino was accused of complicity with former commando Zlatko Ivanov in being the head of a gang involved in drug trafficking and murder.
people with alleged ties to two rival street gangs engaged in a bloody years-long war in Riverside were arrested today in an operation aimed at taking down the gangs' leadership."Operation Promise," a coordinated federal, state and local law enforcement sweep, targeted the Eastside Riva and the 1200 Blocc Crips, leading to the arrests of 50 people, the seizure of 28 guns and two pet rattlesnakes, authorities said."This unprecedented operation is part of my ongoing promise to bring hope and restoration to the people of Riverside," said Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco, who made the announcement during a news briefing at the Regency Tower in downtown Riverside.Pacheco. was joined by representatives from the various law enforcement agencies that participated in the sweep, including the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, the Riverside Police Department, FBI, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement.
A total of 650 law enforcement personnel served warrants on the residences of about 100 suspected gang members during the operation, authorities said.
"The damage we did was to the leadership of the gangs," said Pacheco.
"We were going after the top folks."
In addition to Riverside, suspects' homes in Beaumont, Mead Valley, Moreno Valley, Nuevo, Perris and Rubidoux were raided, according to the District Attorney's Office.
Pacheco said the sweep was the culmination of 14 months' work by the District Attorney's Office and the other agencies involved, with the goal of having "as large an impact as possible, in as many ways as possible."
The district attorney described the all-Hispanic Eastside Riva, numbering about 800, as Riverside's oldest and "most violent" street gang, at war with the 1200 Blocc Crips, an all-black gang numbering around 200, since the early 1990s.
Pacheco said the two sides have caused numerous casualties, including the deaths of innocent people, some of them children. Both gangs are into narcotics trafficking, he said. The Eastside Riva's drug trade is largely managed by the Mexican Mafia from prison, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
A total of 650 law enforcement personnel served warrants on the residences of about 100 suspected gang members during the operation, authorities said.
"The damage we did was to the leadership of the gangs," said Pacheco.
"We were going after the top folks."
In addition to Riverside, suspects' homes in Beaumont, Mead Valley, Moreno Valley, Nuevo, Perris and Rubidoux were raided, according to the District Attorney's Office.
Pacheco said the sweep was the culmination of 14 months' work by the District Attorney's Office and the other agencies involved, with the goal of having "as large an impact as possible, in as many ways as possible."
The district attorney described the all-Hispanic Eastside Riva, numbering about 800, as Riverside's oldest and "most violent" street gang, at war with the 1200 Blocc Crips, an all-black gang numbering around 200, since the early 1990s.
Pacheco said the two sides have caused numerous casualties, including the deaths of innocent people, some of them children. Both gangs are into narcotics trafficking, he said. The Eastside Riva's drug trade is largely managed by the Mexican Mafia from prison, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Gang member and an innocent bystander shot in El Monte were hospitalized today and expected to survive, a police lieutenant said today.
The shooting occurred around 6:45 p.m. Sunday at Cogswell Road and Elliot Avenue, said El Monte police Lt. Ken Alva.One of the victims, a known gang member, was shot in the back and was believed to be the intended target, Alva said.The other victim was shot in the leg and was believed to be an innocent bystander.Both men were taken to a hospital and were expected to survive, Alva said.Police described the suspect's vehicle as a white Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck.
The shooting occurred around 6:45 p.m. Sunday at Cogswell Road and Elliot Avenue, said El Monte police Lt. Ken Alva.One of the victims, a known gang member, was shot in the back and was believed to be the intended target, Alva said.The other victim was shot in the leg and was believed to be an innocent bystander.Both men were taken to a hospital and were expected to survive, Alva said.Police described the suspect's vehicle as a white Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck.
leader of a Westside gang has an elaborate tattoo of a uniformed police officer being murdered inked across his back.
It depicts the officer falling backward while one man stomps on him from above and another fires at him with a gun. A masked face pointing a shotgun is below the officer, and "187 SBPD" is scrawled across Charles Owens Jr.'s shoulderblades.
The tattoo became a point of interest Monday in the criminal trial of Terrell Markham, an 18-year-old man charged with brandishing a firearm at a police officer, possessing a stolen gun and street terrorism.
At the end of a foot chase on Nov. 7, 2007, Officer Adam Affrunti shot Markham three times because he allegedly refused to obey commands and was pulling a gun out of his back pocket. Affrunti is the cop pictured in the ominous tattoo and Markham is associated with the Projects gang that Owens "held the keys to" when the shooting took place, testified San Bernardino Police Sgt. Travis Walker. Owens has reportedly held a grudge against Affrunti since 2004, when the then-new officer accidentally hit and killed Charles Owens Sr. as the man crossed Ninth Street. Affrunti, who said he saw the tattoo in 2007 before the Markham incident, testified that Owens never told him that he was the officer shown in the tattoo. He also said he did not feel like there was a hit on him because of the tattoo, as authorities have implied.
"I don't recall anybody telling me that they think there was a hit out on me," Affrunti said. The tattoo "was put on Mr. Owens' back after Officer Affrunti had his accident," Walker, a gang expert, told the jury. "This was out of anger at Officer Affrunti and members of the San Bernardino Police Department after his father's death."
In pre-trial motions, prosecutor Ron Webster argued that Markham had "a lot to be gained" by hurting Affrunti and suggested that the teen lured the officer into a dark courtyard and hid behind the bush with the intent to harm Affrunti.
Defense attorney Dale K. Galipo has denied that Markham knew about the tattoo or was carrying a gun that day. Authorities have said Markham was carrying a gun stolen from a federal agent's Victorville home, 1.3 miles from the house where Markham had recently moved. Trying to link Markham to top gang members and show the gang's pattern of violence toward police, the prosecutor asked Walker about a half dozen documented Projects gang members and one particular incident in January of 2007, where two gang members assaulted a pair of officers. Projects gang members have been known to strike back at police. In both 2003 and 2004, officers were shot at while driving through the gang's turf. "Killing a police officer is the ultimate way of obtaining status in any criminal street gang," Walker told the jury, adding that Owens' tattoo could prompt violence against Affrunti because "it would allow any member that cause harm to Officer Affrunti to gain ultimate status in this gang."
It depicts the officer falling backward while one man stomps on him from above and another fires at him with a gun. A masked face pointing a shotgun is below the officer, and "187 SBPD" is scrawled across Charles Owens Jr.'s shoulderblades.
The tattoo became a point of interest Monday in the criminal trial of Terrell Markham, an 18-year-old man charged with brandishing a firearm at a police officer, possessing a stolen gun and street terrorism.
At the end of a foot chase on Nov. 7, 2007, Officer Adam Affrunti shot Markham three times because he allegedly refused to obey commands and was pulling a gun out of his back pocket. Affrunti is the cop pictured in the ominous tattoo and Markham is associated with the Projects gang that Owens "held the keys to" when the shooting took place, testified San Bernardino Police Sgt. Travis Walker. Owens has reportedly held a grudge against Affrunti since 2004, when the then-new officer accidentally hit and killed Charles Owens Sr. as the man crossed Ninth Street. Affrunti, who said he saw the tattoo in 2007 before the Markham incident, testified that Owens never told him that he was the officer shown in the tattoo. He also said he did not feel like there was a hit on him because of the tattoo, as authorities have implied.
"I don't recall anybody telling me that they think there was a hit out on me," Affrunti said. The tattoo "was put on Mr. Owens' back after Officer Affrunti had his accident," Walker, a gang expert, told the jury. "This was out of anger at Officer Affrunti and members of the San Bernardino Police Department after his father's death."
In pre-trial motions, prosecutor Ron Webster argued that Markham had "a lot to be gained" by hurting Affrunti and suggested that the teen lured the officer into a dark courtyard and hid behind the bush with the intent to harm Affrunti.
Defense attorney Dale K. Galipo has denied that Markham knew about the tattoo or was carrying a gun that day. Authorities have said Markham was carrying a gun stolen from a federal agent's Victorville home, 1.3 miles from the house where Markham had recently moved. Trying to link Markham to top gang members and show the gang's pattern of violence toward police, the prosecutor asked Walker about a half dozen documented Projects gang members and one particular incident in January of 2007, where two gang members assaulted a pair of officers. Projects gang members have been known to strike back at police. In both 2003 and 2004, officers were shot at while driving through the gang's turf. "Killing a police officer is the ultimate way of obtaining status in any criminal street gang," Walker told the jury, adding that Owens' tattoo could prompt violence against Affrunti because "it would allow any member that cause harm to Officer Affrunti to gain ultimate status in this gang."
Smith, an alleged gang member with a record of drug arrests, glanced down the street at a marked police car handling the earlier shooting, according to police. Then he is alleged to have sworn at the officers, pulled a gun from underneath his jersey and placed it against Collier's head. Chatman said he immediately reached across his partner's chest and fired two shots at Smith.Smith disputes this account, saying that when he approached the van he took his empty hand from his pants pocket, and the officer shot at him. Chatman and Collier did not respond to requests for comments.After Chatman fired, Smith crumpled to the ground, then sprang up and ran.
The officers jumped from the van and chased Smith down the street. While running, Smith is alleged to have turned and fired a shot at the officers. Collier returned fire, but Smith kept running.Meanwhile, seven girls and young women were returning from a corner store. When they heard the shooting and saw Smith and the two undercover officers running toward them, they screamed and ran into a two-flat on the block, according to their statements to police.But the door inside the vestibule leading to one girl's basement apartment was locked. As they banged on the door, Smith ran up and pushed on the front door of the two-flat, which would not open, perhaps because the 4-by-7-foot vestibule was so crowded.Chatman and Collier would later say they never saw the girls. They said they watched as Smith repeatedly rammed his right shoulder into the front door while turning and pointing the pistol with his right hand at Collier.Collier, a former award-winning Army sharpshooter, fired twice at Smith. The door of the vestibule flew open, and police said Smith fell inside. Chatman heard female voices inside the building screaming, with one crying, "Don't hurt me!"A few seconds later, Collier cautiously approached the vestibule and peered down the steps leading to the basement apartment. He saw Smith lying at the bottom of the stairs and saw and heard the girls screaming.
Instead of handcuffing Smith, securing his gun and radioing for help, both officers, according to their statements to supervisors, left the scene. Collier ran down the street to seek backup, while Chatman sprinted back to the unmarked van and drove toward the rear of the two-flat. He later told supervisors he did so in case Smith tried escaping from a back door.Moments later, responding officers entered the front door and saw Smith at the bottom of the stairs, bleeding from bullet wounds in the chest, arm and leg. Inside the basement apartment were the seven young girls and women, including Chantel Davidson, 13, who was hit in the shoulder by a police bullet.When police did not find a gun on Smith, they searched the apartment. Warfield, who lived there, later testified that police cut open couches, tipped over the refrigerator and broke two TVs. Still, they found no gun.For the next several hours, officers scoured the street. At one point, more than 100 officers were on the block. A firetruck with powerful lights was brought out to illuminate the area, and a gun-sniffing police dog was summoned. But no weapon was found.The girls and young women later said in court filings that they were locked in interrogation rooms at the police station overnight, deprived of using the bathroom and threatened with arrest. One was so upset she called a TV station for help. The girls continued to say Smith did not have a gun.Finally, at 6:30 the next morning, police said they found an unregistered gun under a bush 40 yards down the street from the two-flat. Police officials immediately gathered to hold a "round table" meeting to determine if the shooting was justified.The panel, consisting of police and other law enforcement officials, heard several officers give statements. But only one girl was brought in to testify: a 15-year-old who, according to police, said she had seen Smith show her cousin a gun the afternoon of the shooting.After about an hour, the round table provided the Police Department's initial finding in the case, clearing the two officers of wrongdoing — without interviewing all the witnesses, examining fingerprints or analyzing ballistics evidence.
Not until the girls filed a lawsuit was the Police Department compelled to answer pointed questions about the shooting and produce crucial documents. Those records, along with depositions and trial transcripts, reveal that the police's initial version of events does not square with what officers later testified to in court.
For instance, when the round table cleared the officers, police Assistant Deputy Superintendent Patrick McNulty addressed the initial failure to find a gun by writing that Officers Chatman and Collier briefly left the scene and the building unguarded.
The officers jumped from the van and chased Smith down the street. While running, Smith is alleged to have turned and fired a shot at the officers. Collier returned fire, but Smith kept running.Meanwhile, seven girls and young women were returning from a corner store. When they heard the shooting and saw Smith and the two undercover officers running toward them, they screamed and ran into a two-flat on the block, according to their statements to police.But the door inside the vestibule leading to one girl's basement apartment was locked. As they banged on the door, Smith ran up and pushed on the front door of the two-flat, which would not open, perhaps because the 4-by-7-foot vestibule was so crowded.Chatman and Collier would later say they never saw the girls. They said they watched as Smith repeatedly rammed his right shoulder into the front door while turning and pointing the pistol with his right hand at Collier.Collier, a former award-winning Army sharpshooter, fired twice at Smith. The door of the vestibule flew open, and police said Smith fell inside. Chatman heard female voices inside the building screaming, with one crying, "Don't hurt me!"A few seconds later, Collier cautiously approached the vestibule and peered down the steps leading to the basement apartment. He saw Smith lying at the bottom of the stairs and saw and heard the girls screaming.
Instead of handcuffing Smith, securing his gun and radioing for help, both officers, according to their statements to supervisors, left the scene. Collier ran down the street to seek backup, while Chatman sprinted back to the unmarked van and drove toward the rear of the two-flat. He later told supervisors he did so in case Smith tried escaping from a back door.Moments later, responding officers entered the front door and saw Smith at the bottom of the stairs, bleeding from bullet wounds in the chest, arm and leg. Inside the basement apartment were the seven young girls and women, including Chantel Davidson, 13, who was hit in the shoulder by a police bullet.When police did not find a gun on Smith, they searched the apartment. Warfield, who lived there, later testified that police cut open couches, tipped over the refrigerator and broke two TVs. Still, they found no gun.For the next several hours, officers scoured the street. At one point, more than 100 officers were on the block. A firetruck with powerful lights was brought out to illuminate the area, and a gun-sniffing police dog was summoned. But no weapon was found.The girls and young women later said in court filings that they were locked in interrogation rooms at the police station overnight, deprived of using the bathroom and threatened with arrest. One was so upset she called a TV station for help. The girls continued to say Smith did not have a gun.Finally, at 6:30 the next morning, police said they found an unregistered gun under a bush 40 yards down the street from the two-flat. Police officials immediately gathered to hold a "round table" meeting to determine if the shooting was justified.The panel, consisting of police and other law enforcement officials, heard several officers give statements. But only one girl was brought in to testify: a 15-year-old who, according to police, said she had seen Smith show her cousin a gun the afternoon of the shooting.After about an hour, the round table provided the Police Department's initial finding in the case, clearing the two officers of wrongdoing — without interviewing all the witnesses, examining fingerprints or analyzing ballistics evidence.
Not until the girls filed a lawsuit was the Police Department compelled to answer pointed questions about the shooting and produce crucial documents. Those records, along with depositions and trial transcripts, reveal that the police's initial version of events does not square with what officers later testified to in court.
For instance, when the round table cleared the officers, police Assistant Deputy Superintendent Patrick McNulty addressed the initial failure to find a gun by writing that Officers Chatman and Collier briefly left the scene and the building unguarded.
For the last three years, no homicides have occurred in a remarkable patch of South Los Angeles. Measuring a mile wide from Hoover Street to Halldale Avenue and stretching from 73rd to 85th Street, it is an island encircled by the harsh realities of life in the urban core: One cannot walk a block outside its borders without coming across the site of a killing from the last three years.
The odd calm of the area is more striking when compared with a same-sized tract a mile directly to the south. There, on the grid of streets between 101st and 112th streets, 28 people were slain in the same time period. It is one of the deadliest neighborhoods in the county.These two starkly disparate realities were detected as part of The Times' ongoing effort to chronicle every homicide victim in Los Angeles County each year. On its website, the newspaper today launched a new version of the Homicide Report, which now allows readers to view the locations of homicides on maps, as well as analyze killings by various demographic factors. It is based on coroner's data and Times' reporting from the start of 2007 to the present.
The visual cues in the area that has been spared bloodshed, which is situated within the Vermont Knolls neighborhood, speak volumes. Most streets are lined with modest but appealing single-family houses. Frontyards often have no fences, the lawns are green and well-maintained. On recent days, a man meticulously swept the grass clippings off the sidewalk and young children rode scooters and bicycles without a parent to be seen.
There are some obvious reasons why this slice of Vermont Knolls is different. Over the last decade, an effort by the city and private investors has jump-started a rehabilitation of the commercial corridor along Vermont Avenue. Derelict buildings have slowly found tenants, pushing out people who once loitered and caused trouble, said Marqueece Harris-Dawson, president and chief executive of the Community Coalition, an influential advocacy group in the area.
Also, in the heart of the area is the Crenshaw Christian Center, a mega-church that occupies the old Pepperdine University campus stretching from Vermont to Normandie Avenue. The center dominates the landscape and serves as a hub for social activities and community outreach programs.
But other factors further separate the neighborhood from its more violent surroundings -- advantages that Harris-Dawson and others said cannot be easily repeated elsewhere.
The area is home, he said, to a generally older group of residents. The predominance of single-family homes instead of apartments means a less densely packed population and less turnover. And many in the neighborhood own their homes and have had roots in the area for generations.
The result is a place where people know each other, have an emotional and financial investment and don't take kindly to anything that might disturb the peace.
"We gently urge people to get the outside of their homes together. And if they don't keep them nice we'll send them a little note," said Lawrence Koonce Sr., who has lived on 81st Street for 43 years and is president of the local neighborhood watch group.
"People keep an eye out," he added, saying that residents have built close ties to the Los Angeles Police Department officers who patrol the area. Koonce, 64, recalled a neighbor who watched a suspicious-looking stranger knocking on doors a few weeks ago and called police when the person tried to break into a house.
And, for years, police have targeted the Hoover gang, the predominant criminal group in the area. Most recently, in July 2007, a yearlong LAPD investigation resulted in the arrest of 18 Hoover members suspected in an array of violent crimes. The clique had been using as a base the home of one member's grandmother in Vermont Knolls.
"Sometimes we fall asleep with the doors unlocked because it's so comfortable," said resident Marlene Turner.
A mile to the south, in the section of the Westmont neighborhood where 28 killings have occurred, residents live with no such sense of safety.
Densely packed, dreary apartment buildings catering to renters with Section 8 government subsidy vouchers are squeezed next to rundown houses that often have additional apartments added on. Real estate signs in front of boarded-up homes advertise foreclosure sales by banks. Street corners are dotted with liquor stores, coin-op laundries or small churches. The area, in many ways, is a cliche of urban blight.
On a recent day, two mothers sat perched on a cinder block wall keeping close watch over their children as they played on the sidewalk below. It was the same corner where Keith Orange, a 45-year-old black man, was shot to death a year ago, and a block away from seven other recent killings. Nearby, a group of several young black men sat on a stoop drinking from bottles of malt liquor. It is the type of place where a well-meaning resident greeted a reporter with the warning, "You shouldn't be here."
The level of violence is far less today than in the early 1990s, when the crack cocaine epidemic pushed homicide rates to more than double current numbers. The area, however, is still deadly.
"Walk outside at night? Oh, no, no, no," said Evette Robinson, a waitress who has lived in the area with her two teenage daughters for nine years.
As many as 15 different gangs vie for control of the streets in the three-quarter's of a square mile, and nearly all of the killings in the area are either known or suspected to be gang-related, said Chris Bergner, a sergeant in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's anti-gang unit, which struggles to control the neighborhood's streets. Gang territory can change from one block to the next and, unlike some neighborhoods where gangs fight to control drug sales on street corners, in this neighborhood there is relatively little drug dealing and blood is spilled over the smallest slights, whether real or perceived, Bergner and residents say."You've got these kids who just want to get a reputation, who kill just to be able to say they did it," said former gang member Ken Cunningham, who now owns a small plumbing company and ministers at a local church. "There's a mentality of 'When in Rome, we do as the Romans do.' "The victims in 21 of the 28 homicides were black men and women. Five were Latinos.Too often, said Bergner and other law enforcement officials, witnesses to killings and other violent crimes refuse to cooperate with police out of fear of retaliation from gangs. "You can know exactly who committed a murder, and it doesn't mean a thing because no one will say it aloud," Bergner said.
In interviews, several residents were largely supportive of gang injunctions in the area and other efforts by the Sheriff's Department, saying they wish for a greater police presence. But cops alone, many were quick to say, are not the solution. It is, they said, a neighborhood without any viable options to counter the pull of gangs. Unemployment is high and job training scarce. For youths, there is a dismal local high school, no parks, few after-school programs and little to do during the long summer months.
The killing of Joseph Watson stands as a sad reminder of such truths. The tall, quiet Washington Preparatory High School football player had tried to stay invisible to the gangs and follow the path of his stepfather, Jessie Adams, a retired cop. Whenever gang members shot at the boy or jumped him, Adams encouraged Watson to hang on. "I'd tell him, 'Keep it up, just keep it up.' " Watson, 17, died on the sidewalk on Budlong Street from multiple gunshot wounds on a January night in 2007. Police suspect he was killed by a local gang member as punishment for his refusal to join.
The odd calm of the area is more striking when compared with a same-sized tract a mile directly to the south. There, on the grid of streets between 101st and 112th streets, 28 people were slain in the same time period. It is one of the deadliest neighborhoods in the county.These two starkly disparate realities were detected as part of The Times' ongoing effort to chronicle every homicide victim in Los Angeles County each year. On its website, the newspaper today launched a new version of the Homicide Report, which now allows readers to view the locations of homicides on maps, as well as analyze killings by various demographic factors. It is based on coroner's data and Times' reporting from the start of 2007 to the present.
The visual cues in the area that has been spared bloodshed, which is situated within the Vermont Knolls neighborhood, speak volumes. Most streets are lined with modest but appealing single-family houses. Frontyards often have no fences, the lawns are green and well-maintained. On recent days, a man meticulously swept the grass clippings off the sidewalk and young children rode scooters and bicycles without a parent to be seen.
There are some obvious reasons why this slice of Vermont Knolls is different. Over the last decade, an effort by the city and private investors has jump-started a rehabilitation of the commercial corridor along Vermont Avenue. Derelict buildings have slowly found tenants, pushing out people who once loitered and caused trouble, said Marqueece Harris-Dawson, president and chief executive of the Community Coalition, an influential advocacy group in the area.
Also, in the heart of the area is the Crenshaw Christian Center, a mega-church that occupies the old Pepperdine University campus stretching from Vermont to Normandie Avenue. The center dominates the landscape and serves as a hub for social activities and community outreach programs.
But other factors further separate the neighborhood from its more violent surroundings -- advantages that Harris-Dawson and others said cannot be easily repeated elsewhere.
The area is home, he said, to a generally older group of residents. The predominance of single-family homes instead of apartments means a less densely packed population and less turnover. And many in the neighborhood own their homes and have had roots in the area for generations.
The result is a place where people know each other, have an emotional and financial investment and don't take kindly to anything that might disturb the peace.
"We gently urge people to get the outside of their homes together. And if they don't keep them nice we'll send them a little note," said Lawrence Koonce Sr., who has lived on 81st Street for 43 years and is president of the local neighborhood watch group.
"People keep an eye out," he added, saying that residents have built close ties to the Los Angeles Police Department officers who patrol the area. Koonce, 64, recalled a neighbor who watched a suspicious-looking stranger knocking on doors a few weeks ago and called police when the person tried to break into a house.
And, for years, police have targeted the Hoover gang, the predominant criminal group in the area. Most recently, in July 2007, a yearlong LAPD investigation resulted in the arrest of 18 Hoover members suspected in an array of violent crimes. The clique had been using as a base the home of one member's grandmother in Vermont Knolls.
"Sometimes we fall asleep with the doors unlocked because it's so comfortable," said resident Marlene Turner.
A mile to the south, in the section of the Westmont neighborhood where 28 killings have occurred, residents live with no such sense of safety.
Densely packed, dreary apartment buildings catering to renters with Section 8 government subsidy vouchers are squeezed next to rundown houses that often have additional apartments added on. Real estate signs in front of boarded-up homes advertise foreclosure sales by banks. Street corners are dotted with liquor stores, coin-op laundries or small churches. The area, in many ways, is a cliche of urban blight.
On a recent day, two mothers sat perched on a cinder block wall keeping close watch over their children as they played on the sidewalk below. It was the same corner where Keith Orange, a 45-year-old black man, was shot to death a year ago, and a block away from seven other recent killings. Nearby, a group of several young black men sat on a stoop drinking from bottles of malt liquor. It is the type of place where a well-meaning resident greeted a reporter with the warning, "You shouldn't be here."
The level of violence is far less today than in the early 1990s, when the crack cocaine epidemic pushed homicide rates to more than double current numbers. The area, however, is still deadly.
"Walk outside at night? Oh, no, no, no," said Evette Robinson, a waitress who has lived in the area with her two teenage daughters for nine years.
As many as 15 different gangs vie for control of the streets in the three-quarter's of a square mile, and nearly all of the killings in the area are either known or suspected to be gang-related, said Chris Bergner, a sergeant in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's anti-gang unit, which struggles to control the neighborhood's streets. Gang territory can change from one block to the next and, unlike some neighborhoods where gangs fight to control drug sales on street corners, in this neighborhood there is relatively little drug dealing and blood is spilled over the smallest slights, whether real or perceived, Bergner and residents say."You've got these kids who just want to get a reputation, who kill just to be able to say they did it," said former gang member Ken Cunningham, who now owns a small plumbing company and ministers at a local church. "There's a mentality of 'When in Rome, we do as the Romans do.' "The victims in 21 of the 28 homicides were black men and women. Five were Latinos.Too often, said Bergner and other law enforcement officials, witnesses to killings and other violent crimes refuse to cooperate with police out of fear of retaliation from gangs. "You can know exactly who committed a murder, and it doesn't mean a thing because no one will say it aloud," Bergner said.
In interviews, several residents were largely supportive of gang injunctions in the area and other efforts by the Sheriff's Department, saying they wish for a greater police presence. But cops alone, many were quick to say, are not the solution. It is, they said, a neighborhood without any viable options to counter the pull of gangs. Unemployment is high and job training scarce. For youths, there is a dismal local high school, no parks, few after-school programs and little to do during the long summer months.
The killing of Joseph Watson stands as a sad reminder of such truths. The tall, quiet Washington Preparatory High School football player had tried to stay invisible to the gangs and follow the path of his stepfather, Jessie Adams, a retired cop. Whenever gang members shot at the boy or jumped him, Adams encouraged Watson to hang on. "I'd tell him, 'Keep it up, just keep it up.' " Watson, 17, died on the sidewalk on Budlong Street from multiple gunshot wounds on a January night in 2007. Police suspect he was killed by a local gang member as punishment for his refusal to join.
Two suspected gang members were in custody and a third was being sought by Santa Rosa police early Monday following a fight between feuding gangs in Rincon Valley late Sunday night.Numerous callers reported a fight on Charmian Drive at about 10:30 p.m. Sunday. Witnesses said they saw a traffic collision followed by several males outside of the two cars and a fight.Officers determined the fight on Charmian between the two gangs had started with an assault with a deadly weapon at nearby Tanglewood Park between Sureno and Norteno gangs members, reported Sgt. Alissa Johnson.Sgt. Johnson said two Sureno members were assaulted by three Norteno gang members at the park. Weapons used included bats.Afterward, everyone left the park with the victims chasing the others to Charmian Drive where the two vehicles collided.Gang officers arrested Alfonso Velasquez, 18 and Daniel Ramos, 20, both of Santa Rosa. They were taken to Sonoma County Jail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, felony vandalism and participating in a criminal street gang.A 17-year-old Santa Rosa teen suspected of being part of the assault remained at large early Monday.
No one was hospitalized in the incident, police said.
No one was hospitalized in the incident, police said.
The shooting occurred shortly after midnight on Jan. 24, in the 1600 block of West 60th Place. Detectives say a man later identified as Dontae Cotton, had just returned home and was walking from his parked vehicle toward his home. A suspicious vehicle stopped in the street; a gunman emerged, confronted Cotton and shot him several times. Mr. Cotton was hit and collapsed on the side of his residence. Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics rushed him to a local hospital where he died. The suspect was last seen driving westbound on 60th Place.
20-year-old is a member of the Benkard Barrio Kings street gang, according to a source familiar with the incident. The attackers are believed to belong to the rival La Eme. Police Lt. Charles Broe would confirm only that police suspect the attack may be gang-related.
Police have also described the stabbing death of Levi King Flores as possibly gang-related. The 17-year-old died Jan. 13 after an afternoon street fight. A 13-year-old faces a manslaughter charge in Flores' death.
La Eme and BBK members were involved in that fight, according to numerous community sources. Police braced for retaliation, but the streets were quiet until Sunday night's stabbing. The 20-year-old is expected to live and told police he could probably identify his attackers.
Police have also described the stabbing death of Levi King Flores as possibly gang-related. The 17-year-old died Jan. 13 after an afternoon street fight. A 13-year-old faces a manslaughter charge in Flores' death.
La Eme and BBK members were involved in that fight, according to numerous community sources. Police braced for retaliation, but the streets were quiet until Sunday night's stabbing. The 20-year-old is expected to live and told police he could probably identify his attackers.
"He was a very violent, unpredictable individual with animal cunning.
Kevin "Gerbil" Carroll was one of Scotland's top 15 police targets, The Daniel clan enforcer, who was assassinated in an Asda car park, featured prominently in a mapping exercise designed to establish the true scale of organised crime.Commissioned by the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, the pioneering project identified 367 organised crime groups made up of 4066 individuals.They were ranked in order of the threat, risk and harm they pose to communities.The underworld Who's Who is highly confidential but we have been told Carroll featured in the top 15.As well as the national premier league of crime, each police force has its own list to allow officers to home in on the Mr Bigs.And we understand Carroll was one of Strathclyde Police's top 10 targets. Jamie Daniel, the grandfather of Carroll's two sons, is in the top five for the whole of Scotland.The exact make-up of the secret list is known to only a select few.A police source said: "Carroll was one of Scotland's most dangerous criminals and many people breathed a sigh of relief when he was killed."His murder leaves a vacuum but nobody is chomping at the bit to become the next Gerbil."Drug boss Carroll, 29, had been on the police radar since his teens but in recent years he had built a fearsome reputation.Our source added: "Even five years ago, when he was 24, he was a significant criminal player on the north side of Glasgow."We had to deploy a lot of resources in a bid to manage him. This included armed operations based on the intelligence we were getting."
Strathclyde detectives are now working round the clock in a bid to trace, interview and eliminate a lengthy list of individuals from the murder probe.Carroll is best known for playing a leading role in one of Scotland's most bloody gangland feuds.
Our source said: "He was a complete rocket. In the whole war between the Lyons and Daniel clans Carroll was the most unpredictable element."He heightened tensions because of the way he conducted himself and he was the one who could tip the whole thing into chaos."We know he was an arch enemy of the Lyons' but it is essential to keep an open mind at this stage of the inquiry."Underworld sources have even suggested the murder could be an inside job.
Liability Our source added: "Could it be that the Daniel clan felt he had become a liability?"It is not outwith the bounds of possibility."
Carroll's criminal behaviour, especially a recent spate of kidnappings, also left him with scores of enemies.
The mob led by Gerbil were dubbed the alien abduction gang as the victims, who were dragged from their homes then tortured, told police they could not remember anything.
Our source drew comparisons between Gerbil and another murdered gangland enforcer, Joe "Bananas" Hanlon.Bobby Glover, 31, and Hanlon, 23, were shot dead in 1991 in a revenge attack for the assassination of crime godfather Arthur Thompson's son, Arthur Jnr.
The pair were killed because they were allies of former Thompson enforcer Paul Ferris, who was blamed by the crime boss for his son's murder.
Our source said: "Hanlon had a similar nature to Carroll in that he was also very violent and unpredictable."Although Gerbil was a significant underworld figure, Crown Off ice investigators are still trying to establish how much he was worth.
Our source said: "He might have been a pay-as-you-go ned who earned it and spent it.
"Or he may have squirrelled away a fortune amassed through drugs, fraud and money laundering."At this stage, we don't know the true scale of his wealth."
Carroll is survived by his partner, Jamie Daniel's daughter Kelly Green, 29. The couple, who lived in Lennoxtown, Dunbartonshire, have two sons, aged six years and eight months.Gerbil was shot dead as he sat in the back of a black Audi in the car park of Asda in Robroyston, Glasgow around 1.30pm on Wednesday January 13.
Police have revealed more than 10 shots were fired at Carroll as horrified shoppers looked on.The three-man hit squad then sped off in a dark blue Volkswagen Golf, which is believed to have travelled east along the M80.The stolen car was later found burnt out in Yetts Hole Road, Glenmavis, Airdrie.
22-year-old Danish man, suspected of mowing down a prominent member of the AK81 motorcycle gang with his vehicle last year, has been arrested in Egypt.
Egyptian police received tips about the man from Copenhagen Police and following the arrest, Danish officers have gone to Egypt to retrieve the suspect. The police say the young man is a member of one of the city’s immigrant gangs, who have been battling the motorcycle gangs for control of the city’s drug trade.
The 22-year-old man will reportedly be charged with attempted murder, after he allegedly ran down the AK81 member on Jagtvej, a road in the city’s Nørrebro district in April 2009. The victim, who according to police has connections to leading Hells Angels member Jørn ‘Jønke’ Nielsen, suffered fractures to his pelvis and both arms.
Since the incident, police had been looking for ‘two foreigners’ who witnesses say were in the vehicle. An 18-year-old man, who was allegedly the passenger in the car, was arrested not long after the incident and charged with complicity to attempted murder.
The alleged driver is expected to arrive in Denmark on Tuesday night and will face a preliminary hearing for the charges on Wednesday.
Egyptian police received tips about the man from Copenhagen Police and following the arrest, Danish officers have gone to Egypt to retrieve the suspect. The police say the young man is a member of one of the city’s immigrant gangs, who have been battling the motorcycle gangs for control of the city’s drug trade.
The 22-year-old man will reportedly be charged with attempted murder, after he allegedly ran down the AK81 member on Jagtvej, a road in the city’s Nørrebro district in April 2009. The victim, who according to police has connections to leading Hells Angels member Jørn ‘Jønke’ Nielsen, suffered fractures to his pelvis and both arms.
Since the incident, police had been looking for ‘two foreigners’ who witnesses say were in the vehicle. An 18-year-old man, who was allegedly the passenger in the car, was arrested not long after the incident and charged with complicity to attempted murder.
The alleged driver is expected to arrive in Denmark on Tuesday night and will face a preliminary hearing for the charges on Wednesday.
Reputed capo Dino (Big Dino) Calabro is alleged to be one of the shooters who gunned down the off-duty housing cop outside his Sheepshead Bay home in 1997.
Feds have cut a deal with a Colombo hit man accused of murdering NYPD cop Ralph Dols because he married another gangster's ex-wife.FBI agents moved Calabro's family out of their Long Island home and into the witness protection program yesterday, sources familiar with the case.The brazen killing of a cop - usually forbidden by the Mafia in the U.S. - was allegedly ordered by then-Colombo boss Joel (Joe Waverly) Cacace, who felt disrespected by Dols, his ex-wife Kim's fourth husband.
Calabro, 43, who was born in Italy, is the second member of the alleged hit team to flip. The alleged getaway driver Joseph (Joey Caves) Competiello began cooperating with the government in 2008."This really solidifies the Dols case," said a knowledgeable source.
Calabro's co-defendants have suspected for months that he was looking for a way out of the seven murders he is charged with in a federal indictment. He could have faced the death penalty for blowing away Dols.Sources said Calabro was a no-show at defense strategy meetings at the Metropolitan Detention Center, claiming he hadn't been invited. "He finally showed up, and it was very awkward," said a lawyer.Calabro's lawyer Richard Jasper did not return calls. A spokesman for the Brooklyn U.S. attorney's office also declined to comment
Feds have cut a deal with a Colombo hit man accused of murdering NYPD cop Ralph Dols because he married another gangster's ex-wife.FBI agents moved Calabro's family out of their Long Island home and into the witness protection program yesterday, sources familiar with the case.The brazen killing of a cop - usually forbidden by the Mafia in the U.S. - was allegedly ordered by then-Colombo boss Joel (Joe Waverly) Cacace, who felt disrespected by Dols, his ex-wife Kim's fourth husband.
Calabro, 43, who was born in Italy, is the second member of the alleged hit team to flip. The alleged getaway driver Joseph (Joey Caves) Competiello began cooperating with the government in 2008."This really solidifies the Dols case," said a knowledgeable source.
Calabro's co-defendants have suspected for months that he was looking for a way out of the seven murders he is charged with in a federal indictment. He could have faced the death penalty for blowing away Dols.Sources said Calabro was a no-show at defense strategy meetings at the Metropolitan Detention Center, claiming he hadn't been invited. "He finally showed up, and it was very awkward," said a lawyer.Calabro's lawyer Richard Jasper did not return calls. A spokesman for the Brooklyn U.S. attorney's office also declined to comment
Jaime Ayala, 18, pleaded guilty to gang participation as a member of the 18th Street Gang and assault and battery by a mob for the Feb. 28 fight. That night several people jumped out of a white van and assaulted another group at a party at the community center. That white van was later seen by a witness near where the Bennetts were attacked and is what led investigators to link the crimes.Wearing the orange and white jump suit of the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center, Ayala pleaded guilty to the two charges. There is no agreement from the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office on sentencing, but prosecutors did agree to reduce the charge of malicious wounding to assault and battery by mob.He will face final sentencing on those charges at 9 a.m., Friday, April 23.Ayala had also been expected to plead to a series of charges stemming from a home-invasion robbery on March 27 of last year. In that case he faces two counts of robbery with a gun, two counts of using a firearm while committing a felony and two counts of abduction. That case will come back before the court Monday, Feb. 15, for scheduling.The other suspect charged in that case is scheduled to stand trial later that week.
Ayala, who was 17 at the time of all three incidents, has been charged as an adult in all three cases. He was facing first degree murder charges for the death of William Bennett, but the charge was not pursued by the commonwealth after questions were raised about whether his age had been established adequately during preliminary hearings in juvenile court.Prosecutors said while they were confident with their case, they did not want to risk any chance for appeal if Ayala was convicted. Murder charges are expected to be refilled in that case.
Former gang member Lim Eng Soon, known as Black Panther in gangster circles, subsequently died of his injuries on Monday afternoon, almost 12 hours after the vicious attack.His wife, who wanted to be known only as Madam Lim, sustained cuts to her arm and chest. The 46-year-old declined to give their occupations, but it is believed Mr Lim was a cleaner.She said that on Sunday night, her husband, who is in his late thirties, headed out to meet a 'brother' - understood to be an old gang friend - near Block 144, Teck Whye Lane near Choa Chu Kang.Madam Lim said his friend wanted to see him about an important matter. She joined her husband and his friend some time past 11pm, and the three decided to have supper at a nearby coffee shop.
But while they were walking to the coffee shop, a man suddenly appeared from behind, and began hitting the friend with an umbrella.
But while they were walking to the coffee shop, a man suddenly appeared from behind, and began hitting the friend with an umbrella.
16-year-old gang member has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for his part in beating and stabbing another teen to death in Sultan.Jaime Santana pleaded guilty in November to second-degree murder and was sentenced Monday in Everett.Three other people have pleaded guilty and received sentences of 10 to 15 years. One more defendant awaits trial for the June attack on 17-year-old Antonio Marks of Marysville near the Sultan City Hall.The Daily Herald of Everett reports all of the accused are believed to be members of a Sultan gang called Brown Pride Soldiers. Marks was believed to belong to a rival gang called the Southland Villains.
Hector Portillo, a member of the international MS-13 street gang, was sentenced to 38 years’ imprisonment by United States District Judge Sterling Johnson at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn. Portillo previously pleaded guilty to racketeering, including predicate acts of murder and attempted murder. After serving the term of incarceration, Portillo is subject to deportation to El Salvador.The sentencing was announced by Benton J. Campbell, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.As detailed in the superseding indictment and other court filings by the government, beginning in 2000, Portillo was a soldier of MS-13, also known as “La Mara Salvatrucha,” and engaged in a series of violent crimes in Flushing, New York, including conspiracy to murder and assault members of rival gangs, such as the Crips, the Bloods, and the Latin Kings. At his previous guilty plea, Portillo admitted that he and other gang members sought to retaliate against members of the Bloods gang for an earlier altercation, during which Portillo was stabbed. During the early morning hours of Christmas Eve 2006, Portillo and another gang member approached a group of youths whom Portillo believed to be rival Bloods gang members, including the person who had stabbed Portillo. Portillo shot Pashad Gray multiple times at close range, only later learning that Gray was not the individual who had stabbed him. Gray died of his wounds. Portillo was also convicted of participating in a drive-by shooting in February 2006, during which a teenager was shot, but survived.“Violent street gangs such as MS-13 prey on our community and relish the beating, stabbing, and shooting of perceived rivals, with disregard for bystanders caught in their cross-hairs,” stated United States Attorney Campbell. “Today’s sentence reflects the severity of such crimes and affirms our unwavering commitment to dismantle street gangs street gangs and bring their members to justice.” Mr. Campbell extended his grateful appreciation to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”), the Queens County District Attorney’s Office, the New York City Police Department, and the New York City Department of Probation for their assistance in this case.MS-13 is the largest street gang on Long Island. Over the past five years, investigations by the United States Attorney’s Office, ICE, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the NYPD have solved multiple murders on Long Island and in New York City, and resulted in felony convictions of more than a dozen MS-13 leaders and 120 MS-13 soldiers.The government’s case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Jason A. Jones, Ali Kazemi, and Marshall L. Miller.
looking for “Black Pat” police raided his house in the Hill neighborhood in late August and found a stash of drugs, cash and gang recruitment pamphlets.
Most troubling to police was the trove of materials glorifying the culture of the organization known as the “Grape Street Crips.” The Grape Street Crips — a copycat of a violent Los Angeles gang of the same name — had been confined to the Hill neighborhood about six blocks south of Yale’s Medical School campus, and police were determined not to let them expand.Although police doubt the presence of the El Salvadoran gang in the New Haven area, some buildings in Fair Haven have been tagged with graffiti bearing the gang's name.On Aug. 27, members of the New Haven Police Department’s Tactical Narcotics Unit acted on their suspicions and burst into “Black Pat’s” house. Pat, 27, whose real name is Patrick Brown and who is also called “Pizzy,” was nowhere to be found. But the drugs netted the arrest warrants police needed to put Brown behind bars — if they could ever catch him.
Police continued surveillance of the 15- to 20-person gang, arresting another member for a murder in September. But Brown — the gang’s leader — continued to elude capture. Acting on a tip, detectives finally caught Brown after surrounding him in his Chevy Equinox on Orchard Street on Oct. 21. They sealed the block, expecting trouble, but Brown gave up without a fight.The Crips have been relatively quiet in New Haven ever since, according to police. But they are but one of the many gang factions police are now fighting in New Haven. Like a game of whack-a-mole, the New Haven police frequently quash gangs that pop up around the city. But even after a successful strike, another gang always emerges, police say. According to interviews with six New Haven police officials and two outside gang experts, a complex and fluid network of street gangs inhabit the city’s neighborhoods, with constantly shifting allegiances and dealings.While police say few if any gangs have actual ties to national gangs — even if they share a name, such as the Crips — they remain just as dangerous to the city. For example, police said local gangs are behind a majority of drug crimes in the city, a majority of shootings and a significant portion of robberies.
The NHPD now has arguably the most aggressive stance against gangs in decades. Meanwhile, local gangs have showed a greater interest in identifying with larger, more organized national groups such as the Bloods and Crips. Under the direction of soon-to-retire Police Chief James Lewis, the police have taken a tough stance against gangs, but no official doubted that despite the city’s best efforts, gangs are here to stay in the Elm City.
Most troubling to police was the trove of materials glorifying the culture of the organization known as the “Grape Street Crips.” The Grape Street Crips — a copycat of a violent Los Angeles gang of the same name — had been confined to the Hill neighborhood about six blocks south of Yale’s Medical School campus, and police were determined not to let them expand.Although police doubt the presence of the El Salvadoran gang in the New Haven area, some buildings in Fair Haven have been tagged with graffiti bearing the gang's name.On Aug. 27, members of the New Haven Police Department’s Tactical Narcotics Unit acted on their suspicions and burst into “Black Pat’s” house. Pat, 27, whose real name is Patrick Brown and who is also called “Pizzy,” was nowhere to be found. But the drugs netted the arrest warrants police needed to put Brown behind bars — if they could ever catch him.
Police continued surveillance of the 15- to 20-person gang, arresting another member for a murder in September. But Brown — the gang’s leader — continued to elude capture. Acting on a tip, detectives finally caught Brown after surrounding him in his Chevy Equinox on Orchard Street on Oct. 21. They sealed the block, expecting trouble, but Brown gave up without a fight.The Crips have been relatively quiet in New Haven ever since, according to police. But they are but one of the many gang factions police are now fighting in New Haven. Like a game of whack-a-mole, the New Haven police frequently quash gangs that pop up around the city. But even after a successful strike, another gang always emerges, police say. According to interviews with six New Haven police officials and two outside gang experts, a complex and fluid network of street gangs inhabit the city’s neighborhoods, with constantly shifting allegiances and dealings.While police say few if any gangs have actual ties to national gangs — even if they share a name, such as the Crips — they remain just as dangerous to the city. For example, police said local gangs are behind a majority of drug crimes in the city, a majority of shootings and a significant portion of robberies.
The NHPD now has arguably the most aggressive stance against gangs in decades. Meanwhile, local gangs have showed a greater interest in identifying with larger, more organized national groups such as the Bloods and Crips. Under the direction of soon-to-retire Police Chief James Lewis, the police have taken a tough stance against gangs, but no official doubted that despite the city’s best efforts, gangs are here to stay in the Elm City.
man died and another was seriously injured in a shooting which took place on the Francisco de la las Cabezas roundabout in Madrid, next to the Hotel Puerta de Madrid.
It’s in the San Blas area to the east of the capital.Reports say several people arrived at the scene by foot at around 8pm on Thursday evening. They shot at two people inside a car and then fled the scene.The dead man is named as Dimitrio N. aged 35 from Albania. He was shot twice and died despite ambulance workers trying to reanimate him for 30 minutes. The injured man is named as Domart K., also from Albania.A police statement says that everything points to a gang settling of scores.
Harjinder Singh Sandhu, 28, and Puneet Singh Chhina, 26, were killed here last May and their bodies were found in the trunk of their car in Pickering city near Toronto. man has been arrested on charges of killing two Sikh men of the Toronto area last year.Police said Friday that they have arrested John Le, 38, of Durham on the outskirts of Toronto for allegedly killing the two men. He faces charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping, forcible confinement and use of firearms in the crime, police said, adding that more arrests were likely soon. Though police said the killings had the pattern of a gangland-type hit, it is speculated that the Sikh men were killed over some unpaid cocaine debt. Investigations have revealed that the two men had gone together May 4 last year for a meeting in north Toronto where they were killed. Their bodies were dumped in the trunk of their car and driven to Pickering city outside Toronto. After leaving their bodies in the vehicle, the killers escaped in another vehicle. The bodies were discovered next day. Police were able to track the route taken by the killers from the cell phones of the victims. From the DNA of the alleged killer found on the bodies of the victims, police were able find clues leading them to the suspect last month. A possibly unpaid cocaine debt might have led to the crime because 28-year-old Sandhu was facing drug charges for smuggling 30 kg of cocaine – valued at $3.8 million – into Canada from the US in his truck in 2007. Chhina too was a truck driver but out of work at the time of his murder.
Their alleged killer was remanded to custody by court Friday.
Their alleged killer was remanded to custody by court Friday.
RCMP have accused a Vernon, B.C., lawyer of being involved with organized crime. Authorities arrested the lawyer Friday morning and charged him with participation in activities of a criminal organization. They say the lawyer was involved with "The Greeks," an Okanagan-based group that has five members in custody on three homicide charges. The Greeks are known to have dealings with the Calgary chapter of the Hells Angels and a Kelowna chapter of the Hells Angels, and are suspected of having ties to the UN gang in the Lower Mainland. William Mastop, 43, is scheduled to appear in court in Vancouver on Monday
RCMP have accused a Vernon, B.C., lawyer of being involved with organized crime. Authorities arrested the lawyer Friday morning and charged him with participation in activities of a criminal organization. They say the lawyer was involved with "The Greeks," an Okanagan-based group that has five members in custody on three homicide charges. The Greeks are known to have dealings with the Calgary chapter of the Hells Angels and a Kelowna chapter of the Hells Angels, and are suspected of having ties to the UN gang in the Lower Mainland. William Mastop, 43, is scheduled to appear in court in Vancouver on Monday
23 inmates have been killed after a fight at a jail in Durango, northern Mexico, officials say.Police believe the inmates were members of rival drugs gangs, Reuters news agency reported.But prison spokeswoman Carla Puente was quoted by the Associated Press as saying she did not know the cause of the fighting.Thousands of people have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico over the past few years.
“There are 23 dead, all inmates,” Durango army head General Moises Melo Garcia told Reuters.He said the situation in the prison was “now back under control”.Ms Puente said some people had also been injured in the brawl, which was ended by prison guards and armed soldiers.The prison was reported to house more than 2,000 inmates.
War declaredThe state of Durango has been the scene of clashes between the rival Gulf and Sinaloa drug cartels in recent months.The drugs trade in the region is controlled by the Sinaloa cartel, reportedly led by Mexico’s most-wanted man, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.At least 19 inmates died in another prison brawl in Durango in August 2009, which officials said had been sparked by gang rivalries.
President Felipe Calderon has declared war on the illegal narcotic organisations in Mexico, deploying 40,000 troops to fight the cartels.
“There are 23 dead, all inmates,” Durango army head General Moises Melo Garcia told Reuters.He said the situation in the prison was “now back under control”.Ms Puente said some people had also been injured in the brawl, which was ended by prison guards and armed soldiers.The prison was reported to house more than 2,000 inmates.
War declaredThe state of Durango has been the scene of clashes between the rival Gulf and Sinaloa drug cartels in recent months.The drugs trade in the region is controlled by the Sinaloa cartel, reportedly led by Mexico’s most-wanted man, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.At least 19 inmates died in another prison brawl in Durango in August 2009, which officials said had been sparked by gang rivalries.
President Felipe Calderon has declared war on the illegal narcotic organisations in Mexico, deploying 40,000 troops to fight the cartels.
convicted a gang member of holding the victim of a robbery upside and slitting his throat during a home invasion robbery.The victim survived to testify against Shawn Richard Monro, who turns 28 Friday. He will be sentenced Tuesday, Jan. 26, at 9 a.m.The trial took more than two weeks. The jury convicted the defendant of 18 felony counts including:
The charges stem from a series of robberies and the attempted aggravated murder of a Eugene man during a home-invasion robbery near Cal Young Middle School.
Monro attempted to kill this victim by slitting his throat with a knife while positioning him head down to bleed him out.
The trial included testimony witnesses who were Westside Gangsters and Gangster Disciple members at the time of the offenses, most of whom are currently serving prison sentences for their roles in these crimes and others. The crimes were investigated by a team led by Eugene Police Department detectives in the course of a multi-year investigation into related gang activities in October of 2006. Other participants in the Eugene home invasion robbery included Paul McCloskey, Robert Jablonski and Michael Vaughan. They are all serving Measure 11 prison sentences. This crime spree culminated in the gang related murder of Noah Thacker by Michael Anthony Vaughan. The day following the Eugene home invasion, Vaughan executed Thacker and then lit his body and apartment on fire. In 2008 Michael Vaughan pled guilty to aggravated murder and was sentenced to life in prison.
The charges stem from a series of robberies and the attempted aggravated murder of a Eugene man during a home-invasion robbery near Cal Young Middle School.
Monro attempted to kill this victim by slitting his throat with a knife while positioning him head down to bleed him out.
The trial included testimony witnesses who were Westside Gangsters and Gangster Disciple members at the time of the offenses, most of whom are currently serving prison sentences for their roles in these crimes and others. The crimes were investigated by a team led by Eugene Police Department detectives in the course of a multi-year investigation into related gang activities in October of 2006. Other participants in the Eugene home invasion robbery included Paul McCloskey, Robert Jablonski and Michael Vaughan. They are all serving Measure 11 prison sentences. This crime spree culminated in the gang related murder of Noah Thacker by Michael Anthony Vaughan. The day following the Eugene home invasion, Vaughan executed Thacker and then lit his body and apartment on fire. In 2008 Michael Vaughan pled guilty to aggravated murder and was sentenced to life in prison.
Brothers Austin Cochran, 18, and Dylan Cochran, 17, both of Spartanburg, are members of the Gangster Disciple gang. Investigators said the brothers and a third boy, not named because he is a juvenile, began threatening the boy who wanted to get out of the gang on New Year's EvJennifer Lynn Garcia is charged as a conspirator with the Cochrans and the juvenile.The mother of the boy went to deputies and told them that she had received several threatening phone calls from Austin Cochran's cell phone in which he said he would come to their home with a gun.The mother said on Jan. 1, the motion light on the front of her home came on, and when she looked out, she saw Dylan Cochran and Garcia parked in front of her home, causing her to fear for her family's safety.The woman said that on Jan. 5, as she and her boyfriend were going to pick up their son, Dylan Cochran and Garcia pulled up next to them and Cochran motioned with his hand as if to shoot the woman.Austin and Dylan Cochran are charged with gang-related soliciting, recruiting, coercing or threatening a person under 18 years. Garcia is charged with criminal conspiracy.
In exchange for the plea, several charges were dropped, including attempted homicide, recklessly endangering another person, carrying a firearm without a permit and tampering with evidence. According to court documents:Martin shot at Shekir Thomas and Sharnell Thomas multiple times near the intersection of N. Sixth and Liberty streets in Allentown around 11:20 p.m. Nov. 6, 2006.Witnesses said Martin fled the scene and gave police a license plate number. The vehicle was stopped at Lehigh Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard minutes after the shooting and the driver, Derrick Lamb, was nabbed for having a pair of brass knuckles and cocaine on him, police said. Martin, a passenger in the car, was identified by witnesses as the shooter. Police said the shooting was gang-related and noted they found red bandannas, red hats, a red beaded bracelet and a red cell phone in the car, according to court documents. But the Lehigh County district attorney's office wouldn't say this week if Martin is a member of the Bloods street gang.
Martin is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 23 by Judge James T. Anthony. Lamb, 29, of Allentown pleaded guilty in July to possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and was sentenced in August to 10 to 23 months in jail followed by 12 months of probation. Lamb, who received credit for time served in jail since his arrest in November 2008, was paroled in September, according to court records.
Martin is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 23 by Judge James T. Anthony. Lamb, 29, of Allentown pleaded guilty in July to possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and was sentenced in August to 10 to 23 months in jail followed by 12 months of probation. Lamb, who received credit for time served in jail since his arrest in November 2008, was paroled in September, according to court records.
charged with three felonies in connection with the shooting death of a teen on Myrtle Avenue. John Saway, 25, and Santa Ana resident Sarith Yin, 22, on Tuesday joined four others facing similar charges.Juan Carlos Rodriguez, 16, was shot in the upper back early Jan. 10 during a party at an apartment on Myrtle Avenue in Tustin. Friends pulled him into the apartment, where police found him dead two hours later.
Saway and Yin are charged with murder, street terrorism and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.They are charged with sentencing enhancements for a gang member discharging a firearm causing death, criminal street gang activity and murder committed for a street gang purpose. Yin pleaded guilty in January 2008 to attempted burglary of a commercial building and street terrorism, and was sentenced to 16 months in state prison and restitution. Saway in January 2007 pleaded guilty to receiving a stolen vehicle while having a prior felony conviction, evading a peace officer and reckless driving and possession of a firearm by a felon.
In the same case, Yin pleaded guilty to criminal street gang possession of burglary instruments or tools. Both men were sentenced to one year in state prison, according to court records.
In March 2005, Saway pleaded guilty to stealing a vehicle, buying or receiving a stolen vehicle or equipment, and evading a peace officer and reckless driving, according to court records. He was sentenced to two years in state prison, 210 days in jail, restitution and three years' probation. In December 2003, he pleaded guilty to unlawful taking of a vehicle and possession of controlled substance paraphernalia. Yin also had a court history including guilty pleas to unlawful taking of a vehicle and buying or receiving stolen equipment in November 2005 and attempted burglary of a business and street terrorism from July 2006.
Saway and Yin were found by detectives inside a vehicle in Long Beach, police said, and were wanted by their parole officers. Ravy Nhem, 20; Pablo Kachirisky, 21; Steven Kao, 21; and David Escobar, 20, also have been charged with felonies for murder and street terrorism, with sentencing enhancements making them eligible for the death penalty, according to Lt. Tom Tarpley of the Tustin Police Department.The men are being held without bail. The enhancements are murder committed for a criminal street gang, criminal street gang activity and a gang member discharging a firearm causing death, Tarpley said.
Karrina Hernandez, 21, of Tustin, is charged with being an accessory to murder, police said.
Saway and Yin are charged with murder, street terrorism and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.They are charged with sentencing enhancements for a gang member discharging a firearm causing death, criminal street gang activity and murder committed for a street gang purpose. Yin pleaded guilty in January 2008 to attempted burglary of a commercial building and street terrorism, and was sentenced to 16 months in state prison and restitution. Saway in January 2007 pleaded guilty to receiving a stolen vehicle while having a prior felony conviction, evading a peace officer and reckless driving and possession of a firearm by a felon.
In the same case, Yin pleaded guilty to criminal street gang possession of burglary instruments or tools. Both men were sentenced to one year in state prison, according to court records.
In March 2005, Saway pleaded guilty to stealing a vehicle, buying or receiving a stolen vehicle or equipment, and evading a peace officer and reckless driving, according to court records. He was sentenced to two years in state prison, 210 days in jail, restitution and three years' probation. In December 2003, he pleaded guilty to unlawful taking of a vehicle and possession of controlled substance paraphernalia. Yin also had a court history including guilty pleas to unlawful taking of a vehicle and buying or receiving stolen equipment in November 2005 and attempted burglary of a business and street terrorism from July 2006.
Saway and Yin were found by detectives inside a vehicle in Long Beach, police said, and were wanted by their parole officers. Ravy Nhem, 20; Pablo Kachirisky, 21; Steven Kao, 21; and David Escobar, 20, also have been charged with felonies for murder and street terrorism, with sentencing enhancements making them eligible for the death penalty, according to Lt. Tom Tarpley of the Tustin Police Department.The men are being held without bail. The enhancements are murder committed for a criminal street gang, criminal street gang activity and a gang member discharging a firearm causing death, Tarpley said.
Karrina Hernandez, 21, of Tustin, is charged with being an accessory to murder, police said.
Police in Italy say they have arrested a man linked to a car packed with explosives found near the site of an anti-mafia summit meeting.The discovery of the vehicle near a Calabrian airport follows a bomb attack earlier this month on the town of Reggio Calabria's main courthouse, Italy's ANSA news agency reported Friday.
A government spokesman said the car contained primed bombs, a liter of diesel fuel, two handguns, two rifles, three ski masks and rubber gloves.They suspect the vehicle was abandoned because the area was being searched in advance of an anti-organized crime meeting attended by President Giorgio Napolitano.Police say the man they arrested has links to the 'Ndrangheta mafia, considered Italy's strongest.
The government has cracked down on 'Ndrangheta since the assassination of a leading regional official in 2005.
A government spokesman said the car contained primed bombs, a liter of diesel fuel, two handguns, two rifles, three ski masks and rubber gloves.They suspect the vehicle was abandoned because the area was being searched in advance of an anti-organized crime meeting attended by President Giorgio Napolitano.Police say the man they arrested has links to the 'Ndrangheta mafia, considered Italy's strongest.
The government has cracked down on 'Ndrangheta since the assassination of a leading regional official in 2005.
16-year-old Visalia boy was arrested Thursday in connection with the attempted murder of a Tulare boy shot Saturday while playing football in Visalia’s Mill Creek Park.Investigators learned the identity of the suspect several days ago and had been searching for the youth since then, according to a police spokesman.
He is a suspected gang member and the shooting appears to have been gang-related, the spokesman said.The suspect was taken into custody without incident and booked at Tulare County Juvenile Hall, officials said.On Saturday the 16-year-old victim was playing football with friends when a young male walked into the area just before 1 p.m. and fired several rounds into the group, police said.The victim, who was hit in the chest, was taken to Kaweah Delta Medical Center, where on Tuesday he was reported in stable condition.The names of the victim and suspect were withheld by authorities because they are minors.
He is a suspected gang member and the shooting appears to have been gang-related, the spokesman said.The suspect was taken into custody without incident and booked at Tulare County Juvenile Hall, officials said.On Saturday the 16-year-old victim was playing football with friends when a young male walked into the area just before 1 p.m. and fired several rounds into the group, police said.The victim, who was hit in the chest, was taken to Kaweah Delta Medical Center, where on Tuesday he was reported in stable condition.The names of the victim and suspect were withheld by authorities because they are minors.
Michael Sammon, 49, was the head of a gang which converted hundreds of cheap flare guns into deadly weapons at an engineering factory in Ancoats, Manchester, before selling them on at a vast profit. He had "grandiose" plans to set up another factory in Spain.Many of the altered firearms have been traced to shootings, assaults and armed robberies throughout the country resulting in at least two fatalities, including the death of 12-year-old Kamilah Peniston who was accidentally shot in the head by her teenage brother, Kasha, in Gorton, Manchester. The weapon had been kept at the family home of their mother, Natasha, by her boyfriend.
More than 270 of the blank-firing alarm flare guns were bought in Germany for €50 (£43) each and smuggled into the UK by ferry. Once converted, the handguns fetched up to £750 on the black market. Most were recovered but 100 remain unaccounted for.
Sammon, known in criminal circles as Mickey the Fish, was convicted at Manchester crown court of conspiring to possess, import, modify and circulate the firearms, with 30 months to run concurrently for passport offences.Judge Martin Steiger said he was a ruthless and manipulative "merchant of death" who had squandered his talents on crime. The consequences of the trade in firearms, were "sadly evident on the streets of Manchester, day in day out".He said: "One hundred of the guns are still in circulation, waiting to do their lethal work to innocent victims."Five men were sentenced in 2006 for their part in the racket but Sammon, who had been on the run since 1997 after being convicted of a multi-million pound fraud, remained at large until June 2008.Factory owner David McCulloch gave evidence against the rest of the gang and received a reduced sentence of six years in November 2006. The court heard today that the operation could not have been executed without the engineering skill and expertise of McCulloch.Sammon used two fake passports, changed his name and changed his appearance several times before he was traced to a caravan park in Hampshire, where his girlfriend was the manageress.Fiona McIntyre, 42, a former pub landlady from Glasgow, was jailed alongside him for a total of 30 months for assisting an offender and passport offences.Said to be a "devoted mistress" to Sammon, although she was believed to be one of several, she had harboured him at Southsea Leisure Park while he was on the run and had showed a bogus passport to police when they came looking for him.
Sammon had criminal convictions dating back to 1976, but most related to dishonesty and none to guns. He evaded police for 11 years, despite his relative visibility - owning a number of shops selling tools in Derby, across the Midlands and more recently in Blackpool under the false name of John Eugene McDonagh. He vanished from police radar in 1997 when he was convicted of serious fraud. He was sentenced to four years in jail in his absence.Greater Manchester police described the gun-smuggling racket as one of Britain's largest. Detective Sergeant Jim Gray, of Greater Manchester police's Xcalibre organised crime unit, said: "It has taken a long time and a lot of hard work to catch up with Sammon."Detective Superintendent Geoff Wessell said: "These cases can be incredibly complex but we will not stop until everyone involved in the crime is made to face justice."
40 to 50 members of the African Mafia street gang.It's being submitted as evidence at a sentencing for Thon Guot and Mayen Madit.The two are high-ranking gang members who were convicted of trafficking cocaine.The Free Press reported this August both were accused of legally delaying their sentencing hearings to draw out their time on Canadian soil.Both will be deported back to Africa once their sentences expire.
Though the African Mafia is not as organized as gangs like the Manitoba Hells Angels, Howanyk said the gang is "heavily submersed" in the city's drug trade and will continue to operate."Members and associates of the African mafia have adopted quickly and have learned through having contact with the police and being involved in the court process how to be more criminally savvy," says the report. It says police have difficulty dealing with gang's intimidation of victims and witnesses for fear of reprisal and a rule among members not to cooperate with officers.
It notes African Mafia members and associates live mainly in the city's downtown or West End, but some members live in areas like Fort Garry and Charleswood.
The report also notes that the African Mafia rivals another city street gang, B-Side. The two use different types of graffiti to mark out areas they consider to be their turf. Two new splinter groups have formed off the African Mafia due to internal conflicts, the report notes."These two new street gangs are primarily involved in drug trafficking and other criminal (activities)," says the report.
Though the African Mafia is not as organized as gangs like the Manitoba Hells Angels, Howanyk said the gang is "heavily submersed" in the city's drug trade and will continue to operate."Members and associates of the African mafia have adopted quickly and have learned through having contact with the police and being involved in the court process how to be more criminally savvy," says the report. It says police have difficulty dealing with gang's intimidation of victims and witnesses for fear of reprisal and a rule among members not to cooperate with officers.
It notes African Mafia members and associates live mainly in the city's downtown or West End, but some members live in areas like Fort Garry and Charleswood.
The report also notes that the African Mafia rivals another city street gang, B-Side. The two use different types of graffiti to mark out areas they consider to be their turf. Two new splinter groups have formed off the African Mafia due to internal conflicts, the report notes."These two new street gangs are primarily involved in drug trafficking and other criminal (activities)," says the report.
list of Jamaicas 12 most wanted men, who are said to be armed and dangerous,bounty of $1 million on each for members of the public, who can provide information leading to their arrests.
■24-year old Eldon Calvert of no fixed address, who is wanted on several counts of murder and shootings committed in 2005 and 2006. He frequents a number of communities in St. James among them Salt Spring, Glendevon, Norwood, Flankers, Lilliput.
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■Cedric Murray, otherwise called Paul Brown and Dogie, who is wanted for a triple murder in Montego Bay in February 2006.
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■Wayne Dryden, along with his brothers Deon and Linton, age 34, 32, and 29 years, respectively. They are wanted for the double murder of Elaine and Christine Chin committed in February 2006 in Bog Walk St. Catherine.
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■Wilberforce Matterson, otherwise known as Cracker, is wanted for murder, shooting and robbery. He hails from Lesser Portmore Villa, Gregory Park, Portmore.
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■Kemor Brooks, otherwise known as Problem Child, is wanted on four counts of murder committed between April 2006 and March 2007. He hails from Greenwich Town, Kingston 3 and frequents the Denham Town, Tivoli Gardens, downtown Kingston, May Pen and Montego Bay areas.
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■Lincoln Powell otherwise known as Harry Dog from Brook Valley, Duhaney Park, Kingston 20, is on the run for the murder of Detective Corporal Dave Daley committed in Brook Valley on February 12.
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■Carey Rose, otherwise known as Tyson, is the youngest on the list at age 19. He is wanted for the murder of another police officer, Detective Sergeant Egerton Brown along Sundown Crescent, Kingston in September of this year. He hails from a Kingston 11 address and is said to frequent such areas as Dunrobin Avenue, Australia Road, Yancey Place, Balcombe Drive, Olympic Way, and Sundown Crescent.
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■Gerald Taylor, otherwise known as Rado, is wanted for murder and shooting. He hails from Glendevon, St. James.
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■Richard Brown otherwise known as ‘Jesus’ and ‘Jessie’, is about 20 years old and has been a fugitive of justice. Accused of murder and shooting, he hails from Sunlight Street and frequents this area as well as Maxfield Avenue and Jones Town.
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■Robert Brown, otherwise known as Denero of 8 Dunmair Close, Kingston 19 and Quarry Heights, Papine is 26 years old, and is being sought in connection with murder on Red Hills Road in June and shooting on Karl Samuda Boulevard in July.
Charged with murder in the June 2009 stabbing death of 19-year-old Joshua Moore is a “confirmed” Bloods gang member, according to court records based on information supplied from Cumberland County Jail.Marvin German Jr., 19, of Coral Avenue in Bridgeton, was indicted for first-degree murder.He was also indicted for third-degree aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, third-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and third-degree unlawful possession of a weapon, for allegedly having in his possession the knife used to stab Moore to death during a June 12, 2009, fight on Nichols Street in Bridgeton.German is being held on $800,000 bail at Cumberland County Jail, where jail officials said an investigation resulted in the jail confirming his gang affiliation.The information connecting German to the Bloods street gang can be accessed from the public information terminal at the Cumberland County Courthouse.A girlfriend of Moore said last year that she anticipated police would try and portray the stabbing as gang-related, but denied this was the case.The same source at the county courthouse shows German is facing drug charges pertaining to an incident which occurred a day after Moore’s death.
Moore was stabbed during an altercation in an alleyway located between two rows of homes in the Bridgeton Commons (HOPE VI) housing development, between East Avenue and Walnut Street, north of Irving Avenue.He was pronounced dead shortly after midnight June 13. He had been stabbed once in the upper torso — the knife pierced his heart.German was arrested about two weeks after the incident after interviews with dozens of people allegedly at the scene of the crime.Court records show German has a past record of drug, burglary and assault charges, all of which have been either dismissed or downgraded.
Moore was stabbed during an altercation in an alleyway located between two rows of homes in the Bridgeton Commons (HOPE VI) housing development, between East Avenue and Walnut Street, north of Irving Avenue.He was pronounced dead shortly after midnight June 13. He had been stabbed once in the upper torso — the knife pierced his heart.German was arrested about two weeks after the incident after interviews with dozens of people allegedly at the scene of the crime.Court records show German has a past record of drug, burglary and assault charges, all of which have been either dismissed or downgraded.
Shots rang out in North Portland Sunday afternoon.Portland Police Bureau responded to the scene of a reported shooting at McCuller Apartments, 236 N. Killingsworth St., around 3:40 p.m.The bureau has now released a press release on the incident. It reports that officers arrived and "determined that no one had been injured," according to the Portland Police Bureau press release.However, Gang Enforcement Officers also were called and have begun their own investigation. That gang investigation "is ongoing," according to the release.
Atlanta police said Sunday that a violent street gang took a major blow after nine of their members were arrested. The arrests happened after smash-and-grab burglaries targeting two Atlanta businesses Sunday morning.Police said they arrested nine of the gang's members. Investigators said the suspects can be seen on surveillance video breaking into one of the store's around 3:00 a.m. Sunday."The gang, 30 Deep, we believe is a fairly significant blow to that organization and it is our intent to bring gang related charges against all those individuals," said Dep. Chief Calvin Moss of the Atlanta Police Department.Investigators said two adults and seven juveniles with connections to 30 Deep were put behind bars. Police said the nine suspects are responsible for stealing at least two cars and then using those vehicles to crash into two businesses so they could steal high-priced merchandise.
Police said the suspects broke into one store in southwest Atlanta and another in Underground Atlanta."The two vehicles that were stolen this morning and then used in the smash-and-grab, we believe it's their M.O. to carjack citizens, take their vehicle and then use them in the break-ins," said Dep. Chief Moss.Detectives said it is likely that the nine suspects who were arrested will be linked to other violent crimes in the metro area.Police said they are now looking for a green older model Pontiac Grand Prix and more arrests are possible."Some of the people this morning were a young as 14 years of age, we've had younger. It's very disappointing and something the citizens of Atlanta should be concerned about," said Moss.Police said each smash-and-grab caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage to the business involved. The gang 30 Deep an alleged member was accused of murdering a bartender at a pub in Grant Park.The killing of John Henderson at the Standard Food & Spirits on Memorial Drive on Jan. 7 last year sparked outrage and a community backlash against crime that influenced the mayoral election. Happenstance led to the arrest of Jonathan Redding, 17, of Atlanta, in connection with the murder.Two days after Henderson was shot dead in the robbery, Redding and his friends forced their way into a southwest Atlanta home and got into a gun battle with the homeowner, prosecutors have said. Redding was shot in the shoulder, prosecutors said, and left a gun at the house with his blood on it. Detectives later linked the gun to Redding with a DNA test and tied the weapon to Henderson's murder with a ballistics test, prosecutors said.
Police said Redding, who had the number "30″ tattooed on his cheek, was a member of 30 Deep, and that he had several, as yet uncaught, accomplices in the robbery at the Standard.Since being tied to the killing, the gang, reportedly based in Mechanicsville near Turner Field, has gotten a lot of police attention.
In December, officers arrested two adults and four juveniles in connection with "smash and grab" burglaries of two southwest Atlanta shoestores. The police said two of the suspects were members of 30 Deep.
A week earlier, police nabbed six other alleged members of 30 Deep. That time four adults and two juveniles were arrested in connection with smash and grab heists at several high-end mall stores in and around Atlanta.In July, Atlanta police arrested two men after a high-speed chase and linked them to an attempted break-in at a Midtown clothing boutique that had been hit previously by burglars who made off with thousands of dollars worth of high-end blue jeans and other clothing. Police said both their suspects were members of 30 Deep.And back in May, a week after Redding's arrest in the murder at the Standard, Atlanta police recovered stolen flat-screen televisions and blue jeans from a boutique burglary while arresting several alleged members of 30 Deep.
Police said the suspects broke into one store in southwest Atlanta and another in Underground Atlanta."The two vehicles that were stolen this morning and then used in the smash-and-grab, we believe it's their M.O. to carjack citizens, take their vehicle and then use them in the break-ins," said Dep. Chief Moss.Detectives said it is likely that the nine suspects who were arrested will be linked to other violent crimes in the metro area.Police said they are now looking for a green older model Pontiac Grand Prix and more arrests are possible."Some of the people this morning were a young as 14 years of age, we've had younger. It's very disappointing and something the citizens of Atlanta should be concerned about," said Moss.Police said each smash-and-grab caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage to the business involved. The gang 30 Deep an alleged member was accused of murdering a bartender at a pub in Grant Park.The killing of John Henderson at the Standard Food & Spirits on Memorial Drive on Jan. 7 last year sparked outrage and a community backlash against crime that influenced the mayoral election. Happenstance led to the arrest of Jonathan Redding, 17, of Atlanta, in connection with the murder.Two days after Henderson was shot dead in the robbery, Redding and his friends forced their way into a southwest Atlanta home and got into a gun battle with the homeowner, prosecutors have said. Redding was shot in the shoulder, prosecutors said, and left a gun at the house with his blood on it. Detectives later linked the gun to Redding with a DNA test and tied the weapon to Henderson's murder with a ballistics test, prosecutors said.
Police said Redding, who had the number "30″ tattooed on his cheek, was a member of 30 Deep, and that he had several, as yet uncaught, accomplices in the robbery at the Standard.Since being tied to the killing, the gang, reportedly based in Mechanicsville near Turner Field, has gotten a lot of police attention.
In December, officers arrested two adults and four juveniles in connection with "smash and grab" burglaries of two southwest Atlanta shoestores. The police said two of the suspects were members of 30 Deep.
A week earlier, police nabbed six other alleged members of 30 Deep. That time four adults and two juveniles were arrested in connection with smash and grab heists at several high-end mall stores in and around Atlanta.In July, Atlanta police arrested two men after a high-speed chase and linked them to an attempted break-in at a Midtown clothing boutique that had been hit previously by burglars who made off with thousands of dollars worth of high-end blue jeans and other clothing. Police said both their suspects were members of 30 Deep.And back in May, a week after Redding's arrest in the murder at the Standard, Atlanta police recovered stolen flat-screen televisions and blue jeans from a boutique burglary while arresting several alleged members of 30 Deep.
“I’ve had gang members from rich families, grew up in a $400,000 home and both parents were at home,” he says, noting that many parents are shocked to learn that their children are heavily involved with criminal gangs. “It comes down to parents being parents … and that’s not just with gangs. It can be with any dangerous behavior.”
It was around 10 o’clock on a Sunday night when shots rang out from somewhere beyond the garage of the Lithonia home. Bullets and shotgun shells rained into the two-story house on Browns Mill Ferry Road. There was shouting, confusion, and then it was over. No one was harmed, but investigators quickly determined that a local gang was responsible for the mayhem. Five teenagers would eventually be arrested on aggravated assault, criminal damage to property and gun charges. The next day, the nearby Supreme Fish Delight and American Deli restaurants were robbed at gunpoint. The perpetrators were two of the same teenagers arrested for the Browns Mill home shooting, along with two other accomplices.Two months later, on nearby Shellbark Road, a pedestrian was beaten by a gang of five young males, who pummeled him to the ground with their fists and an assault rifle. DeKalb County prosecutors now believe these crimes, as well as a number of other incidents dating back to 2006, are the work of a violent street gang known as Da Fam. Over the past year, amid calls for better policing by Atlanta mayoral candidates, high profile murders, and the roundup of members of a Mechanicsville-based street gang called 30 Deep—believed to be involved in the murder of Grant Park bartender John Henderson—Atlantans have become much more familiar with the concept of gang crime, despite a confusing insistence by some leaders that the city is safer than ever. One thing, however, is clear to all sides of the crime discussion: Atlanta’s gangs are very real, very dangerous and not bound by city limits or the Perimeter. For years, Atlanta’s suburban neighbors have struggled to deal with young people practicing violent habits with no respect for the law. Sgt. Danny Jordan, a supervisor with the DeKalb County Police Department's 13-member gang unit, says Da Fam is just one of approximately 200 gangs currently operating in DeKalb . The number includes sets as small as three people operating independently or under the banner of larger street gangs. Jordan says cooperation between metro law enforcement agencies is integral to prosecuting gangs that operate across jurisdictional lines. “We share a lot of information through intelligence bulletins that we send out over e-mail, routinely updating each other on trends,” he says.
Jordan’s unit chalked up some success last month, when DeKalb County issued a 95-count indictment of 14 gang members (pictured with this article), all in their late teens to early 20s. The young males are accused of crimes committed between 2006 and 2009, most of which occurred east of the Perimeter between I-20 and Stone Mountain Freeway. According to the DeKalb County District Attorney’s office, each of the accused has ties to alleged gang Da Fam, an association that binds them together under charges of violating Georgia’s Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act. If they are convicted, the gang law could tack on additional prison time and a fine of as much as $15,000 apiece.Investigator Jose Diaz, with the Gwinnett County District Attorney’s Office, is the Northern Region Vice President of the Georgia Gang Investigators Association (GGIA). He says the Gang Act under which DeKalb has indicted the alleged Da Fam members has become an invaluable tool for law enforcement in Georgia and represents a necessary change to the legislation prosecutors had to rely on before 2006. He says older Georgia laws aimed at street gangs were almost all modeled after legislation intended to break down La Cosa Nostra-like organizations with well-defined hierarchical structures and what could be described as effective criminal business models. Under the old rules, Diaz says, the prosecution would have to prove that any crime attributed to a gang was perpetrated with the specific intent of furthering the goals of the criminal enterprise.
“They’d pretty much have to confess that ‘Yeah, I was doing this armed robbery to get money for our gang to buy guns,’ or to buy cars or to buy houses,” he says.The Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act makes it easier for prosecutors to establish a criminal link between members of gangs and to present their various criminal acts together in court. Although the act was unanimously upheld by the Georgia Supreme Court last year, it is not without its critics. DeKalb County Assistant Public Defender Corinne Mull calls the law “extremely vague.”Mull represented a minor charged with murder, aggravated assault and gang violations stemming from his alleged ties to the national 18th Street Gang. She helped take his case to the Georgia Supreme Court, arguing that the Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act is unconstitutional.
“IN REALITY, IT’S MEANINGLESS”
“It could, and still does, permit any grouping of people to be treated as a gang, and leaves it at the discretion of the prosecutor,” says Mull. In addition to being too vague, Mull sees the Gang Act as a public relations tool for Georgia law enforcement, giving citizens a sense that the government is doing something about the state’s gang problem, without generating any real effect. “We frighten people enough, we’ve generated more money, more people are getting paid,” she says. “The DA’s office gets more money, prisons get more money. Bottom line, those people are still going to jail, they’re going to jail for the same amount of time. Nothing new is happening. “In reality,” she continues, “it’s meaningless.”Meanwhile, Mull says adding additional time for criminals who could be locked up indefinitely without the help of a gang charge is another fruitless practice encouraged by the gang act.
“They’re sort of punishing people in the grave,” she says. “[A gang could] go out and armed rob a night club. You can give them a life sentence for that and keep them there for life. What else is going to be achieved by saying ‘They’re a gang?’ Life plus 15?”
Mike Carlson, chief assistant district attorney for the DeKalb DA’s office, sees the Gang Act as anything but frivolous. Carlson has become well known in Georgia’s law enforcement community as the founding head of the DeKalb DA’s Gang Unit, established in 2007. He appeared on the History Channel program “Gangland” to discuss the activities of national gang SUR 13 in DeKalb County. His gang prosecution unit was presented with the 2009 President’s Award by the Georgia Gang Investigators Association for its success in prosecuting gang-related crime as well as for Carlson’s role in defending the Gang Act before the Georgia Supreme Court.
The Gang Act, he says, allows prosecutors to present a jury with a broad pattern of criminal behavior displayed through the defendant’s ties to a criminal enterprise such as a youth street gang.
“Without [the Gang Act],” Carlson says, “that additional evidence as to the context might not be admissible.”
Carlson adds in an e-mail follow-up, “By taking advantage of the flexibility afforded by the Gang Act, the DeKalb County District Attorney's Office has had considerable success in fighting criminal street gangs and for all intents and purposes shutting down Black Mobb.”
Black Mobb, an Eastside rival of Da Fam, saw the imprisonment this year of Darrel “Squirt” Curney, the 21-year-old whom the DeKalb DA’s office believes to be the gang’s leader. Curney pleaded guilty to nine counts of participation in criminal street gang activity and was sentenced to 15 years in prison and another 15 on probation.The Gang Act says “the State of Georgia is in a state of crisis which has been caused by violent street gangs whose members threaten, terrorize, and commit a multitude of crimes against the peaceful citizens of their neighborhoods.”
Georgia is not alone. The National Gang Threat Summary, released in 2009 by the National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC), states that “Approximately 1 million gang members belonging to more than 20,000 gangs were criminally active within all 50 states and the District of Columbia as of September 2008.”The assessment goes on to note that between 2004 and 2008, areas that were previously unaffected by criminal street gangs have increasingly played host to gang activity as gangs have migrated into suburban and rural communities. The NGIC estimates that nearly 10,000 gangs with more than 172,000 members are currently operating in the Southeast, and predicts the region will see an increase in influence of traditional national Hispanic gangs in the near future. National gangs like SUR 13 and MS 13 have already established a presence in metro Atlanta.
Investigator Diaz, fresh from the GGIA’s monthly gang intelligence meeting, says although warnings of an increased presence of national gangs in Atlanta are troubling, the loosely organized hybrid gangs permeating Atlanta itself already pose unique difficulties to law enforcement.
“The boundaries of turf are not as defined as in other areas,” says Diaz. “It’s a good thing and a bad thing.”
It’s good because individual gangs, for the most part, have not been able to establish themselves as an indelible part of most local communities. However, it can be problematic for investigators when they’re looking for members of a specific gang.
“If I want to talk to them, it would be much easier [to have them within specific boundaries],” says Diaz, “because I’d already know where most of them hang out and where they live.” Metro Atlanta’s rising position as an East Coast drug hub has only helped fuel local gangs’ propensity for committing criminal acts. Members of local gangs, says Diaz, are perfectly suited to enter the ground-level drug trade as transporters and distributors once a large supply of illicit drugs becomes readily available.
“Gangs already have some type of organization,” he says. “It’s a group of kids that are not really scared of going out and committing crimes, they’re not scared to use violence. A lot of them are under the age of 17.”Diaz stresses that arrests alone won’t solve the region’s gang problem. Without strong efforts within the community to educate citizens and deter youth from going astray, the best law enforcement can hope to do is temporarily disrupt the activities of criminal street gangs. He uses 2000 to 2001 as an example. During that period, roughly 50 Georgia members of La Famila, many of them high ranking and influential, were federally indicted. “It created a void for a while, but unfortunately a lot of these groups see that [power vacuum] as an opportunity rather than a deterrent.” Diaz is quick to note that more than any economic or environmental issues, strong parental supervision is the biggest factor in keeping Georgia’s youth out of trouble.
The alleged victims include some of the biggest Hollywood A-listers, including Orlando Bloom, Megan Fox, Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan. In total, the gang is believed to have bagged more than $3m worth of loot, mainly jewellery.It has also brought together a murky tale that seems to combine many of the dominant themes of cultural angst in America: the boredom of the young and rich; the fetishisation of fame; and the disappearance of privacy in the wake of Google, Facebook and Twitter.The hearing this week will see four of the Bling Ring up in court for preliminary hearings on the evidence against them, kicking off what many observers feel will be a dramatic legal case.Certainly the accused are not stereotypical burglars. Instead they are young, relatively well off and linked to the Hollywood social scene which they stand accused of exploiting. One of them, Alexis Neiers, 18, was arrested while she was on the set of a pilot for a reality television show that she was filming. Her sister is a Playboy model. Another, Nick Prugo, 19, appeared in a 2003 film called Little Lost Souls.The neighbourhood from which the gang mostly hailed is also an atypical hotbed of criminal activity. Most of the gang knew each other from the wealthy suburb of Calabasas, 30 minutes' drive away from Hollywood Hills, where most of the celebrity victims lived.
Far from being crime-ridden, Calabasas boasts several stars among its residents, including actor Will Smith and reality TV star Kourtney Kardashian.
Though it has been reported that some of the stolen goods were fenced for cash, the members of the gang were also allegedly spotted wearing much of their loot, especially the jewellery and watches that had belonged to the stars."They came from privileged backgrounds. These people were not conducting crimes because they needed the money or the stolen goods. They did it probably for the thrill of it," said Elizabeth Kelley, a criminal defence attorney who has been following the case.The gang's modus operandi seems disarmingly simple, police say, comprising merely consulting gossip websites such as TMZ or supermarket tabloids to check the latest fashions and designer jewels being worn by Hollywood's young stars. They would then use the same websites, and social media tools such as Twitter, on which many young stars post constant updates, to see if potential targets were out of town. In particular, they employed a website called Celebrityaddressaerial.com, which displays photographs of celebrity houses. It is meant for the simply curious, but for the Bling Ring it allegedly became a tool for choosing their next victim. "The internet has meant a new era for the criminal mind. There is more and more information out there, but there is less privacy," said Kelley.Thanks to online research, the gang could strike knowing that the target was not at home. It is alleged that some celebrities, including actress Rachel Bilson and Paris Hilton, were hit more than once. In most cases the burglars found that doors had been left unlocked. The gang's hauls could be spectacular. In July 2009 Bloom was relieved of $500,000 of jewellery, watches and other goods.
While only the trial will reveal the strength of the prosecution and defence cases, either way the Bling Ring did not seem to have covered its tracks as carefully as it planned its strikes. Prugo is reported to have told investigators that artwork stolen from Bloom was hanging in one of his friend's bathrooms, while photographs have emerged of some gang members posing in stolen jewellery. They also kept personal photographs of Hilton and personal items from Lohan and Audrina Partridge, a reality TV actress on the MTV show The Hills.So far, about $2m of merchandise has been recovered. "It as if they were cut off from reality. It's something that began on things like Facebook, but it is going to end with them wearing handcuffs," said celebrity interviewer and author Gayl Murphy.The case also reads like a movie script, which probably won't upset the accused. "I wouldn't be surprised if there were two or three screenplays already being written with just this plot," said Murphy.
Far from being crime-ridden, Calabasas boasts several stars among its residents, including actor Will Smith and reality TV star Kourtney Kardashian.
Though it has been reported that some of the stolen goods were fenced for cash, the members of the gang were also allegedly spotted wearing much of their loot, especially the jewellery and watches that had belonged to the stars."They came from privileged backgrounds. These people were not conducting crimes because they needed the money or the stolen goods. They did it probably for the thrill of it," said Elizabeth Kelley, a criminal defence attorney who has been following the case.The gang's modus operandi seems disarmingly simple, police say, comprising merely consulting gossip websites such as TMZ or supermarket tabloids to check the latest fashions and designer jewels being worn by Hollywood's young stars. They would then use the same websites, and social media tools such as Twitter, on which many young stars post constant updates, to see if potential targets were out of town. In particular, they employed a website called Celebrityaddressaerial.com, which displays photographs of celebrity houses. It is meant for the simply curious, but for the Bling Ring it allegedly became a tool for choosing their next victim. "The internet has meant a new era for the criminal mind. There is more and more information out there, but there is less privacy," said Kelley.Thanks to online research, the gang could strike knowing that the target was not at home. It is alleged that some celebrities, including actress Rachel Bilson and Paris Hilton, were hit more than once. In most cases the burglars found that doors had been left unlocked. The gang's hauls could be spectacular. In July 2009 Bloom was relieved of $500,000 of jewellery, watches and other goods.
While only the trial will reveal the strength of the prosecution and defence cases, either way the Bling Ring did not seem to have covered its tracks as carefully as it planned its strikes. Prugo is reported to have told investigators that artwork stolen from Bloom was hanging in one of his friend's bathrooms, while photographs have emerged of some gang members posing in stolen jewellery. They also kept personal photographs of Hilton and personal items from Lohan and Audrina Partridge, a reality TV actress on the MTV show The Hills.So far, about $2m of merchandise has been recovered. "It as if they were cut off from reality. It's something that began on things like Facebook, but it is going to end with them wearing handcuffs," said celebrity interviewer and author Gayl Murphy.The case also reads like a movie script, which probably won't upset the accused. "I wouldn't be surprised if there were two or three screenplays already being written with just this plot," said Murphy.
The Prosecutor's Office had charged Marinov with being the leader of an organized crime group in charge of drug dealing in Sofia.According to the Court, there is no evidence that the Big Marguin is associated with the group in question. It decided to release him immediately.The other defendant Stefan Bonev, aka Sako, however, was left behind bars. The third defendant - Milen Aleksiev - was also released on bail.The court believes that the only evidence against Krasimir Marinov was the testimony of one of a man called Tihomir Georgiev, who has himself been arrested for leading an organized drug dealing group. After his arrest, he accused Marinov of this crime.This is the second significant charge against Krasimir Marinov in several days which has not been upheld by the court. Marinov has been charged with plotting the murder of controversial journalist Bobi Tsankov, who was shot dead in Sofia on January 5, 2010, but the court rejected the demand of the prosecutors that he be left behind bars.
Two alleged members of the Chulos 18 street gang were arrested early today in connection with the stabbing of a Yonkers man, police said.The victim, age 21, suffered a knife wound to the back and was being treated at St. Joseph's Medical Center in Yonkers, city police said.The stabbing occurred at about 1:15 a.m. in the vicinity of 257 S. Broadway and police were called about 15 minutes later. Responding to the scene, officers saw two suspects, one of whom was seen dropping a gravity knife to the pavement. Both men were arrested.Yonkers residents Omar Tapia, 26, and Jose Fuentes, 20, were charged with second-degree attempted assault, a felony, and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon and second-degree menacing, misdemeanors. They were being held in the city jail, pending arraignment Monday.
No further details were immediately available.
No further details were immediately available.
TOURISTS visiting Los Angeles now have a choice between snooping around stars' homes in the Hollywood Hills and gawking at gang members' homes in South Central.
LA Gang Tours was due to take its first group of eager onlookers overnight around sites like the LA County Jail, Skid Row, home to 90,000 homeless people, and the birthplace of the Black Panther Party. The company's website says it aims to
The man behind the concept, former gang member Alfred Lomas, 45, also hopes to create jobs for residents of the areas the tour goes through and will give a percentage of profits back to the community for projects.Before embarking on the tour, people must sign a waiver saying that they have voluntarily exposed themselves to risks including death, injury, and property damage.
It’s nice to have a niche I suppose. In New Orleans you can take a tour of graveyards, Memphis has Graceland, and now tourists can pay $65 dollars for LA Gang Tours; art imitating life I suppose. Or something like that. Founder Alfred Thomas says there’s a fascination with gangs and he feels that addressing the issue head on with LA Gang Tours is a positive way to deal with the situation.
Today the group took its first tour with about 40 people on a bus. It works like this, first you have to sign a waiver stating that you understand your life may be in danger and that you may become a crime victim yourself. You then hand your $65 dollars over to an ex-gang member and off you go.Some of the stops on the tour include the LA County Jail, because so many gang members wind up there and are born there I suppose. The LA Riverbed where several big time movies have been made like The Terminator, Grease, and Transformers, Skid Row which is where about 20,000 homeless spend their nights, Florencia 13 one of the oldest gangs in South Central LA, and the Birthplace of the LA chapter of The Black Panther Party, who knows maybe you might see some of Obama’s advisors there.On the LA Gang Tours website their slogan is “saving lives, creating jobs, rebuilding communities.” Alfred Thomas, a former Florencia 13 member is either crazy or crazy like a fox. I don’t think there’s any question people will sign up to take the tour; it’s just a question of whether or not the city government will intervene to shut it down. Some city politicians are worried it might be too dangerous, that someone might get hurt.
A supposed cease fire has been worked out when the tour is scheduled. I suppose that’s a good thing, you wouldn’t want your tour bus rolling up into the middle of a gang war. The LA Gang Tour is tentatively scheduled to run once a month and employee 10 part-time ex-gang bangers. The whole idea behind the tour is to educate people about the history of gangs and what can be done to end gang violence in South Central Los Angeles. Let’s hear it for entrepreneurial spirit and capitalism. You can watch a 3 minute video of the tour below."Only miles from the scenic vistas and celebrity mansions that draw sightseers from around the globe - but a world away from the glitz and glamour - a bus tour is rolling through the dark side of the city's gang turf.
LA Gang Tours was due to take its first group of eager onlookers overnight around sites like the LA County Jail, Skid Row, home to 90,000 homeless people, and the birthplace of the Black Panther Party. The company's website says it aims to
"provide customers with a true first-hand encounter of the history and origin of high profile gang areas and top crime scene locations."
The man behind the concept, former gang member Alfred Lomas, 45, also hopes to create jobs for residents of the areas the tour goes through and will give a percentage of profits back to the community for projects.Before embarking on the tour, people must sign a waiver saying that they have voluntarily exposed themselves to risks including death, injury, and property damage.
It’s nice to have a niche I suppose. In New Orleans you can take a tour of graveyards, Memphis has Graceland, and now tourists can pay $65 dollars for LA Gang Tours; art imitating life I suppose. Or something like that. Founder Alfred Thomas says there’s a fascination with gangs and he feels that addressing the issue head on with LA Gang Tours is a positive way to deal with the situation.
Today the group took its first tour with about 40 people on a bus. It works like this, first you have to sign a waiver stating that you understand your life may be in danger and that you may become a crime victim yourself. You then hand your $65 dollars over to an ex-gang member and off you go.Some of the stops on the tour include the LA County Jail, because so many gang members wind up there and are born there I suppose. The LA Riverbed where several big time movies have been made like The Terminator, Grease, and Transformers, Skid Row which is where about 20,000 homeless spend their nights, Florencia 13 one of the oldest gangs in South Central LA, and the Birthplace of the LA chapter of The Black Panther Party, who knows maybe you might see some of Obama’s advisors there.On the LA Gang Tours website their slogan is “saving lives, creating jobs, rebuilding communities.” Alfred Thomas, a former Florencia 13 member is either crazy or crazy like a fox. I don’t think there’s any question people will sign up to take the tour; it’s just a question of whether or not the city government will intervene to shut it down. Some city politicians are worried it might be too dangerous, that someone might get hurt.
A supposed cease fire has been worked out when the tour is scheduled. I suppose that’s a good thing, you wouldn’t want your tour bus rolling up into the middle of a gang war. The LA Gang Tour is tentatively scheduled to run once a month and employee 10 part-time ex-gang bangers. The whole idea behind the tour is to educate people about the history of gangs and what can be done to end gang violence in South Central Los Angeles. Let’s hear it for entrepreneurial spirit and capitalism. You can watch a 3 minute video of the tour below."Only miles from the scenic vistas and celebrity mansions that draw sightseers from around the globe - but a world away from the glitz and glamour - a bus tour is rolling through the dark side of the city's gang turf.
Passengers paying $65 a head Saturday signed waivers acknowledging they could be crime victims and put their fate in the hands of tattooed ex-gang members who say they have negotiated a cease-fire among rivals in the most violent gangland in America.If that sounds daunting, consider the challenge facing organizers of LA Gang Tours: trying to build a thriving venture that provides a glimpse into gang life while also trying to convince people that gang-plagued communities are not as hopeless as movies depict."
Three members of a violent street gang have been sentenced to prison for drug and gun offenses as part of a federal crackdown on gang violence. Federal prosecutors identified the men as members of the East Union Street Hustlers, which is affiliated with a larger gang called the ,Black Gangster Disciples according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.Sentenced Friday were:
Thomas Callandret, 23, of Seattle, to three years in prison for possession of crack cocaine with the intent to distribute. Callandret also is a "person of interest" in a fatal Nov. 23, 2008, shooting of a rival gang member at Vito's nightclub.
Dimitrius Tinsley, 21, of Seattle, received a six-year sentence for conspiracy to distribute a drug called BZP, which is similar to Ecstacy. Officers seized numerous firearms from his home during a July 2009 search. Tinsley, according to federal agents, was also present at the Vito's homicide and also was at the scene of another fatal gang-related shooting in January 2008 at the Baltic Room in Seattle.
Avery Scharer, 23, was given an 18-month prison sentence for conspiring to distribute BZP. When police searched his car, they found a .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun in his child's diaper bag, along with marijuana, a scale and packaging materials, according to court documents. In sentencing memos in each case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Vince Lombardi filed court documents stating that the East Union Street Hustlers and their parent gang have been responsible for much of the Southeast Seattle gang violence.
Thomas Callandret, 23, of Seattle, to three years in prison for possession of crack cocaine with the intent to distribute. Callandret also is a "person of interest" in a fatal Nov. 23, 2008, shooting of a rival gang member at Vito's nightclub.
Dimitrius Tinsley, 21, of Seattle, received a six-year sentence for conspiracy to distribute a drug called BZP, which is similar to Ecstacy. Officers seized numerous firearms from his home during a July 2009 search. Tinsley, according to federal agents, was also present at the Vito's homicide and also was at the scene of another fatal gang-related shooting in January 2008 at the Baltic Room in Seattle.
Avery Scharer, 23, was given an 18-month prison sentence for conspiring to distribute BZP. When police searched his car, they found a .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun in his child's diaper bag, along with marijuana, a scale and packaging materials, according to court documents. In sentencing memos in each case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Vince Lombardi filed court documents stating that the East Union Street Hustlers and their parent gang have been responsible for much of the Southeast Seattle gang violence.
Raymond Anderson yesterday denied he was behind the death of Kevin "The Gerbil" Carroll and, in a jail interview, Anderson, 47, pointed the finger at the Lyons underworld clan.He said Carroll - an enforcer for the rival Daniel family - was gunned down in revenge for a bungled hit on a Lyons gang member.And he rejected claims that Carroll, 29, was killed outside an Asda superstore for informing on him and James McDonald over the 2006 slaying of underworld figure Michael Lyons.
At Shotts jail in Lanarkshire - where he is serving 35 years for Michael Lyons's murder - Anderson said he only learned the Gerbil was dead when he phoned his daughter half an hour after news of the shooting emerged on Tuesday.He said: "I had nothing to do with Kevin's murder. I was shocked when I heard."The killing was a revenge attack for a botched hit on one of the members of the Lyons family recently.
"I knew Kevin but although he wasn't a personal friend of mine my heart still goes out to his family and what's left behind all through a drugs war."It is the loss of another young life and it's all over drugs."Anderson and henchman McDonald, 35, were found guilty of killing Lyons in December 2006 in an underworld contract killing.
He spoke out as police revealed they had found the burned-out car used by the three hitmen who shot Carroll five times outside the Asda in Robroyston, Glasgow.The Gerbil was dating Kelly Bo Daniel, 27, daughter of millionaire crime boss Jamie - who has been involved in a long-running turf war with the Lyons - and working as an enforcer for the clan.Carroll was also a ringleader in a series of savage underworld kidnappings - seizing and torturing his gang's rivals for cash, drugs and guns. He and his cronies were nicknamed the "alien abduction" gang because their traumatised victims told police they could not remember anything about their ordeal.He had survived two previous assassination attempts but sources say the failed bid to murder a member of the Lyons family prompted them to send the three hitmen to finish him off.Carroll was alone in an Audi car outside the superstore when he was gunned down.Police are probing a theory that the two men who drove him to the car park where he was assassinated deliberately set him up.
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