Law Enforcement

Man did not point gun at officers, LAPD says in new account of shooting
A man shot and wounded this week by Los Angeles police in Westlake had not pointed a gun at officers, despite an initial report by the LAPD that he had, the department said in a press release Saturday afternoon. Jason Bangle, 39, was shot Tuesday about 10 p.m. in the 600 block of South Coronado Street, police said. The incident began when officers were flagged down by pedestrians who said they were threatened by two men armed with a handgun, according to the press release.
Los Angeles Times

5 shot, wounded as Inglewood gang party turns violent
As many as five people were shot and wounded in violence that started at gang party in Inglewood before spilling into neighboring South Los Angeles. Two of the victims, both men, were wounded in a car-to-car shooting in Inglewood and ended up at the intersection of Van Ness and Century Boulevard, according to Lt. Leonard Perez of the Los Angeles Police Department‘s 77th Street Station. Both were taken to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center on Saturday, Perez said, but he did not know their conditions.
mynewsLA.com

Car crashes into LAX terminal utility room, girl in critical condition
A sports car crashed into a terminal at Los Angeles International Airport this afternoon, injuring a young pedestrian as well as the vehicle's driver and a passenger, authorities said. The pedestrian, a 9-year-old girl, was in critical condition at trauma center as a result of the crash, which happened about 4:50 p.m. at Terminal 7 on the departures (upper) level of the airport, Brian Humphrey of the Los Angeles Fire Department said. The crash investigation was being conducted by the Los Angeles Police Department's West Traffic Division.
Los Angeles Daily News , KTLA 5

‘Blue Alert' Established to Catch Threats Against Police Officers
On February 3, 2013, Monica Quan, an assistant coach at Cal State Fullerton and her fiancé Keith Lawrence were found shot to death in a parking garage in Irvine, Calif. The next morning, while investigation into their deaths was just beginning, police discovered a manifesto from former Los Angeles police officer Christopher Dorner. In the rambling document, Dorner spoke of warfare against police and threatened violence against specific members of the LAPD. On February 6, Dorner was identified as the suspect in the deaths of Quan and Lawrence.
Care2

Detectives solve multiple murder case, piece by piece
Awakened by his pager at 3 a.m., Hawthorne police Detective Dennis Barberic rolled out of bed, got dressed and headed to a crime scene. It was three days before Christmas in 1992. A killer had brutally stabbed two flight attendants inside a home on 118th Street, jumped out a window and vanished. Nicole Paquette was 32. Alina Casteleiro was 31 and the mother of a young son who wasn't home at the time. “I had to meet with both families,” Barberic said. “That was difficult as all homicides are. They were concerned about what had happened, obviously. I told them we were working this thing and we would continue to work this case until it was solved. It may take time.
Contra Costa Times

Shortage of deputies could threaten L.A. County sheriff's reform agenda
As Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell tries to turn around a department under federal scrutiny for jail brutality, racial harassment and corruption, one of his most immediate challenges is a staffing shortage that could threaten his reform agenda. By July, the number of sworn employees needed to fill the gap will be about 1,300, according to sheriff's officials, including hundreds of deputies to make the county jails safer in response to an inmate abuse scandal and a rash of jail suicides. The deputies' union puts the number even higher.
Los Angeles Times

Police Release Sketch Of Man Who Attempted To Kidnap Young Boy In Palos Verdes
Police released a sketch of a male suspect who tried to force an 11-year-old boy into a van as the child was walking home from a school bus stop in Palos Verdes Estates. The boy was headed home in the area of Coronel Plaza and Via Margarita around 3:30 p.m. Thursday when a “1980s-style Chevrolet van” approached him, according to the Palos Verdes Police Department.
CBS Los Angeles

Man shot by Long Beach police identified as Woodland Hills college student
Authorities have identified a man fatally shot by a Long Beach police officer this week as a college student and competitive debater from Woodland Hills. Ferad Morad, 20, was killed Wednesday night in what police say was a bizarre and possibly drug-fueled confrontation with an officer trying to help him. Relatives and friends of Morad, who attended Moorpark College, have criticized the police in online postings. They say he was killed while “unarmed and in desperate need of medical attention.” The shooting is the subject of ongoing investigations by the Long Beach police and the Los Angeles County district attorney's office. The officer has not been identified.
Los Angeles Times

Police officers experience fewer deaths these days — but increased tension
Omaha police officer Kerrie Orozco was a few hours from starting maternity leave when she headed out to serve an arrest warrant for a shooting suspect. A ­seven-year police veteran, Orozco had given birth prematurely three months earlier. The baby, Olivia, was due to be released from the hospital the next day. Orozco never got the chance to bring her child home. When she and other officers arrived in North Omaha on May 20, police say the suspect, Marcus Wheeler, opened fire. Orozco, 29, was shot just above her bulletproof vest and pronounced dead at the hospital — along with Wheeler, 26, who was killed by another officer in the shootout.
The Washington Post

Baltimore Police union head: Cops more afraid of being arrested than of being shot
Friday, the head of the Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police, spoke with Fox's Greta Van Susteren about the current climate in the city and how police now feel “under siege” and unsupported by the public. “They're more afraid to go to jail for doing their job properly than they are afraid of being shot and killed right now,” says Lt. Gene Ryan.
The Grio

Prop. 47

Under Prop. 47, former felons find themselves shedding a stifling label
Susan Burton knows what the first day out of jail can feel like. So after she got sober in the late '90s, she started spending time at a spot downtown where buses dumped women just released from custody. If they had no place to go, she invited them to come stay on a bunk bed in her bungalow in South L.A. Her hospitality grew into a reentry program with five homes that helps women reunite with their children after their release.
Los Angeles Times