Man Suspected of Killing Whittier Police Officer Charged With Capital Murder
A 26-year-old man suspected of killing a Whittier Police officer after allegedly killing his cousin hours earlier has been charged with capital murder, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said Wednesday. Michael Christopher Mejia faces two counts of murder and one count each of attempted murder, carjacking and possession of a firearm by a felon. Mejia also faces a special circumstance allegations of multiple murders, murder of a police officer and murder to escape arrest. The charges make him eligible for the death penalty, officials said. He is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday.
KTLA 5
Public Memorial Viewing To Be Held For Slain Whittier Police Officer
A public memorial viewing will be held Thursday for a Whittier police officer who was shot and killed in the line of duty. The public is welcome to pay their respects to Officer Keith Wayne Boyer, 53, from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Whittier Area Community Church, located at 8100 Colima Road. A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at Calvary Chapel Downey. A graveside service will begin upon arrival of the funeral procession at Rose Hills Memorial Park and Mortuary in Whittier.
CBS 2
Making Our Communities Safer
LAPD Detective and Los Angeles Police Protective League Director Lou Turriaga joins host Kimberly Rinaldi to discuss the challenges of keeping California neighborhoods safe after the passage of legislation such as AB 109 and Proposition 47. Turriaga and Rinaldi discuss the murder of Whittier police officer Keith Boyer at the hands of a known gang member and released felon. The suspect, who was repeatedly arrested and released following the conversion of his sentence from parole to probation, is also accused of murdering his cousin. "We've asked both the U.S. and California's Attorneys General to do an immediate review of the negative impacts of California's Proposition 47 and AB 109," said Turriaga. "The public deserves to know just who the State of California feels is safe to be back in their neighborhoods again."
Lessons in Joyful Living Podcast (Download)
Man and Woman Shot, Wounded in North Hollywood
A 23-year-old man and a woman were shot and wounded Wednesday in North Hollywood. The shooting occurred about 7:25 p.m. near railroad tracks in the area of Lankershim Boulevard and Sherman Way, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. The victims were taken to a hospital with injuries that were deemed not life-threatening, LAPD Officer Sal Ramirez said. Police did not disclose an age for the female victim. A description of the shooter was not available.
Los Angeles Daily News
Los Angeles High School Evacuated After Bomb Threat
A bomb threat prompted the evacuation of Los Angeles High School on Wednesday morning. Police responded to the campus in the 4600 block of West Olympic Boulevard just after 8 a.m. Officers are canvassing the campus, looking for anything suspicious. Some 300 students have been waiting in the football field. Police have not specified the nature of the bomb threat. A search of the campus was conducted, and the area was declared safe around noon, according to Los Angeles Unified School District police. No explosives were found, the Los Angeles Police Department reported.
ABC 7
Judge grants restraining order against Black Lives Matter activist accused of threatening L.A. police commissioner
A Judge has granted a restraining order against a Black Lives Matter activist who took his racially charged rhetoric to the law office and home of Los Angeles Police Commission President Matt Johnson. The intrusion of the activist, Trevor Ferguson, into the commissioner's private life marked an escalation of a conflict that had previously been confined to public meetings.
Los Angeles Times
How the North Hollywood Shootout Changed Policing
LAPD Officer James Zboravan was two months and eight days out of the police academy when he faced a barrage of machine-gun fire, shot and wounded a bank robber and dove across unarmored officers to shield them with his bulletproof vest. He was shot four times before leaping through an exploding glass doorway. “There was no time to be scared. It's not a macho thing. There's so much going on. You fall back on your training — the best in the world,” recalled Zboravan, an award-winning sergeant now serving as an assistant watch commander at Northeast Division. “The lesson is, very plainly: “Just because you're shot doesn't mean you're going to die. You must fight on.”
Los Angeles Daily News
Disabled Man Stomped to Death: ‘Heinous Crime' Killer Sentenced
A 21-year-old man was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years to life behind bars for the beating and stomping death of a disabled man at Rancho Cienega Park in the Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw area. “You made my brother really suffer in his last moments in life,” the victim's sister told the defendant in court. “You've created a wound in our hearts that will never heal. I hope that my brother's face will haunt you for the rest of your life.” Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Bernie La Forteza denied the defense's motion for a new trial for Tyshaun Vasquez, who was convicted of second-degree murder for the Nov. 30, 2014, killing of Eddie Ray Smith Jr., 43.
MyNewsLA.com
Stolen BMW Chase Ends With Dog Bite in South L.A.
Police arrested a man today who attempted to hit two officers with a stolen BMW before fleeing the scene and crashing the car in South Los Angeles, police said. Around 1:25 a.m., officers approached a suspected stolen car in a 7-Eleven parking lot in the 5900 block of Figueroa Street, said Officer Liliana Preciado of the Los Angeles Police Department's Media Relations Division. As officers neared the car, the driver attempted to hit them with the vehicle multiple times, prompting them to jump out of the way, Preciado said. The suspect hit another parked car in the lot before fleeing the scene. No officers were hurt.
Los Angeles Daily News
Dangerous and Illegal Warehouse Parties in LA
Loud music, dancing and drinking. It looks like any Saturday night club scene, but it's not. It's a party happening inside a warehouse in Los Angeles. And not only is it dangerous -- it's illegal. Law enforcement wants to shut them down before another disaster like the Ghost Ship fire in Oakland that killed 36 people, but admit it's difficult for them to track. When our cameras tried to find one downtown, the advertised address sent us first to a checkpoint where a lookout then told us the actual location.
FOX 11
Attorney General Sessions' 'pull back' on police conduct probes may affect Orange County jailhouse snitch case
Sessions said this week that the Department of Justice would scale back on investigations into police departments accused of violating civil rights laws , because such probes might be hampering efforts to fight crime. “Our officers, deputies and troopers believe the political leadership of this country abandoned them. Their morale has suffered,” the former Alabama senator told a group of state attorneys general in his first speech since joining President Trump's cabinet.
Orange County Register
With New Smart Gun, Industry Pioneer Bets Bigger Is Better
The leading manufacturer of smart guns thinks it has developed a weapon that police will finally trust. The German gunmaker Armatix has built a prototype of a 9mm semiautomatic pistol, the iP9, that it says should ease concerns from law enforcement and the public at large that firearms equipped with technology that prevents unauthorized firing may be unreliable. The gun looks like a slightly futuristic, streamlined version of the semiautomatic pistols that have been standard police sidearms for the past three decades.
The Trace |
