Category: Los Angeles

Share this article:A man suspected of child abduction and assault with a deadly weapon barricaded himself in an apartment complex and reportedly armed himself with a shotgun in the Palmdale area after leading authorities on a pursuit Thursday. Authorities initially engaged the man, who was driving a silver Prius with a female passenger, in a pursuit in Kern County, CBS2 reported. The man eventually drove onto the southbound Antelope Valley (14) Freeway in the Lancaster area, and the pursuit was handed off to the California Highway Patrol. The man reached speeds in excess of 100 mph before he exited the freeway onto East Avenue S in the Palmdale area and led CHP units into residential areas. A CHP officer attempted a PIT maneuver on the Prius as it turned left onto a street, but his vehicle was struck by a white SUV. It was not immediately known if the officer or the occupants of the SUV were injured in the collision. The CHP handed the pursuit off to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department following the crash. Sheriff’s department units pursued the Prius into a…

Share this article:Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies established a perimeter to locate and arrest a suspect who shot at them in La Puente Thursday. The deputies were serving a search warrant in the 15500 block of Loukelton Street, near Hacienda Boulevard and Amar Road, when they were shot at by a suspect at about 6:20 p.m., said Deputy Eric Ortiz of the Sheriff’s Information Bureau. Deputies were working to contain the area and persuade the suspect to surrender as of about 6:55 p.m., Ortiz said. Sheriff’s Deputies Establish Perimeter to Locate Armed Suspect in La Puente was last modified: May 13th, 2021 by Contributing Editor

Jaye Sanford, a 52-year-old mother of two, was driving home in suburban Atlanta on Nov. 21 when a man in a Dodge Challenger muscle car who was allegedly street racing crashed into her head-on, killing her. She is one of the many victims of a surge in street racing that has taken root across America during the coronavirus pandemic, prompting police crackdowns and bills aimed at harsher punishments. Experts say TV shows and movies glorifying street racing had already fueled interest in recent years. Then shutdowns associated with the pandemic cleared normally clogged highways as commuters worked from home. Those with a passion for fast cars often had time to modify them, and to show them off, said Tami Eggleston, a sports psychologist who participates in legal drag racing. “With COVID, when we were separated from people, I think people sort of bonded in their interest groups,” said Eggleston, who is also the provost of McKendree University, a small college in suburban St. Louis. “So that need to want to socialize and be around other people brought the racers out.” But people have been killed…

Nine people were wounded Thursday evening in Rhode Island’s capital in what police there believe to be the largest shooting in city history. Of the nine, three had serious injuries and were “maybe critical,” Providence Police Chief Col. Hugh T. Clements told reporters at the scene. He said multiple guns were used and it involved an “ongoing feud” involving two groups known to authorities. He said the shooting began with gunfire emanating from a vehicle, targeting a home. A person or people inside the home then returned fire. He described the participants as “young men.” The shooting took place just before 7 p.m. in the southeastern neighborhood of Washington Park, which Clements described as a typically quiet neighborhood. Clements said an estimated several dozen shots were fired. Evidence markers showing where more than a dozen shell casings littered the ground could be seen in the distance. Police sealed off the area. No arrests have been made. Clements stressed the investigation was in its early stages. Detectives were at the hospital interviewing the victims, who are between the ages of 19 and 25. Further details about…

A man seen in a Montclair neighborhood peeping into a home and allegedly making suggestive comments to a child Wednesday afternoon has been arrested, officials said.  Jesus Mendez-Ramirez, 23, was located in the 4400 block of Holt Avenue in Pomona at around 3 a.m. Thursday and arrested on unrelated charges, according to the Montclair Police Department. The peeping incident occurred around 12:50 p.m. Wednesday when Raylene Atilano says she was changing her 2-year-old daughter’s diaper and noticed Mendez-Ramirez looking in through her window. Atilano became startled and notified her brother, who then went outside to confront him. Mendez-Ramirez left the home and walked across the street where a 9-year-old was walking, according to a report from the Montclair Police Department. He had his shirt off and was making flirtatious movements, waving his shirt above his head and telling the child to go with him to his home, the report said.  Several witnesses saw what was happening, including the child’s parent who was able to get a photo of the man identified as Mendez-Ramirez.  “I’m upset, I’m very angry,” Atilano said, “I don’t want any little…

People who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 no longer need to wear masks in most places, the CDC suggested. But in California, it may be a week or more before changes would be considered locally.

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — When the pandemic hit, 24-year-old Jesus Morales was let go from his job. Through his TikTok channel, 24-year-old Jesus Morales has given out more than $96,000 to unsuspecting street vendors. (Source: Jesus Morales/TikTok) “I was working at a gym, and of course all the gyms shut down because of COVID,” he said. “So I wasn’t working, and I just had all this time on my hands.” He used that time to start creating original content on the social media platform TikTok. His videos quickly gained attention and the views started mounting, but Morales said he was still missing something. “Honestly, I just felt like I wasn’t enjoying it, and it almost felt like a forced kind of thing,” he said. “It was around that time where I came across two different TikTok users that kind of inspired me to take my platform and shift it into a different direction.” Morales decided to take his popularity on the platform and turn it into good. “I knew that I wanted to do more for the Latino community,” he said. “I started doing more…

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – Dashcam video captured a man robbing and assaulting a grandfather at gunpoint in South El Monte, while he was stopped at a gas station on his Lyft route. Paul Liao, 67, was working as a Lyft driver Monday night when the suspect jumped into his car. The incident was captured on the dashcam that he had just purchased two months prior. Liao was robbed at gunpoint at an Arco station at Rosemead Boulevard and Rush Street in South El Monte. “I was very scared,” said Liao. “Very scared.” The suspect slid into his backseat after Liao said he had just finished washing his car and was waiting for his next ride. Liao suffered a bloody nose from where the robber hit him twice before taking off. “He used the gun to hit my face,” said Liao. In the video, the suspect grabs Liao’s phone then forces him to hand over more than $1,500 in cash. Liao’s daughter-in-law Christine Ting says he had just earned that money at another job. “He had just gotten paid for doing designated driving services,” she said Thursday.…

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Paul George had 20 points and 10 rebounds, Reggie Jackson added 19 points off the bench on five 3-pointers and the Los Angeles Clippers handed the slumping Charlotte Hornets their fourth loss in the last five games, 113-90 on Thursday night. Los Angeles Clippers guard Paul George (13) is guarded by Charlotte Hornets guard Terry Rozier (3) during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Charlotte, N.C., Thursday, May 13, 2021. (Jacob Kupferman/AP Photo) Kawhi Leonard had 16 points and nine rebounds for the Clippers, who are jockeying for playoff position in the Western Conference. The Clippers (47-23) remain in third place, one game ahead of the Denver Nuggets with two games remaining. The NBA’s best 3-point shooting team this season lived up to expectations as the Clippers made 21 of 45 shots from beyond the arc. “We have been shooting it great all year,” Leonard said. “I’m just happy guys are being aggressive and making the right play. (The Hornets) were packing the paint and we had a lot of double teams, so once we kicked it out,…

LANCASTER (CBSLA) — A standoff at the end of a pursuit continued Thursday night in Palmdale between Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies with a man suspected of kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon on a deputy. A person suspected of kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon was in a standoff with authorities following a dangerous pursuit. (CBSLA) According to authorities, the pursuit started in the 2000 block of West Avenue H-8 in Lancaster at about 4:50 p.m. and went up into Kern County before returning back to the Lancaster area where the California Highway Patrol took control of the pursuit. The driver of the Prius then got off the 14 Freeway in Palmdale and took the chase to surface streets where a CHP officer was struck by an unsuspecting driver. Following a failed PIT maneuver, the driver of the Prius drove to the Sierra View Gardens apartment complex in Palmdale where two people — a male driver and female passenger — exited the vehicle. The passenger surrendered to LASD deputies and the driver, who was reportedly armed with a shotgun, ran into…

A man seen in a Montclair neighborhood peeping into a home and allegedly making suggestive comments to a child Wednesday afternoon has been arrested.  Jesus Mendez-Ramirez, 23, was located in the 4400 block of Holt Avenue in Pomona at around 3 a.m. Thursday and arrested on unrelated charges. The peeping incident occurred around 12:50 p.m. Wednesday when Raylene Atilano says she was changing her 2-year-old daughter’s diaper and noticed Mendez-Ramirez looking in through her window. Atilano became startled and notified her brother who then went outside to confront him. Mendez-Ramirez left the home and walked across the street where a 9-year-old was walking, according to a report from the Montclair Police Department.  He had his shirt off and was making flirtatious movements, waving his shirt above his head and telling the child to go with him to his home, the report said.  Several witnesses saw what was happening, including the child’s parent who was able to get a photo of Mendez-Ramirez.  “I’m upset, I’m very angry,” Atilano said, “I don’t want any little girl to ever go through that and I just want everybody to…

A 24-year-old man was arrested for fatally stabbing his 68-year-old relative in a Redondo Beach home earlier this week, officials announced Thursday. Adrian Gudino, of Redondo Beach, was identified by investigators as the person responsible for the killing of Gloria Pressett, the Redondo Beach Police Department said in a news release. Around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, police responded to a residence in the 2000 block of Carnegie Lane regarding a family disturbance and fight. Officers arrived to find a woman, later identified as Pressett, stabbed inside the home. She was taken to a local hospital but died from her injuries, officials said. Redondo Beach police initiated a homicide investigation and identified Gudino as the suspect responsible for the homicide. Investigators determined that he had left the residence on foot prior to police officers arriving to the scene of stabbing. Officials said the victim and the suspect are related but did not provide further details. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call the Redondo Beach Police Department or 911.

Fires linked to homeless tents and camps are raising concerns in Los Angeles, where flames claimed seven lives last year and caused tens of millions of dollars in damage to nearby businesses, according to a newspaper report. In the three years since the city’s Fire Department began classifying them, the number of blazes related to homelessness has nearly tripled, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday. In the first quarter of 2021, they occurred at a rate of 24 a day, making up 54% of all fires the department responded to. The paper said its analysis of records showed that fires related to homelessness doubled in all of the department’s 14 districts since 2018, the first year of complete records. The fires were most prevalent in downtown and South Los Angeles. In the popular Venice beach area, a fire that started in a tent destroyed a Venice boardwalk office building in January. A rash of fires among camps on the boardwalk has prompted residents to petition city officials to act. The Fire Department has equipped a new paramedic unit with a 150-gallon water tank that can respond to…

A law enforcement pursuit of a kidnapping suspect turned into a standoff with shots fired at a Palmdale apartment building Thursday afternoon, officials said. The vehicle chase came to an end around 5:40 p.m. at the Sierra View Gardens complex on the 37800 block of 20th Street East. The incident had started earlier in the 2000 block of West Avenue H-8 in Lancaster, said Los Angeles County sheriff’s Deputy Shawn Du Busky. Du Busky could not immediately provide further details on the abduction that took place, but he said the pursuit driver pointed a gun at someone who was reporting the incident to 911. Deputies at one point handed the chase over to the California Highway Patrol, but were at the scene when the driver abandoned his vehicle and ran into the apartment complex. One CHP officer was involved in a collision with the suspect in Lancaster and an ambulance was requested, but there was no update on the officer’s condition, according to CHP Officer Michael Brandt. An hour after the chase ended, a few dozen deputies could be seen crowded in plants outside an…

People who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can stop wearing masks in most places, the CDC announced. But L.A. County officials said it will be a week or more before changes would be considered locally.

LONG BEACH (CBSLA) – A man who lost control of his vehicle and triggered a crash in Long Beach that left his 21-year-old passenger dead and another motorist injured has been sentenced to 50 days of community labor, 18 months of DUI classes and three years probation. Osvaldo Ramirez-Vazquez was also ordered Wednesday to complete a hospital and morgue program and his driver’s license was suspended for three years, according to Pamela Johnson of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. The crash at Pacific Coast Highway and Grand Avenue occurred in the early morning hours of Aug. 18, 2019. Marilyn Lanae Araiza, 21, of Cypress, who was trapped inside the 1999 Lincoln Town Car that was being driven by Ramirez-Vazquez, was extricated from the car by firefighters and rushed to an area hospital, where she died a short time later. Firefighters also had to extricate the driver of the 2014 Cadillac XTS from his vehicle. That man suffered minor injuries and was taken to a hospital for treatment. Police said Ramirez-VazquezDUI had been speeding eastbound in the Lincoln when he lost control of the…

SANTA ANA (CNS) – On Thursday, 39-year-old Jacobi Dwayne Rapids pleaded not guilty to felony counts of human trafficking and pimping of an underage teenage girl in Fullerton, among other felony charges. Rapids previously served a three-year sentence for assault with a deadly weapon. According to the criminal complaint filed Thursday, Rapids is accused of attacking the victim on April 15, was arrested on April 20, and was being held without bail. He is also facing felony statutory rape charges, oral copulation of a victim younger than 16, lewd acts on a child 14 or 15, and pandering a victim younger than 16.   (© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)

In a rare police apology Thursday, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott apologized for a police shooting last week that injured a burglary suspect. The man, 23-year-old Xavier Pittman, was shot in the wrist by a plainclothes officer as he was being arrested. “The shooting of Mr. Pittman quite simply should not have happened,” Scott said during an online town hall. “I’m deeply sorry that Mr. Pittman was shot during this incident, and I would like to take this opportunity to apologize.” The shooting occurred just before 1 p.m. Friday in the city’s South of Market neighborhood as officers were tracking three men they described as known burglary suspects. Pittman’s attorney, Adante Pointer, told the San Francisco Examiner that Pittman was unarmed and already being detained when he was hit by gunfire. He said the officer had no reason to think his life was in danger. “Essentially he was ready to be brought into custody, but then to be shot, unexpectedly shot, you don’t know what is going to take place at that point. … He was scared for his life,” Pointer said. Pointer said the officers…