Tag: LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT
Police Warn of Increase in Crimes Involving Paintball Guns; Public’s Help Sought ID’ing Perpetrators
Police are asking for the public’s help in providing information on individuals who may be behind a recent increase in crimes involving paintball guns in South Los Angeles.
Compressed-air guns normally reserved for use at a recreational paintball range are increasingly being used in robberies, aggravated assaults and vandalism, Los Angeles Police Capt. Lee Sands said in a Friday press conference.
So far this year in the area policed by LAPD’s South Bureau, 68 people have been assaulted in attacks involving paintball guns, Sand said. That number represents an increase of 183 percent over last year, when only 24 people had been involved in such attacks between January and August.
That compares with 33 people shot with pellet guns this year citywide, according to LAPD.
Sands believes the increased use of paintball guns is tied to an overall rise in the popularity of recreational paintball.
“When paintball guns are taken out of those venues, and brought to the streets of the city and used to commit crimes, this is when a problem occurs,” he said.
Officials cited an incident involving 9-year-old Aron Marrujo, who was playing football with about 15 other kids outside a home where a family party was being held when someone drove by and fired several rounds from a paintball gun.
Marrujo was struck in the face, just above his eyeball, police said. His 16-year-old cousin was also struck after he dove in front of Marrujo to block the paint-filled pellets, thinking at the time that they were real bullets, his family said.
“Many of you know that paintballs travel at 300 feet per second and Aron is very lucky that the paintball did not hit his eye,” Sands said. “He could have been very seriously injured as a result of that.”
Aron has slight autism and was already afraid of being outside, his mother said.
Four people were arrested following the incident, three of whom are juveniles, and charged with assault with a deadly weapon, according to LAPD Detective Arnold Castellanos.
Two other recent arrests involving paintball guns being fired from cars were made along Figueroa Street, said LAPD South Bureau Chief Phil Tingirides. In one of the cases, the gun resembled an assault rifle, he said.
“We’re highly concerned that we’re going to end up with an officer-involved shooting of somebody who does not have a firearm but yet a paintball gun,” Tingirides said. “When you see the weapons, they look very real. When you hear them…they sound very much like a bullet.”
Officials emphasized that charges will be pursued in such cases, despite compressed-air guns being considered less dangerous than actual firearms. Charges would be based on the amount of bodily harm inflict and could be felony charges, Tingirides said.
South L.A. Man Used Online Gaming to Lure Children Into Sending Him Sexually Explicit Videos
A 22-year-old South Los Angeles man used his online gaming personality to entice children to send him sexually explicit videos, Los Angeles police said Wednesday, hours after his arrest following a multi-agency investigation.
Cushqader Warren was taken into custody during a search of his South L.A. home Wednesday morning. He is being held on $1 million bail.
Warren preyed on young children he befriended through Wizard101, a massively multiplayer online game, Los Angeles Police Department detectives said at the scene of his arrest.
Warren allegedly uploaded YouTube videos to get children to contact him to try to win a free Wizard101 game card. The victims were instructed to produce sexually explicit videos so Warren could download them, according to LAPD.
“I didn’t know it was illegal at the time,” Warren told KTLA as he was placed into a patrol car Wednesday morning. “I had no idea. … I’m so sorry.”
Warren wore a turquoise T-shirt featuring the “Sesame Street” character Cookie Monster as he was arrested.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children alerted authorities that Warren had been uploading photos and videos of child pornography, prompting the investigation, according to an LAPD news release. Authorities at the scene of the arrest said Facebook tipped investigators to the alleged child pornography.
Detectives said they have identified at least 67 victims from all over the world.
Warren was booked just before 10 a.m. on suspicion of felony lewd and lascivious acts.
LAPD investigators who are part of the Los Angeles Regional Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force worked with federal agents from Homeland Security Investigations on the case.
LAPD believes there may be additional victims, and anyone who has information on Warren is asked to call task force Detective Lisette Garcia at 562-624-4085 or HSI Special Agent Kimmesia Sampson at 562-624-4037.
Woman Shares Details of L.A. Assault During Date With Man She Met on Instagram
A Los Angeles-area woman who was assaulted during a date with a man she met on Instagram last summer has shared her terrifying tale, hoping it will be a lesson to others.
India Ali, 32, says she met James Baker, 27, through social media and eventually felt comfortable enough to set up a date with him last July.
“He didn’t really look like a creep from his pictures. He looked like he had it going on,” Ali said.
The two decided to go out for a night on the town. Baker posted several videos on Instagram of the two out drinking at a restaurant and enjoying themselves.
Ali said she doesn’t remember leaving the restaurant with Baker or their ride back to the area around Los Angeles International Airport, but Baker posted videos of those events as well.
The two ended up in Baker’s hotel room at the Westin hotel near LAX. When Ali woke up the next morning, something was wrong.
“It was horrible. I woke up. I lifted my head up. I was lying in a puddle of throw up. So I look around and I see blood everywhere and my clothes everywhere,” Ali said.
Ali then saw her reflection in a mirror and could see how badly she had been beaten.
“Oh my God. I can’t believe that happened. What if they come back and kill me?” Ali thought.
She realized her cellphone and car keys were gone, so she used the hotel phone to call 911. A recording of the call provided to KTLA included the following interaction:
911 operator: “So they just beat you up?”
Ali: “There’s blood all over the room.”
911 operator: “Where are you hurt, ma’am?”
Ali: “I’m hurt in my face.”
Ali was taken to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where doctors determined she had suffered significant head injuries.
“She had been punched in the head so badly that it had caused a swelling in the brain. The brain, when it expands, has nowhere to go so it forces down – and that’s what triggers the vomit action. It pressures the fourth vertebrae,” Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney David Berger said.
Police used the Find My iPhone app to look for Ali’s cellphone. Investigators located the phone — and Baker — a few miles away, in the victim’s car at the Courtyard Los Angeles LAX in El Segundo. He was arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department’s Pacific Division on July 21, inmate records show.
Surveillance video from the Westin showed Baker leaving the hotel in Ali’s car at about 2 a.m.
Investigators later found Baker had prior out-of-state convictions and was on bail for allegedly using fake credit cards, Berger said.
At the Airport Courthouse on April 14, Baker was found guilty of felony assault, auto theft and use of forged credit cards. He is being held at the downtown L.A. Men’s Central Jail, with a sentencing hearing scheduled for June 5.
Ali, meanwhile, is hoping her story will remind others to be cautious about who they meet online.
“I wouldn’t want anybody to go and meet up with anybody that they don’t know. Please don’t ever do that,” Ali said. “You have to value your life.”
17-Year-Old Boy Killed While Walking Home From School in South L.A. Is ID’d by Family
A 17-year-old boy killed during a triple shooting in the Vermont-Slauson neighborhood of South Los Angeles Tuesday afternoon was identified as Kevin Cleveland Jr. by his mother on Wednesday morning.
The mother, speaking to reporters outside the family’s home, said her son was walking home from school when he was shot.The gunfire — some 10 shots — was reported near the intersection of Vermont Avenue and 60th Street about 3:50 p.m., according to LAPD.
Two other teens who were with Cleveland were also shot by a gunman wearing a hoodie.
One victim was in critical condition after the shooting and the other had suffered non-life threatening injuries, Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Phillip Tingirides said. The surviving victims were described as a boy and a girl between the ages of 15 and 17.
Cleveland’s mother, who gave only her first name, Ladrena, told KTLA she heard the barrage of gunfire and got in her car to go try to find her son.
“I jumped straight up, like, ‘Where is Kevin at?'” Ladrena said. “That’s what we go through around here when there’s a shooting.”
She found her son, wounded in the stomach and leg but still able to talk, and thought he would be OK. He got up and got on the gurney, Ladrena said.
He later died at the hospital, leaving the family with questions about why it took so long for him to get medical attention, Kevin’s cousin said.
Kevin, who had recently celebrated his 17th birthday, had never been involved in gangs and loved to play video games at home, Ladrena said. She described him as an “Xbox Live kid.”
“He was trying to get home, and he just was caught up,” Ladrena said. “He didn’t know nobody was going to come shooting. None of the kids knew. They wouldn’t have been out there if they knew somebody was going to come shooting.”
The victim has two older brothers and two older sisters, Ladrena said.
“He was an innocent bystander, period,” said Kevin’s cousin, standing alongside Ladrena. “Somebody had the audacity to come up to a school, come up to … some kids and let some fire out on some kids? … What did you gain from that?”
The gunman remains at large. He was described as a black man in his 20s who was wearing jeans and a hooded sweatshirt.
It was unclear if the shooting was gang related, but police confirmed there was no indication the victims had any gang ties.
The shooting occurred near John Muir Middle School and Augustus Hawkins High School.
via: http://ktla.com/2017/04/05/teen-killed-near-school-in-south-l-a-triple-shooting-idd-by-family/