3 LAPD Officers Shot In Lincoln Heights Under Guard

Three Los Angeles police officers wounded during a shootout in Lincoln Heights last week remain under guard as they recover from their injuries. The Los Angeles Police Department said the officers are being guarded because the gunman, whom they identified as 32-year-old Jonathan Magaña, was a member of a street gang known for violence. “The person they came against was armed and apparently willing to attempt to take their lives. And I'm grateful that they were able to survive it,” LAPD Chief Michael Moore said during an LA Police Commission meeting Tuesday – the first oversight meeting to be held in person in three years. Moore said Magaña was armed with two handguns – one an unregistered, home-made “ghost gun” – and it appeared Magaña shot himself after the gunfight. Magaña, who was wanted for questioning in an extortion case, as well as for violating the rules of his parole, hid out in an apartment under construction. Moore said he fired first. One officer was shot in the arm, another was shot in the leg and the third was shot in the upper body.

NBC 4

Lincoln Heights Suspect That Wounded 3 LAPD Officers Shot Himself In The Head: Coroner

The Lincoln Heights suspect who shot three Los Angeles Police Department officers in a confrontation and endured a lengthy standoff with law enforcement March 8, committed suicide by shooting himself in the head at some point during the standoff, the Coroner's Office reported. LAPD Chief Michel Moore also said at Tuesday's Police Commission meeting that the suspect, 32-year-old Jonathan Magana sustained injuries from police gunfire, according to the coroner's report, but the cause of death was the self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Plainclothes LAPD Hollenbeck Division Narcotics Enforcement Detail officers first responded to the 3800 block of Broadway at around 3:50 p.m., March 8 on a report of Magana, a parolee at large. He was a suspect in an extortion case and was under surveillance. Magana ran from officers, and police set up a perimeter in the area while a helicopter and other backup were called in. At around 6:45 p.m., officers searching the area found Magana barricaded inside a shed-like structure about two blocks east, near the corner of Broadway and Mission Road. 

CBS 2

Operators Of Upscale L.A. Care Facility Charged In 14 COVID Deaths

The operators of an upscale Los Angeles care facility for dementia patients were charged Tuesday with felony elder abuse and other criminal counts related to the deaths of an employee and thirteen residents during the early days of the pandemic. Silverado Beverly Place, near the Fairfax district, specializes in caring for elderly residents with Alzheimer’s and dementia, and was the site of a COVID-19 outbreak in March 2020. The employee and residents died during the outbreak, in which 45 employees and 60 residents were infected, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. The facility’s operators were sued in civil court by the families of multiple residents and the employee who died. The facility was the subject of a 2020 Times investigation. The facility was meant to be closed to visitors, prosecutors said, when it admitted a patient from a New York psychiatric unit. Silverado Beverly Place’s own protocols required it to not admit anyone from a high-risk area like New York City, which was considered an epicenter of COVID-19 at the time.

Los Angeles Times

LAPD Police Chief Going To Baseball Spring Training In Arizona To Recruit Officers

Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore is headed to baseball’s spring training in Arizona, but not necessarily to catch any games. With the department nearly 300 sworn officers short of its staffing level, Moore was invited by the Los Angeles Dodgers to head to their Glendale training facility to talk to qualified candidates within the organization about the possibility of working for the department after baseball. At a cost of about $950 for flights and lodging, the trip for Moore and two recruitment officers was approved by the Board of Police Commissioners Tuesday, March 14. “This is to remind them that we’re hiring,” Moore said at Tuesday’s Police Board of Commissioners meeting. “Going into that sport, they have attributes like teamwork, athleticism and emotional intelligence that if they hadn’t thought of coming in and transitioning those into law enforcement, they should.” Moore said the department already has ex-athletes including some who played in the NFL and NBA.

Los Angeles Daily News

4 L.A. Area Men Face Horrific Federal Charges Of Child Sexual Exploitation

Four Southern California men, including some from Long Beach and Hollywood, are facing federal charges of child sexual exploitation alleging the victimization of minors, officials announced Tuesday. In cases filed in Los Angeles in recent weeks, the defendants were accused of exploiting children in person and on the Internet. "Protecting our children from sexual exploitation is some of the most important work my office does,'' U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement. "For years, we have vigorously prosecuted child sexual predators, and we have only increased those efforts in recent times. To those who would seek to victimize our youth, let me be clear: We will use every tool in our arsenal to bring you to justice and thereby stop you from causing further irreparable harm to others.'' The defendants facing charges in Los Angeles federal court are: Ivan Lozano, 36, of Long Beach, Dustan David Sheehan, 45, of Hollywood, Nathan Kicyla, 39, of Van Nuys, and Ian Nathanial Johnson, 36, of Santa Clarita. 

NBC 4

L.A. Prosecutors Decline To Retry Weinstein Following December Deadlock

L.A. prosecutors announced Tuesday that Harvey Weinstein will not be retried on rape and sexual assault charges after a jury deadlocked in December. The charges were formally dismissed Tuesday. After 10 days of deliberation, a Los Angeles jury found disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein guilty of one count of rape on December 19, 2022. Weinstein, 70, was charged in Los Angeles with seven sexual assault counts involving four women: three counts of forcible rape, two counts of sexual battery by restraint, one count of forcible oral copulation, and one count of sexual penetration by a foreign object. He pleaded not guilty to all charges. In addition to the one count of rape, Weinstein was found guilty of forced oral copulation and another sexual misconduct count relating to one of the four victims. 

CBS 2

Lockdown Lifted At Pasadena High School; Replica Gun Allegedly Found

A lockdown of Pasadena High School prompted by a report that a student had a gun was lifted Tuesday afternoon after a replica gun was found, officials said. Police went to the campus in the 2900 block of East Sierra Madre Boulevard late Tuesday morning. Some students thought they saw another student with a gun and authorities were notified, according to city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian. The lockdown was lifted early Tuesday afternoon for all but a small part of the campus as a search continued to determine if a weapon was on the school grounds. The lockdown was fully lifted later Tuesday after the replica gun was found, Derderian said. The student was detained by authorities, and detectives are determining whether criminal charges will be sought, she added.

FOX 11

Man Charged In 1997 Killing Of SoCal Bank Teller Monica Leech

Authorities on Tuesday announced charges against a 55-year-old man arrested in connection with the 1997 fatal shooting of a Thousand Oaks bank teller during a robbery. Kevin Ray James was arrested in San Bernardino on March 9. He was transported and booked into Ventura County Jail. James was later charged with first-degree murder in commission of robbery and using a firearm in the commission of the offense, Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko said during a news conference Tuesday. He is being held without bail. Leech was shot in the back of the head during a robbery at Western Financial Bank at 2920 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd. on April 28, 1997. Around 10:15 a.m. that morning, two robbers disguised as construction workers went into the bank and demanded money. Three workers were forced into the vault room and forced to unlock the safe, Ventura County Sheriff James Fryhoff detailed. Leech, 39, was eventually handcuffed and one of the robbers shot her. She had only been working at the bank for a few months before she was killed, Fryhoff said.

KTLA 5

Video: Officers Arrest Man Who Posted Online About Shooting Florida Sheriff In The Head

A 38-year-old New Jersey man wanted for making a death threat against a sheriff in Florida who has been outspoken against an antisemitic hate group was arrested at his South Brunswick home on Monday, authorities said. Richard Golden was taken into custody shortly after 1 p.m. at his condo on Tangelwood Court in the Monmouth Junction section of the township, South Brunswick police said Tuesday. According to Florida authorities, Golden wrote on 4chan.org “Just shoot (Volusia County Sheriff Mike J.) Chitwood in the head. He stops being a problem. They have to find a new guy to be the new problem. But shooting Chitwood in the head solves the immediate problem permanently. Murder him.” South Brunswick police seized electronic devices from Golden’s home when they arrested him, officials said. Golden made the post around Feb. 23 and was tracked down through his IP address. At a press conference Wednesday, Chitwood called Golden “anti-government, anti-law enforcement” and “a marginalized member of society who spends hours and hours in extremist chat rooms.”

PoliceOne

Florida K-9 Deputy Ambushed, Shot In Neck, Hand And Leg While Tracking Suspect

Zion Bostick told his mother he wasn’t going back to prison. Bostick, 23, skipped a court date last week for two separate criminal cases and was facing a possible state prison sentence. He had already served two stints in prison, the first when he was 17. On Sunday — exactly one year to the day since he was released from prison the second time — he shot and wounded a Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office K-9 deputy and was then fatally shot by a second deputy, authorities said. The K-9 deputy, 40-year-old Cpl. Matthew Aitken, was hospitalized and on Monday was listed in stable condition, police said. The Pinellas County Use of Deadly Force Task Force is investigating the shooting that happened just before 7 p.m. in the 6300 block of 60th Avenue N, in an unincorporated area of Pinellas Park. A witness noticed a man, later identified as Bostick, attempting to get into several vehicles, St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway said during a news conference Sunday. The witness confronted Bostick and began videotaping him. Bostick ran from the scene, Holloway said.

Tampa Bay Times

Los Angeles County Sees Large Decline In COVID Hospitalizations

Los Angeles County has seen a major drop in the number of coronavirus patients at county hospitals, according to the latest state data. The county’s total has fallen to 474 COVID-positive patients, down by 100 since Saturday. Of those patients, 56 were being treated in intensive care, about the same as Saturday’s figure. The statewide total has fallen to 2,217 patients, and has been gradually declining over the last several weeks. Some of the patients were initially hospitalized for other reasons and learned they had COVID after a mandated test. On Tuesday, local health officials reported another 774 cases of COVID-19 and 11 additional deaths linked to the virus. That brings the county’s cumulative totals to 3,716,873 cases and 35,853 fatalities since the pandemic began, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

MyNewsLA

City Council Explores Expansion Of Alternative Response Program

The City Council called on its staff today to develop a report on the annual volume of mental health and domestic violence calls in the city, with an eye toward possibly expanding its Mental Evaluation Unit and Domestic Abuse Response Team to respond to such calls rather than police. Council members Eunisses Hernandez, Curren Price and Traci Park co-authored the motion, which gives the City Administrative Office, Chief Legislative Analyst and the Los Angeles Police Department 30 days to report back. They asked that the report include current capacity and response times of the MEU and DART, a discussion of how the teams have grown since inception, and an outline of any shortfall in resources that prevents the deployment of the teams to qualifying incidents. City staff were also directed to return with a budget proposal in 30 days for possible expansion of the MEU and DART to support more personnel, along with potential financial resources and deployment procedures needed to make the programs more widely available in response to mental health emergencies.

Westside Current

City Council Approves New Signage Recognizing Hollywood Heights

The City Council Tuesday approved the installation of five signs designating the Hollywood Heights neighborhood in the Hollywood Hills. The city’s Department of Transportation will create the signs and install them at Highland Avenue and Camrose Drive; Hillcrest Road and Franklin Avenue; Franklin and Orchid Avenue; Sycamore Avenue and Franklin; and La Presa Drive and Camrose. According to a motion authored by Councilwoman Nithya Raman, Hollywood Heights is bounded generally by the Hollywood Bowl to the north, Highland Avenue to the east, Outpost Estates to the west and Franklin Avenue to the south. The neighborhood is situated in what was the northern part of the Rancho La Brea Mexican land grant in the Nineteenth Century, according to the motion.

MyNewsLA

About the LAPPL: Formed in 1923, the Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL) represents more than 9,200 dedicated and professional sworn members of the Los Angeles Police Department. The LAPPL serves to advance the interests of LAPD officers through legislative and legal advocacy, political action and education.