Northeast Crime Report Update

While Silver Lake, Highland Park, and some other neighboring areas are having some recent crime, Echo Park seems to be pretty quiet according to the most recent Northeast newsletter on recent crime events.

According to the email, Echo Park is reported as having “No trends or patterns over the past 28-day period. A few property crimes over the past week.”

The rest of the email reads as follows:

Elysian Valley

Had two burglaries last week and five over past five weeks. No other trends or patterns.

Silver Lake

We held a press conference and released a composite of the suspect on the purse snatch robbery on Glendale Boulevard in which a female victim was shot (she is in stable condition). Many tips came in and we have been actively working the case. If you have any info regarding this incident please call 213- 485-2566.

Had a few other robberies that have occurred over the past 4-5 weeks. We believe local gang members committed some of these. We stepped up enforcement actions against the suspected gang.

The last problem we have been experiencing is burglaries. We had over 20 residential burglaries in the Silverlake and Franklin Hills areas over the past five weeks. We have arrested a couple of suspects that we believe committed several of these, but clearly others are still operating in the area. Please keep your residences locked and lookout for unusual activities – people looking into homes or door knocking homes trying to discover if anyone is home. If you go to our website: lapdonline.org – and then click on prevent crime (lower left of screen), then click on miscellaneous crime tips (more), you will see a bullet for “burglary prevention.” This is a brochure that has many good tips to keep your home or business safe.

Franklin Hills

Burglaries and car break ins are the problems. The burglary problem was discussed above. The car break in problem is occurring mostly between midnight and six AM. Suspects are targeting cars parked on the street or in some cases apartment complexes. We have deployed extra patrol to Franklin Hills and Los Feliz to try and stem this problem

Los Feliz

Same crime scenario as Franklin Hills and Silverlake. Property crime, specifically burglaries and car break ins are the problems. Last weeks crime numbers looked a little better from previous weeks. Because we concentrated a lot of resources in this area lately – some of the crime probably dispersed in Franklin Hills or Silverlake. We continue to deploy extra officers to reduce the crime rate.

East Hollywood

This area looks pretty good. There were only a few property crimes last week and no trends or patterns over the past 4-5 weeks. We are keeping an eye on the shop lifting in the retail stores on the Vermont corridor – but overall this looks good.

Eagle Rock

We had a burglary crew that committed several burglaries in the Eagle Rock area between late March through mid April. This activity has disappeared (suspects may have moved on – we continue to work the leads that we have on these cases). Had some car break ins during the beginning to middle of April that has slowed down. Our Special Problems Unit (SPU) made some great arrests in the area that impacted this. All other crimes look pretty good – a few retail shoplifting incidents at the Eagle Rock Plaza.

Cypress Park

Sadly, we had our first homicide of the year on Sunday April 25, 2010, at 1 AM. Three victims were standing on the street in front of 660 Romulo Street, Cypress Park, when a traditional drive-by shooting occurred. The suspects fired numerous rounds from the vehicle at the victims hitting two of them. The suspects then fled the scene before police arrived. Both victims were transported to the hospital. Tragically, one died at the hospital from his wounds. The other was released that night. This is a gang-related homicide involving the local gangs. We moved additional gang units into Cypress Park to try and prevent any retaliation shootings.

Highland Park

We had our second YTD homicide yesterday (our second in three days) April 29, 2010, at approximately 5 PM. A 17-year old Highland Park gang member was standing in front of an apartment building in the 300 block North Avenue 57 when the suspects drove up and shot him multiple times. We had a patrol unit right around the corner and responded to the scene within seconds – but unfortunately the suspect’s vehicle had fled and we could not pick it up with our helicopters. The victim was transported to the hospital where he succumbed to his wounds.

This was a gang related shooting between the local gangs.

At approximately 9 PM another shooting incident occurred at Avenue 37 and Figueroa (this is actually the Mount Washington area). Another 17-year old was standing on the street corner when a vehicle drove up and opened fire. The victim was shot several times in the head and chest. He was transported to the hospital and is in serious condition. Many rumors have been floating around that this incident resulted in a homicide – not true. The victim is alive but in serious condition. This is another gang related shooting involving the local gangs. We are investigating if this incident is related to the Sunday shooting.

Due to the two homicides in three days – I have requested additional resources from other police stations to increase our presence and take additional enforcement actions against the local gangs. Approximately 30 extra officers will be deployed in the impacted areas over the next several days.

Mount Washington

There has been a tremendous increase in car break ins in the Mount Washington area. We have made several outstanding arrests but there clearly are other suspects operating in the area. The crimes are occurring around the clock – some in the middle of the night – some in the early evening. We have the Figueroa footbeat unit and some SPU officers working this problem.

Glassell Park

We had a team of Lotto Scam suspects (M & F, Hispanics, Spanish speakers) working Glassell Park from late March to mid April. All told, we had seven lotto victims. The scam is very simple, one suspect approaches the victim – generally an elderly female Hispanic (who speaks Spanish) and tells her that he/she has a problem. They have the winning ticket to the State lottery (millions of dollars) but unfortunately since they are in the country illegally, they cannot cash the ticket. A second suspect comes up pretending not to know the first and offers to help the elderly lady. He pretends to call a telephone number on the back of the ticket and confirms it’s a winner! The elderly lady is offered the deal of the century – if she would go to her bank and withdraw as much cash as she can (usually $1,000-$10,000) she will be given this ticket. The elderly lady is transported to her bank (never get in a car with a stranger!) and withdraws the money. They then take her to a loca l store to redeem the ticket and cause a distraction where they escape as she discovers the ticket is worthless. Unfortunately, seven people have already fallen for this scam. We distributed flyers warning residents not to fall for this scam (also did a press conference). Remember “if it’s too good to be true – it probably is.” Please warn your friends and family to watch out for these scams.

Atwater Village

Looks pretty good. Only a few property crimes – no patterns or trends.

Off-the-radar reports in Echo Park includes some news of gunfire near Echo Park Ave. and Avalon Street, as reported by The Eastsider LA, on Tuesday, April 20 (where the LAPD actually found bullet casings). Also noticeably missing from the Atwater Village update was a what appeared to be a big arrest on Sunnynook Drive (with all the helicopters and street closures and all) on Thursday, April 15, as recorded by the Atwater Village Newbie.