HOMICIDES DOWN IN AREA BUT BLOODY WEEKEND IN VALLEY, SOUTH CENTRAL ANGERS D.A.Byline: Jason Kandel Staff Writer Homicides fell 30 percent in the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. and 22 percent citywide during the first quarter of the year, and authorities Tuesday credited a heightened police presence for the drop. Several categories of serious crimes continued to rise but the Valley Bureau of the Los Angeles Police Department "LAPD" and "L.A.P.D." redirect here. For other uses, see LAPD (disambiguation).  This article or section is written like an . recorded only 19 homicides through March 31 - about half of them gang-related - compared with 27 during the first quarter of 2002. ``I'm excited to see that things have been calming down,'' said William ``Blinky'' Rodriguez, executive director of Communities in Schools, a North Hills nonprofit organization Nonprofit Organization An association that is given tax-free status. Donations to a non-profit organization are often tax deductible as well. Notes: Examples of non-profit organizations are charities, hospitals and schools. working to keep kids out of gangs. Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell said redeploying officers from other, quieter bureaus to more dangerous spots in the city has apparently helped prevent some homicides. ``Officers are working very hard,'' he said. ``They're focusing their energies where violence is the highest.'' Citywide, homicides plummeted from 156 to 122 - a number that grew dramatically over the weekend, when gang warfare gang warfare n → guerra entre bandas left five people dead in South Central Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. . ``We had a hell of a weekend,'' said McDonnell, the department's second in command. ``Our numbers prior to the weekend were down 20 percent. We're happy about that, but we still have a lot of work to do.'' District Attorney Steve Cooley Stephen Lawrence ("Steve") Cooley (born May 1, 1947 in Los Angeles, California) is a veteran prosecutor who was elected as Los Angeles County's 36th District Attorney on November 7, 2000. He was sworn in for his second term on December 6, 2004. reacted with anger to the recent spate of street violence, and he organized a peace vigil for 1 p.m. Saturday at the Dolores Dolores (or Delores) was a common given name (until the 1960s in the USA); it is cognate with the English word "dolorous" (meaning sorrowful) and equivalent in meaning. Mission, 170 S. Gless St., Los Angeles. ``Throughout Los Angeles County, there is an urban war being waged in our streets,'' Cooley said. ``Gang violence is killing our children and devastating dev·as·tate tr.v. dev·as·tat·ed, dev·as·tat·ing, dev·as·tates 1. To lay waste; destroy. 2. To overwhelm; confound; stun: was devastated by the rude remark. our communities.'' Despite the drop in Valley homicides, police say shootings and other types of crime are on the rise. ``We still have a number of aggravated assaults,'' said Deputy Chief Ronald Bergmann, commander of the LAPD's Valley Bureau. ``But homicides are down. Gang homicides are down. I'm happy about that. ``We still have got a lot of work to do. We've got to reduce the shootings.'' Bergmann met with his staff Tuesday to discuss ways to improve how police handle such shootings and to ensure that detectives enter each case as quickly as possible after the gunfire. He also hopes to get stronger cooperation from the Scientific Investigation Division downtown and to identify people who are responsible for multiple shootings. ``We're looking at what the areas are doing - and help them out when they have a rash of shootings,'' he said. Bergmann was concerned about the weekend violence, in which 18-year-old Salvador Celis was killed in a gang-related shooting Sunday night at a bus stop in Van Nuys. Four other people were wounded in weekend shootings in the Foothill Division, two of them gang-related. Police give the nonfatal shootings as much attention as homicides. ``It is only a matter of inches, and the shootings could become murders,'' said LAPD 1. LAPD - Link Access Procedure on the D channel. 2. LAPD - Los Angeles Police Department. Lt. George Rock, who supervises the Foothill detectives. CAPTION(S): box Box: VALLEY GANG CRIMES AND HOMICIDES SOURCE: Los Angeles Police Department Daily News |
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