VALLEY'S MURDER RATE UP SHARPLY CITYWIDE, AUTHORITIES SEE SIGNIFICANT DROP.

Byline: Ryan Oliver Staff Writer

Los Angeles' crime rate continued its descent in the first month of the year, with a 19 percent drop in citywide homicides compared with January 2003, but the numbers were not as good in the San Fernando Valley, where slayings doubled during the same time period.

Police officials said the Valley suffered a rash of atypical homicides, including a triple shooting, that may have temporarily skewed statistics.

``It really appears to be an anomaly,'' said Assistant Chief George Gascon. ``Some of those homicides in the Valley were certainly not what you would anticipate.''

The Valley saw 10 homicides this January, compared with five last January.

Nevertheless, Gascon said, a citywide drop from 37 to 30 slayings was good news, and gave credit to the police department's reorganization under Chief William Bratton. The numbers are also a far cry from the bloody January of two years ago, when 15 people were killed in the Valley and 57 were slain throughout the city.

``January is generally one of the higher homicide months, so the drop is significant,'' he said. ``We're hoping it's a trend that will continue through the entire year.''

Major crime overall was also down 14 percent for the month, compared with the previous January, but still less than Bratton's goal of a 20 percent decline for the year.

Deputy Chief Ron Bergman, head of LAPD's Valley Bureau, said of the Valley's 10 homicides that seven were concentrated in the Van Nuys Division and only three were gang-related.

The triple slaying is believed to be the result of a drug dispute. Another victim whose body was found in Van Nuys appears to have died at the hand of a sexual predator. A suspect has been arrested.

A death in the Foothill Division has not been officially ruled a homicide by medical examiners, but the department is investigating it as one and included it in the figures. The man's body was found in a Mission Hills cemetery, and it's unclear what the motive for his death was.

``These weren't the typical drive-by shootings we end up with in the Valley,'' Bergman said. ``This was an unusual month and fortunately we don't have many unusual months.''

Gascon attributed the falling number of homicides to a better deployment of officers, and the targeting of the city's repeat offenders and most crime-prone areas. Most of the drop has been in gang-related killings, he said.

``The indicators right now are all good,'' said Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell, the department's second-in-command. ``We're continuing to see the drops in both violent and property crime that we saw last year, and we're building on what we did.''

Ryan Oliver, [phone]

ryan.oliver(at)dailynews.com

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JANUARY HOMICIDES

SOURCE: LAPD 

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