Santa Ana police are searching for a man suspected of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old child.
Nicolas Gonzalez, 39, is suspected of harming the child at a home in the 500 block of North Mortimer Street on Tuesday, according to police.
Gonzalez fled his home after being confronted by the child’s family members, police said.
There is an active warrant for his arrest on multiple child sexual assault charges, authorities said. He has black hair, brown eyes and is described as standing around 5 feet 3 and weighing around 160 pounds.
Anyone with information on Gonzalez’s location is asked to contact police at (714) 245-8379 or AAvila@santa-ana.org.
A small, unburned patch of the living room under a caved-in roof is all that remains of Omar Hernandez’s house after a massive fire tore through his block in South Los Angeles this week. Pink insulation and overhead lights dangle from above as he tiptoes around glass shards and gravel in slippers.
Hernandez, 53, and his wife and cousin are spending nights at a friend’s apartment in Glendale, but return every day to what is left of the house to salvage any belongings. The plan is to move everything out by Monday as they search for a new home and some answers.
Before dawn Tuesday, flames swept through an apartment building under construction in the 1500 block of East Vernon Avenue in the working-class neighborhood of Central-Alameda. Burning hot and fast through the exposed wood of the building’s framing, the fire spread quickly to neighboring homes, injuring three people and displacing 17, including Hernandez.
Seven buildings were damaged, including five that were left at least partially unsafe for occupancy. Entry is prohibited to one single-family home and two duplexes deemed completely uninhabitable, according to the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety.
Kimberly Erendira, 12, is among those whose homes were gutted by the fire. Seven buildings were damaged or destroyed.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
As neighbors sift through the remnants of their belongings and seek new housing, many are pointing to the building under construction. City records show that it was to be a four-story affordable housing complex and that it had received expedited processing, clearances and approvals under Mayor Karen Bass’ Executive Directive 1.
“I blame the owner of the construction site,” Hernandez said. “They were trying to make this small plot of land into a four-story building next to small homes. Whoever said OK to this project needs to be held accountable.”
The site, steps from neighboring houses, had a problem with trespassers and no security guards on the property, multiple neighbors said.
Jerardo Diaz, 30, whose family lived in the home directly behind the site for 35 years, had even asked the construction crews to put up a bigger fence to give his family more privacy. In front of the charred remnants of his house there now hangs a red leaflet from the Department of Building and Safety reading: “Unsafe / Do not enter or occupy.”
The site’s contractor, Arrow Construction Co. in Artesia, did not respond to a request for comment.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation, and it’s unclear when authorities will make a determination, according to Los Angeles Fire Department spokesperson Margaret Stewart.
The cause of the massive fire this week in the Central-Alameda neighborhood is still under investigation, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
Meanwhile, those whose homes were damaged or destroyed are struggling to figure out what to do next as families face the prospect of a holiday season spent rebuilding or looking for a new home.
“To explain to a child, when it’s Christmastime, [that] all their friends have toys but they’re not going to be able to this year — because right now their mom and dad need to get a roof over their head — is going to be their reality,” said Edward Winters, 63, of Lynwood, a former East Vernon Avenue resident who visited Wednesday morning to help neighbors after seeing a GoFundMe page that had been set up for Hernandez.
Hernandez said he had not received any help from his landlord or communication from the contractor of the construction site. He works as a dental assistant and moonlights as a DJ, and said he lost three cars and $15,000 worth of DJ equipment in the fire, among other belongings.
Hilda Flores, who has known Hernandez for 20 years and set up the GoFundMe page, is housing his family in her two-bedroom Glendale apartment and has urged them to stop returning to their destroyed home.
“I told them, ‘Leave the clothes.’ Those are all material things we can buy again,” said Flores, 41. “It’s not safe.”
Large planks of charred wood protrude into the walkway to the home,and pieces of insulation fall from the damaged ceiling despite a tarp they put up to cover it. Smoke and bits of charcoal still linger in the air.
“The main thing is we need a place to stay,” said Isabel Perez, 67, Hernandez’s wife. “A two-bedroom in this area. Anything, really.”
Neighbors have voiced concern over the mental well-being of the displaced families. Perez believes her husband has been suffering from depression since the fire, and says their dog, Mia, suffered burn injuries on her head and must be taken to the veterinarian.
“Omar is crying every hour and wakes up in the middle of the night crying from nightmares,” she said. “Mia keeps on whimpering and crying too. If something is seriously wrong with Mia, he might die.”
“At least we lived,” Perez murmured to herself, cradling Mia.
A spokesperson for City Councilmember Curren Price, who represents the area, acknowledged the anguish victims are feeling and said the American Red Cross has been assisting the city’s emergency response.
“They’re in limbo, living day to day,” Angelina Valencia said of the displaced residents, adding that at least one family has temporarily moved to Bakersfield to stay with relatives.
Price met with victims Tuesday afternoon, and his office has coordinated with local organizations to give the families clothing, toiletries, baby wipes, diapers and toys.
“Our own staff has donated baby clothing because most of the impacted families have young children, from a month old to a 12-year-old,” Valencia said.
Price’s office had connected with two families and was working to reach others.
Evacuated residents were left stunned Tuesday morning, many without shelter, after the East Vernon Avenue fire.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
The Red Cross has also provided residents cards with some funds, but “it’s only meant to help them in the short term with their immediate needs,” Valencia said. “Still, the families feel confused and desperate to get answers as they don’t know what tomorrow will bring.”
A disaster team, caseworkers and volunteers have been in touch with the displaced residents and will continue to offer assistance in the days to come, said Stephanie Grande, spokesperson for the Red Cross’ Los Angeles region. A temporary evacuation center closed at 1 p.m. the day the fire broke out.
“Casework assistance often entails connecting those affected by a disaster with existing social service programs in the community, helping them navigate complex paperwork, providing financial assistance to help meet immediate needs, and locating help from other agencies to assist with longer-term recovery needs,” Grande said.
With the shock of the fire behind them, Julise Jimemes, 56, said the neighborhood was coming together to lend what support it could to the displaced families.
When Jimemes woke up Tuesday morning, she was convinced her home would be taken by the fire. She gathered all of her important papers and belongings into her car and got ready to flee with her 87-year-old mother.
But after firefighters extinguished the blaze, Jimemes’ home remained unscathed.
Thankful to be among the fortunate ones, she couldn’t bear to see neighbors struggle on the block she has called home for 35 years. On Friday, she said, she planned to cook dinner for Hernandez’s family.
A Granada Hills man shot and killed a suspected burglar inside his home early Saturday morning, police said.
The dead man, who was not immediately identified, was one of four people accused of breaking into a residence in the 11000 block of Swinton Avenue around 5 a.m., according to Los Angeles Police Department Capt. Kelly Muniz.
It was not immediately clear if the suspects were armed or how they broke in. The man who was shot was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Muniz, and the other three remain at large.
Neither the homeowner nor any of the other suspects were injured, Muniz said.
There were several other people in the home at the time of the incident, Muniz said. The homeowner was not identified.
The son of a Hollywood executive first tried to get day laborers to remove bags from his Tarzana home with what they realized were body parts and, when that failed, he was caught on video dumping them out of the back of his Tesla in Encino, authorities said.
Samuel Bond Haskell IV is slated to be charged Monday afternoon after being behind bars on suspicion of murder following the gruesome discovery of dismembered body parts last Wednesday. Los Angeles police investigators say those remains are likely those of his wife, Mei Haskell, and both his in-laws remain missing.
LAPD Robbery Homicide Division detectives arrested Haskell after working through the weekend, gathering evidence from his home at the 4100 block of Coldstream Terrace in Tarzana and around the Encino dumpster at a strip mall where a man found a suitcase with fresh human remains. Investigators found evidence of body disposal inside the home and brought a dog that tracks human remains to check the surrounding area.
Haskell tried last Tuesday to pay day laborers $500 to take away bags he first said were full of rocks, and then said were Halloween decorations, the workers told a reporter for NBC4. But the day laborers told NBC4 the contents felt like meat inside. “When we picked up the bags, we could tell they weren’t rocks,” one of the workers said in Spanish.
The men described the bags as soft and soggy, weighing about 50 pounds. They stopped their truck a block away, checked inside and saw human remains, identifying a belly button. They returned the remains and reported the discovery first to CHP and then to the LAPD. But the bags were gone when authorities went to check it out, police said.
Haskell was then apparently captured on security cameras opposite an Encino strip mall. The video obtained by Fox News shows a man hauling a large and seemingly heavy sack over his shoulder from the back of his Tesla at about 4:45 p.m. Tuesday and dumping it into a trash bin.
An unhoused man Wednesday morning found a human torso stuffed into a duffel and thrown in a trash bin in a parking lot near Ventura Boulevard and Rubio Avenue — about five miles away from Haskell’s home, police said.
LAPD Capt. Scot Williams of the Robbery-Homicide Division said the torso is assumed to be that of Haskell’s wife, Mei Haskell, who has not been located. But forensics will be needed to confirm the identity.
Haskell, his wife and her parents, Yanxiang Wang and Gaoshen Li, all lived in a single-story home in the 4100 block of Coldstream Terrace in Tarzana. The couple’s three children were in school the day their father was arrested, authorities said.
Williams said detectives will present a criminal investigation to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office Monday afternoon for filing. None of the missing persons have been located.
LAPD Det. Efren Gutierrez told reporters last week that efforts to reach Mei Haskell’s parents had yielded no results. “They would normally be home in these hours, and attempts have been made to contact them by phone, by cellphone, and no answer. And the same with Mei. She is unaccounted for.”
Inside Haskell’s house, detectives discovered blood and other evidence consistent with killing and dismemberment, according to investigators.
Haskell is being held in lieu of $2 million bail.
Court records show that in December 2008, Haskell was arrested and charged with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon. He pleaded no contest to battery and was placed on probation in 2010.
Records show that Haskell is the son of Sam Haskell, the former executive vice president and worldwide head of television for William Morris who represented a slew of A-list stars and is still listed as head of Magnolia Hill Productions, which has produced several specials featuring Dolly Parton.
The 10 Freeway in downtown Los Angeles was shut down indefinitely in both directions early Saturday after two wooden pallet yards caught fire, damaging an overpass and destroying several vehicles, including a fire truck, authorities said.
Both westbound and eastbound lanes of the heavily traveled freeway are closed between Alameda Street and Santa Fe Avenue, while structural engineers assess the damage, said Lauren Wonder, a CalTrans spokeswoman.
“As of now, the freeway is shut down indefinitely,” Wonder said. “I would encourage people to avoid this area between the East L.A. interchange and Alameda Street.”
The fire was reported shortly after midnight in the 1700 block of East 14 Street after a pallet yard under the freeway caught fire and spread to a second pallet yard nearby.
The massive fire prompted Californai Highway Patrol to issue a SigAlert and closed the freeway in both directions. Traffic on the eastbound lanes was being diverted at Santa Fe Avenue while traffic on the westbound lanes was being diverted at Alameda Street.
Los Angeles fire officials said firefighters from 26 companies and one helicopter responded to the scene and prevented the fire spreading into nearby commercial buildings. Heavy equipment operators were also used to move debris around and allow firefighters to douse small pockets of fire.
Firefighters douse the still smoldering massive pallet fire that gutted Fire Engine 17, right, which became stuck under the 10 Freeway overpass at 1700 block of East 14th Street on Saturday in Los Angeles.
(Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power also assisted by boosting water pressure in the area to compensate for the high volume needed.
Fire officials said the fire forced several homeless people to evacuate the area but vehicles parked under or near the freeway were damaged or destroyed. Officials said one of those vehicle was a fire engine.
The fire was extinguished as of 10 a.m. but firefighters continue to mop up the area. Caltrans officials also remained on the scene.
Wonder said hazmat teams are waiting on firefighters to finish mopping up the area and will head in to ensure that it’s safe for structural engineers to go in and assess the extent of the damage to the freeway.
“We see what we call ‘concrete spalling,’ which is chips of concrete that come off but we won’t know the extent of the damage until the structural engineers can go in and see if the rebar was burned or not,” she said. “This is still developing.”
The same day that antisemitic graffiti was found painted outside Canter’s Deli in the Fairfax district this week, at least half a dozen other similar incidents of vandalism were discovered at Jewish businesses, synagogues and schools around L.A., authorities said.
Some of the other incidents of vandalism were reported on Wednesday in the Pico-Roberston neighborhood, known for its large Jewish community, and included anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian messages, according to the Anti-Defamation League. The incident outside Canter’s is being investigated as a possible hate crime, Los Angeles police said.
The graffiti included messages in white paint under the popular Fairfax Community Mural, which faces Canter’s parking lot and features historic figures of Los Angeles’ Jewish community, such as Dodgers legend Sandy Koufax. The graffiti included messages that read, “Israel’s only religion is capitalism,” “How many dead in the name of greed?” and “Free Gaza.”
Jewish and civic leaders denounced the incidents as antisemitic attacks on their community, which come amid an escalating war between Israel and Hamas militants, who launched a brutal offensive from neighboring Gaza on southern Israel on Oct. 7.
After the Oct. 7 attack, the Anti-Defamation League has said harassment, vandalism and attacks against Jews have surged around the country.
“Vandalizing and targeting synagogues, Jewish neighborhoods and a mural about local Jewish history on the wall of the iconic Canter’s Deli on Fairfax Boulevard is heinous and antisemitic,” said Jeffrey Abrams, Los Angeles regional director of the Anti-Defamation League in Los Angeles.
In addition to the Canter’s incident, the Los Angeles Police Department also confirmed a second act of vandalism in the 300 block of La Brea Avenue, which is also being investigated as a possible hate crime.
In all, five additional incidents were reported Wednesday to the Anti-Defamation League and relayed to the LAPD, according to the Jewish civil rights organization. A spokesperson for the LAPD could not confirm that reports were taken for those incidents.
Two utility boxes located in front of a yeshiva, a Jewish academy of Talmudic learning, in the 1200 block of South La Cienega Boulevard were tagged with “Free Gaza,” according to the ADL. A similar message was found two blocks away, near the intersection of Whitworth Drive and South Orlando Boulevard.
A poster at a bus stop was also spray-painted with the message “Free Gaza” near the intersection of Pico Boulevard and Alfred Street. A construction site near Melrose and La Brea avenues was vandalized with “I$rael Killers” in white paint.
And Congregation Bais Yehuda, in the 360 block of North La Brea Avenue, was also spray-painted with “Free Gaza,” according to the ADL.
The incidents, reported to the ADL, included images of the graffiti, which were reviewed by The Times.
On the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky called the incidents “disgusting.” Yaroslavsky, whose districts includes the locations where the graffiti was found, said her staff responded to a total of seven incidents in her district.
“Jews in L.A. have been sounding the alarm on the rise in anti-semitism for years,” she wrote on X. “It’s disgusting and it has no place in Los Angeles.”
Block’s share price soared in after hours trading after the payments company surpassed analyst expectations for its third quarter earnings, which included news of a double digit jump in Bitcoin revenue.
The company’s Bitcoin revenue grew 37.5% to $2.42 billion from $1.76 billion in the same period last year. Gross profit the company reaped from Bitcoin rose to $44 million, compared to $36 million last year.
Block also touted the value of the Bitcoin holdings in its corporate treasury, which amounted to $216 million based on market prices. The value of its holdings based on market prices were $114 million higher than the value on its books.
The discrepancy between book value and market value is due to a quirk in accounting rules (set to be changed) that require firms to record any decreases in Bitcoin price as an impairment charge, but prevents them from recognizing increases in the value of their Bitcoin holdings until the assets are sold. In the third quarter of 2023, the company did not recognize a Bitcoin impairment loss.
In total, Block’s net revenue grew 24% year-over-year to $5.62 billion from $4.52 billion a year ago. Bitcoin revenue made up about 43% of total revenue. The jump in revenue that came from the cryptocurrency was fueled by strong performance of the company’s CashApp product.
Cash App revenue grew 34% to $3.58 billion, up from $2.68 billion a year ago.
Block shares were trading at about $50, up 15% after market close on Thursday.
Learn more about all things crypto with short, easy-to-read lesson cards. Click here for Fortune’s Crypto Crash Course.
The web3 protocol said its decision followed legal guidance from the U.S. Treasury while debunking unverified reports of restrictions on non-sanctioned countries.
Wallet Connect announced an update to which regions can access its open-source protocol used for linking blockchain wallets to decentralized apps. Russian users have been geo-blocked from the platform in line with sanctions from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
The sanction came into effect on Oct. 30 and that led to restrictions on two countries – Russia and certain areas of Ukraine. Ukrainian users in other parts of the country were temporarily affected but service was subsequently restored, according to Wallet Connect’s team.
Reports making the rounds prior to the announcement said Wallet Connect also blocked a number of non-sanctioned countries. The protocol refuted such claims and apologized to general users for possible inconveniences.
Dear WalletConnect community,
In light of the latest legal and OFAC guidance, WalletConnect has restricted the availability of the WalletConnect Protocol in Russia. Certain regions of Ukraine were temporarily impacted; service has since resumed.
U.S. sanctions have cracked down on crypto gateways in Russia and the Middle East amid ongoing geopolitical tension between nations. The Department of Treasury and U.S. policymakers look to implement legislation they say would combat terror and war financing via digital assets.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) submitted new laws for consideration to boost oversight on crypto mixing services. Senator Elizabeth Warren also marshaled 20 percent of Congress to push new laws targeting crypto terror fundraising.
Warren’s sole citation for her letter came from a Wall Street Journal article on Hamas and crypto, which has since been debunked by multiple blockchain data providers, such as Elliptic and Chainlysis.
A teenage girl accused of shooting five people outside a Denver club last month was arrested this week in San Bernardino County, according to authorities.
The girl, whose age was not released by police, was arrested Thursday in Barstow, about 115 miles from Los Angeles, according to a Denver Police Department news release. She was arrested on eight counts of first-degree attempted homicide.
She is accused of shooting five people on Sept. 16 in the 1900 block of Market Street, authorities said. All five people survived their injuries.
Police said the girl had tried to get into a bar but was rejected by the club’s security personnel because they thought she wasn’t using her real ID. She left the line and then shot toward the club as she was leaving, authorities said.
Police believe that she had tried to shoot toward security personnel and that those who were wounded were not the intended targets.
The Denver Police Department worked with the FBI’s L.A. SWAT team, the FBI’s L.A. Desert Cities Safe Streets Task Force and the Barstow Police Department to apprehend her. Because she is a minor, her booking photo and arrest affidavit were not released.
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The Red Pill events are a great way to help entrepreneurs free themselves from the harmful belief systems that permeate their lives and keep them from their greatest achievements.”
— Jon Block
SAN DIEGO, CA, UNITED STATES, June 19, 2023/EINPresswire.com/ — HealthPreneur Jon Block recently hosted his Red Pill XP Retreat in San Diego. This three day event occurred May 19th-May 21st, 2023. The event is a health & business retreat designed to empower HealthPreneurs liberating others from the matrices of our planet. The HeathPreneurs are the Jedi of our galaxy. The ones who spread light across the 5 dimensions of health: mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, and social.
Jon brings togethers leaders and empowers them to enter industries and communities to spread far greater health, wealth, and sovereignty through the power of leading their OWN retreats and communities. His events are a mixture of activities designed to awaken & unify attendees.. They experience sound healing, Reiki, yoga, Qigong meditation and movements, and more. Jon loves working with “Disruptor-preneurs” that do not accept the status quo and are looking to gain enlightenment through alternative teachings. The event was held in an upscale home in San Diego to create greater intimacy and connection than would be found in hotel ballroom seminars. Jon personally chooses each location to be conducive to human connection and warmth in order to encourage…
stock rose Thursday after the payments group responded to some of a short seller’s allegations.
Last week, Hindenburg Research disclosed a short position in the company, alleging that Block (ticker: SQ) had inflated user metrics and didn’t rein in illicit activity by users on its Cash App platform.A short position is a bet that a stock will fall: Traders who try it borrow shares of a company and then sell them, hoping to buy them back later at a lower price.
Amazon’s Diablo-like RPG, Lost Ark, had over 1.3 million people playing it at launch. It’s cooled off since then, but there are still tens of thousands of people who log on every week to enjoy it. Or they would, if they hadn’t been banned for no reason.
Last week Amazon decided to do some house-keeping and kick off a wave of bans, ostensibly targeting bot accounts. Loads of actual human beings were caught up in the bans too, though, and making things even worse was that for Steam players that counted as a ban on their Steam accounts as well, which is a serious blemish on their overall record.
Amazon were quickly notified of this, and over the weekend were “actively working on reversing them for all affected players regardless of whether a support ticket has been filed”. For Steam players in particular, sweating the consequences of having a ban recorded on their account, Amazon say the reversal will not just “remove your game ban” but also “any marks on your Steam account”.
The company issued this statement over the weekend:
Greetings Heroes of Arkesia,
Following a recent wave of bot bans, we’ve seen an increase in ban appeals from players who have been incorrectly impacted by these bans.
We have determined the error that triggered these false bans, and are actively working on reversing them for all affected players regardless of whether a support ticket has been filed. This will remove your game ban and any marks on your Steam account. We will let players know when this work has been completed. In the meantime, you are still welcome to submit a Ban Appeal ticket to Customer Support so that the team can more quickly assist with restoring your account and removing all penalties.
Thank you for your reports and patience as we work to make this right with affected players.
And followed it up yesterday with a notice saying all bans should now have been reversed. The bans come in the wake of efforts by developers to fix certain areas of the game that were being swamped by bots, particularly the market and auction house.
