The California Highway Patrol is investigating a shooting that happened inside a bus on the 10 Freeway in the Baldwin Park area.
The CHP said the shooting occurred around 6 p.m. after two passengers got into an argument on the bus as it was heading west on the 10 freeway near the Puente Avenue exit.
The CHP confirmed that a bullet or a fragment of a bullet did strike a passenger. They were transported to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
They said the shooter– who they believe is a man, took off running from the bus as the driver attempted to pull off the freeway. When officers arrived, they began searching an adjacent parking lot looking for the man.
They called in surrounding law enforcement agencies to help and brought in dogs to try and pick up the man’s scent, but they still have not been able to locate the shooter.
“I can assure you that we have plenty of officers in collaboration with west covina and the baldwin park police department and the california highway patrol we are in the community right now and we are doing everything we can to make sure the community stays safe and that we apprehend this suspect as soon as possible,” Saul Gomez with CHP said.
The CHP said about 20 people were on the bus when the shooting occurred. The driver attempted to pull over at the bus stop to de-escalate the situation, as per their training.
The Foothills Transit CEO tells NBC4 that the bus does have multiple cameras and CHP has that video evidence.
In response to a recent spate of rider assaults, LA Metro on Thursday authorized “a surge” of law enforcement to physically patrol on board trains and bus lines marked by high rates of crimes, instead of just remaining on train platforms, within bus depots or in squad cars.
The sea change comes from a motion approved by the Board of Directors, aimed at rejiggering deployment strategies from the trio of law enforcement agencies hired by the transit agency, including officers from the LAPD and the Long Beach Police Department and deputies from the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department. The motion also includes redeployment of Metro Transit Security Officers.
The 2024-2025 budget of about $9 billion will include an additional $18 million for law enforcement, bringing the total cost for the three agencies to about $195 million, which means LA Metro gets about 260 armed officers patrolling the vast system each day.
While many board members acknowledged that is not enough, considering that LA Metro every day handles almost a million riders on 2,400 bus runs, 108 rail stations and more than 400 rail cars, they must work within a tight budget.
“I’ve been told law enforcement can’t be everywhere at once,” said board member and L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath. “They don’t have the personnel to the extent needed.”
Nonetheless, CEO Stephanie Wiggins said the agency is reacting to recent violent incidents on buses and trains and on train platforms. The agency already expanded law enforcement presence primarily on the rail systems, while Metro’s security officers are increasing their presence on buses.
Liu Francisco, 52, from North Hollywood rides the mile from home on his bike to the North Hollywood B (Red) line station on Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. He paid to enter as security look on. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
The agency on May 28 will also launch a 90-day pilot program that involves locking the exit fare gates at the North Hollywood B Line Station. That will require passengers to touch a TAP card on a reader at the exit, showing they’ve paid the fare in order to open the turnstiles, a first in the agency’s history.
Riders who did not pay will be cited or removed. The idea is to remove riders, often who are homeless, mentally ill or taking illicit drugs, from the system.
“The majority of violent crimes are from those with untreated mental health conditions and drug addictions,” Wiggins said.
An LA Sheriff’s Department officer rides the C-train at the Vermont Avenue station in Los Angeles on Wednesday, May 15, 2024.(Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Board member James Butts, mayor of Inglewood and a former police chief, agreed that enforcement of the agency’s fare system, part of its “code of conduct,” is a key aspect of stemming violent assaults. But that enforcement power was taken away from law enforcement a few years ago by Metro.
“We need to make sure people who get on buses and trains are the people who have paid the fare,” Butts said.
Two murders of passengers appear to have been committed by assailants who were mentally ill, as both killings were unprovoked, authorities reported.
Wiggins specifically mentioned the unprovoked killing of Juan Luis Gomez-Ramirez, a teacher visiting from Mexico who was sitting on a Line 108 bus in Commerce when someone on the bus got up, walked toward the rear exit, pointed a gun at the back of his head and fired, killing Gomez-Ramirez instantly.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón called it a tragic, senseless and heartbreaking killing of a “beloved father” who was simply riding on a bus in the 6200 block of Slauson Avenue in the afternoon of May 17. Winston Apolinario Rivera was charged with one count of murder, Gascon said in a statement.
The second involved the fatal stabbing of 66-year-old Mirna Soza Arauz on April 22. Arauz was riding the B Line train at the Universal City Station in Studio City, heading home from her job as a night security guard at Tommy’s Restaurant in North Hills.
Arauz, a mother and grandmother, was murdered in an unprovoked attack. After being stabbed in the neck, she managed to get off the train at the station, where she was found mortally wounded on the platform. A suspect was arrested about a half-hour later and identified as Elliott Tramel Nowden, 45. Nowden has since been charged with murder.
Mirna Soza Arauz, 66, seen in a photo on the GoFundMe website, was heading home after boarding Metro B (Red) Line in North Hollywood early Monday, April 22, 2024, and was stabbed to death. A suspect identified as Elliott Tramel Nowden, 45, was arrested. LA Metro’s board voted on Thursday, May 23, 2024 to beef up patrols and other security measures on its system. (Photo via GoFundMe)
“No one should be losing their life or or risking their life just for riding on Metro,” said board chair and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. “The violence and crimes we’ve seen on Metro is absolutely unacceptable.”
A second motion also approved unanimously calls for the three chiefs of the law enforcement agencies to report to the Metro board at its June meeting about these “high profile” incidents, deployment of personnel, staffing levels and a cost analysis.
“I feel the tail is wagging the dog right now,” she said.
Below is a list of recent crimes on LA Metro that made headlines:
A teenage boy was fatally stabbed at the 7th/Metro Center station in downtown L.A. on Jan. 11.A man was fatally stabbed at the Westlake/MacArthur Park Station (651 S. Westlake Avenue, Los Angeles) on Feb. 1.A No. 2 line bus was hijacked by a man with a BB gun that resembled a gun on March 21. The bus crashed into the Ritz-Carlton Hotel at West Olympic Boulevard.Two people were stabbed in separate attacks at Metro B (Red) Line stations in East Hollywood at (Hollywood/Western) and Westlake/MacArthur Park (600 block of South Bonnie Brae Street) on April 7.A bus operator got punched and stabbed while driving in Willowbrook (119th Street and Wilmington Avenue) on April 13.A man stabbed a 66-year-old woman (Mirna Soza Arauz) to death at a Metro Universal City station in Studio City (3900 block of Lankershim Boulevard) on April 22.A security guard was stabbed at a B Line station in Hollywood (1500 block of North Vermont Avenue) before fatally shooting his assailant on May 7, authorities said.A woman was stabbed in the arm at the Metro C Line Vermont/Athens station (South Vermont Avenue and the 105 Freeway) on Monday May 13.Hours later on May 13, four teenagers fought on a bus in Glendale (West Los Feliz Road and South Central Avenue). Two were stabbed and the other two arrested.On Tuesday, May 14, a man was robbed of his cellphone and hit in the chest on a bus in Encino (Ventura and Balboa boulevards).On Thursday, May 16, a man shot another passenger to death on a Metro bus in Commerce (6200 block of Slauson Avenue), authorities reported.A person was stabbed Tuesday, May 21, on a Los Angeles Metro bus in Lynwood (Long Beach Boulevard and Norton Avenue).
SCNG staff writer Hunter Lee contributed to this article.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, May 21, ordered the Probation Department to analyze and improve excessively long wait times for attorneys, doctors and social workers visiting Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey.
The motion, approved unanimously, comes after attorneys from the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office and the Juvenile Justice Clinic at Loyola Law School told the Southern California News Group that waits as long as three hours were hindering their efforts to provide legal services to clients at the juvenile detention facility.
“Lawyers, doctors, and social workers need to be able to visit their young clients at Los Padrinos, and they shouldn’t have to wait two or three hours to see them,” said Supervisor Hahn, who represents Downey, in a statement. “This is unacceptable. The Probation Department needs to make immediate changes to allow people to see their clients faster and has to be transparent with our Board moving forward about the wait times at our juvenile facilities.”
Hahn co-authored the motion with board Chair Lindsay Horvath. At the meeting, Horvath said ensuring attorneys have timely access to their clients is not only important for honoring constitutional rights, but it helps achieve the county’s goal of “making sure our young people are getting the service and support that they need.”
“Decreasing wait times and increasing predictability for professional services at Los Padrinos is among the actions the Probation Department must take to better serve the youth entrusted to its care,” Horvath said in a statement.
The motion directs the Probation Department to return with a report in four weeks that includes three months of data on wait times, analysis about the causes and the strategies “being implemented to reduce wait times and ensure timely access to visits from counsel, social workers and other experts.”
Defense attorneys told the Southern California News Group in early May that they experienced such long wait times at Los Padrinos that attorneys have to schedule their entire day around such visits.
“Everybody knows that this is the new normal; if you get there past 8:30 a.m., then you’re waiting,” said Roshell Amezcua, director of the Juvenile Justice Law Center. “If you’re not the very first person, then you’re waiting two to three hours.”
Complaints about wait times have come up repeatedly at Probation Oversight Commission meetings in the last year.
The county Probation Department has denied the problem is widespread and indicated only a small percentage of attorneys — about 10% — experienced wait times longer than 20 minutes in April. The department previously installed four private booths in the chapel at Los Padrinos in an effort to improve wait times.
The Juvenile Justice Law Center filed a formal complaint with the department’s ombudsman May 20 reiterating that visits to Los Padrinos had become “unduly burdensome.” Wait times in excess of 45 minutes have been deemed unconstitutional in the past, according to a letter attached to the complaint.
“Here, wait times regularly exceed 45 minutes. Indeed, wait times regularly exceed two hours, and sometimes visits are denied outright,” the letter states. “The JJC’s experience does not exist in isolation. Our discussions with other juvenile defense attorneys at the Los Angeles Public Defender’s Office and the Los Angeles County Independent Defense Counsel’s Office indicate that these wait times are pervasive, common, and well-known to probation staff and directors.”
President Joe Biden will add nearly 106,000 acres to the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument on Thursday, May 2, expanding the monument designated 10 years ago by President Barack Obama by nearly one-third, according to the White House.
Also, Biden will approve a 13,696-acre expansion of the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument in northern California’s inner coast range, north of Sacramento. The two designations will be signed as proclamations by Biden later today at the White House through use powers granted to the executive branch. Together, they will add protections from mining and new highways to nearly 120,000 acres of wild lands in the state.
The San Gabriel Mountains monument expansion will add 105,919 acres of Angeles National Forest land to the existing 346,179-acre SGM monument, protecting closer-in areas in the western Angeles, including historic Chantry Flat, the Arroyo Seco and federal forest lands near Sunland, Tujunga and Santa Clarita.
Along with the expansion of the SGM monument, Biden promised additional resources for the area known as “L.A’s backyard playground,” located within 90 minutes of 18 million Southern Californians.
The White House announced funding for an unknown number of additional field rangers, interpretive rangers and positions to help with visitors. Also, $2.3 million in Great American Outdoors Act funding will be invested in the monument to rehabilitate barracks and provide housing for recreation and other Angeles National Forest staff, the White House said.
The Angeles National Forest received nearly 4.6 million visitors in 2021, more than Yosemite and Yellowstone national parks. Yet many areas remain closed due to fires, subsequent flooding and not enough funding to complete repairs.
U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will join President Biden in the signing of the proclamations.
“The San Gabriel Mountains National Monument is a crown jewel for Los Angeles. It is a backyard to millions of people, and is also home to cultural resources, rare animals and plants, unique geology, and dynamic forests, rivers and high peaks,” said Secretary Vilsack. “President Biden’s actions today ensure this remarkable place is protected for current and future generations.”
Others were jubilant over the presidential designation, something that was expected to happen on Earth Day in April but was pushed back. This included Rep. Judy Chu, D-Pasadena, who was present when Obama signed the original designation in 2014 and has championed the expansion for the last 10 years.
“In 2014, President Obama answered our calls by designating the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument for the first time. Since then, we have introduced legislation and fought to complete the vision of an expanded Monument that includes some of the most visited and beautiful lands in the western Angeles Forest. President Biden and the Biden-Harris Administration heard us,” wrote Chu in a prepared statement.
The monument before the expansion includes 342,177 acres of the Angeles National Forest and 4,002 acres of the neighboring San Bernardino National Forest. The addition also takes in lands owned and managed by the U.S. Forest Service.
Biden added to what Obama started by using the Antiquities Act of 1906, first used by President Theodore Roosevelt to designate Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming. Eighteen presidents of both parties have used this power to designate other national monuments, including the Statue of Liberty, Colorado’s Canyon of the Ancients, and New Mexico’s Gila Cliff Dwellings
The San Gabriel Mountains monument is renowned for scenic mountain peaks, dark canyons, a plethora of flora and fauna species, hiking trails, campsites, streams and reservoirs. The addition takes in more popular portions of the western Angeles National Forest left outside the boundaries by Obama.
A map of the proposed addition to the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. (graphic by Jeff Goertzen/SCNG)
The expansion includes areas north of Sylmar and east of the Newhall Pass, near Placerita Canyon in the Santa Clarita area. It would include the Upper Arroyo Seco, a historic tributary of the Los Angeles River with headwaters in the Angeles that meanders through La Canada Flintridge, Pasadena and South Pasadena. Also, the addition includes the Big Tujunga Reservoir and Big Tujunga Canyon, Switzer’s Camp, Millard Canyon and Eaton Canyon waterfall.
Another key addition is a closer-in area known as Chantry Flat, a popular hiking, picnicking and camping spot north of Arcadia and Sierra Madre that has attracted thousands of visitors on weekends but has been closed for several years due to damage from fires, rainstorms and a lack of resources from the U.S. Forest Service to make repairs.
The road leading to Chantry Flat is closed. This area would be added to the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. (photo SCNG)
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Also included in the expansion is the site of Thaddeus Lowe’s funicular, the Mount Lowe Railway, which from 1893 to 1938 took people on a roller-coaster of a ride high into the mountains above Pasadena. The monument protects giant wheels used to hoist the railway onto the tracks, left on the side of the trail near Echo Mountain for decades.
Other historic trails that were created as part of the Great Hiking Era include the Gabrielino Trail, which was once a trade route used by Native American tribes and was recently restored. The new areas also contain ancient Native American relics.
A view of part of the proposed expansion area of the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument, with downtown Los Angeles visible in the background, on April 16, 2024 near La Cañada Flintridge, California. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Switzer Falls, off the historical Gabrielino Trail in the western part of the Angeles National Forest, as seen in June 2022, is scheduled to be added to the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. (photo by Steve Scauzillo)
In an aerial view, a vehicle drives past a proposed expansion area (L) of the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument in the Angeles National Forest on April 16, 2024 near La Cañada Flintridge, California. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
In an aerial view, water flows from Big Tujunga Dam, in a proposed expansion area of the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument in the Angeles National Forest, on April 16, 2024 near La Cañada Flintridge, California. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
“Our local community is overjoyed to see this next step in a 20-year effort to permanently protect the San Gabriel Mountains,” said Belén Bernal, executive director of Nature for All, a group lobbying for more resources and expansion of the monument. “The area included in the expanded San Gabriel Mountains National Monument is the closest section of the National Forest to the San Fernando Valley,” she added.
Guillermo Rodriguez, vice president of the Pacific Region and California director for Trust for Public Land, said the expansion of the San Gabriel Mountains monument will stimulate not just public, but also private funds, too.
“Having that special designation allows for greater resources to be invested in these areas,” Rodriguez said. “We have seen national monuments, like national parks, act as economic drivers. That increased attention and accessibility adds revenue to the local economy.”
About $1 million will be invested in the SGM monument from the State Water Resources Control Board, U.S. EPA, and the California Rivers and Mountains Conservancy, according to the White House.
In a victory for local unions, LA Metro has reversed course by canceling the proposed turnover of its bike share contract to Lyft, documents show.
The contract was slated to go in February to Lyft’s subsidiary, Lyft Bikes and Scooters LLC, but that was abruptly squashed after heated protests from unions and gig drivers said the rideshare company was not friendly to unions.
A letter dated March 26 sent to current contract holder, Bicycle Transit Systems, Inc., (BTS) said: “The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) has decided to cancel the subject solicitation.” It was signed by James Giblin, senior contract administrator for Metro.
Instead, LA Metro is reexamining the scope of the program and plans to put the contract out for bid once again under a Request For Proposal (RFP). There’s no timetable for the new RFP, said Dave Sotero, Metro spokesperson on Monday, April 1.
“There will be no interruption in bike share services,” he said.
Both Lyft and BTS said they would reapply under the new RFP.
“We are elated the voices of Angelenos were heard. Metro listened,” said Alison Cohen, founder and owner of BTS, which has been operating the system for the last nine years. “It is rare that once a decision is made they (Metro) change course. But it was the right thing to do.”
The contract was the subject of a rally by drivers for Lyft, Uber, DoorDash and other car and bicycle delivery workers — known as gig workers — in front of Metro headquarters on Jan. 18. About 40 rallied against giving the contract to Lyft’s subsidiary, arguing that Lyft has not treated workers fairly and that the contract would downgrade bike share service in L.A. County.
FILE- Felipe Caceras, organizer with the California Gig Workers Union, leads a rally on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024, of gig workers who are against a plan by LA Metro to award a contract to Lyft for managing and operating Metro’s Bike Share program. Metro canceled the request for proposal and did not award the contract to Lyft at the end of March 2024. (photo by Steve Scauzillo/SCNG).
Workers said they had been trying to join a union and have had labor disputes with Lyft, a ride-sharing company that has other ventures including operating bike share programs in New York City, Chicago and San Francisco.
A letter sent to LA Metro from David Green, SEIU Local 721 president and executive director, said Lyft’s alleged anti-union practices and failure to uphold equitable standards made it a bad choice.
This was one of 700 comments, letters and emails brought to the attention of Metro’s Operations, Safety, and Customer Experience Committee that agreed to put off the matter in January. Although Metro staff recommended Lyft over the other vendors, the contract solicitation was canceled a short time later.
“We are proud of our submission, which earned the highest score from LA Metro, and look forward to reapplying to the new RFP,” wrote Jordan Levine, a Lyft spokesperson in an emailed response received on Monday, April 1.
On its website, Lyft wrote that a new ruling from the Department of Labor defining an independent contractor does not change Lyft’s business model and will not reclassify Lyft drivers as employees.
Lyft said that 92% of its drivers support a policy under which drivers would remain independent contractors and would receive “some but not all of the benefits that employees receive.”
Others that opposed giving Lyft the contract said Metro should not privatize a public transit system. “I applaud Metro reconsidering and ultimately canceling a frivolous contract which would have given taxpayer dollars to a private company making millions off the working poor,” wrote L.A. County Democratic Party Chair Mark Gonzalez in an emailed response.
Political and union forces could remain steadfast when Metro rejiggers the contract and opens it up to the lowest bidder.
“I hope LA Metro continues to heed the call for a robust bike share system worthy of Los Angeles that protects union jobs,” Gonzalez said.
Cohen said her company BTS, which is women- and LGBTQ-owned, has about 65 employees. Of those, 40 are unionized, she said. She is looking for a one-year extension at the very least. The BTS contract ends in August, she said.
The canceled 11.5-year Lyft contract proposal would have cost Metro $47 million less than the estimated cost of the current BTS contract, according to a Metro staff report.
In all of 2023, Metro Bike Share ridership reached 441,199, which is the highest annual ridership thus far, Sotero reported. The 2023 ridership figure shows an increase of 128,787 trips or 41%, compared to the highest pre-COVID ridership of 312,412 trips in calendar year 2018, he wrote in an emailed response.
Lowered costs and more available bikes increased use of the program, which mainly operates within the city of Los Angeles. The number of on-street bikes increased from 1,224 in April 2022 to 1,726 in November 2023. Pedal assist e-bikes increased from 97 in April 2022 to 370 in November 2023, Metro reported.
The Department of Justice announced a major drug bust after narcotics were discovered in ceramic plates, hollowed-out books and dolls.
Law enforcement seized 91 packages of meth, carrying nearly 200 kilos of the drugs.
“The defendants are engaged in the mailing and shipping of methamphetamine from Los Angeles County to New Zealand and Australia,” the DOJ said.
If the drugs were sold in New Zealand or Australia, they were valued at more than $20 million, according to law enforcement. Search warrants were served in three locations in the San Gabriel Valley where five people were arrested.
The five arrested were “alleged members of an international drug trafficking ring based in the San Gabriel Valley,” the DOJ said in a statement.
The suspects were identified as:
Yangqiang Chen, 45, of Monterey Park;
Jie Chen, 40, of Rosemead;
MeiMei Chen, 41, of Rosemead;
Guorong He, 50 of Rosemead; and
Yien He, 32, of Rosemead.
While conducting the search warrants, law enforcement said they also seized about 40 pounds of methamphetamine, more than $100,000 in cash, and more than 1,000 gift cards from various retailers.
According to the DOJ, the FBI; the Drug Enforcement Administration; Homeland Security Investigations; IRS Criminal Investigation; the Los Angeles Police Department; the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department; and the United States Postal Inspection Service are investigating this matter.
