A girl in her late teens died in the lobby of a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department station late Sunday after, officials say, she got hold of a deputy’s gun and shot herself.
The department has not released the girl’s name, and officials said late Sunday that it was unclear how she was able to take the deputy’s weapon.
The incident happened around 7:40 p.m., when the teen walked into the lobby of the sheriff’s station at 150 N. Hudson Ave. in the city of Industry, according to a news release.
Officials said she did not have a weapon when she entered the building, and that at some point she caused a commotion, making noise and banging on glass.
Then, the girl allegedly got into “some kind of altercation” with a deputy, took the deputy’s gun and used it to kill herself, officials said.
Authorities said the incident may have stemmed from a family disturbance nearby.
No deputies were injured, officials said. It was not immediately clear whether anyone else was in the lobby at the time.
America’s southern border is completely out of control. Illegal immigrants pour in every day. But not just in states like Texas and Arizona, apparently.
Florida is also part of this.
SHOCK REPORT: ⚠️ Migrants now INVADING Florida beaches “all across South Florida..
“Illegal aliens aren’t just flooding across our southern borders, they’re arriving all across South Florida beaches.” -Sheriff Keith Pearsons pic.twitter.com/brVdx02GZC
From Florida’s Voice, “St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson warned of illegal immigrants entering southern Florida, including in the community that he oversees.”
“Pearson specifically highlighted how Haitian migrants were traveling to St. Lucie County and how the sheriff’s office was apprehending them and turning them into the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.”
The story continued:
“Illegal aliens aren’t just flooding across our southern borders, they’re arriving all across south Florida beaches, including right here in St. Lucie County,” he said during a video where his team was actively encountering a migrant vessel.
“They are undocumented and unvetted individuals whom we have no idea what kind of positive or negative impact they could have on the public safety of our community or nation,” Pearson said.
The sheriff explained that his agency works with the Florida Highway Patrol to find illegal immigrants attempting to enter Florida and provide them fresh water and address any medical concerns while they wait for the U.S. Coast Guard to process the individuals.
Intelligence sources say that the U.S. Coast Guard has been ordered to follow illegal Haitian migrants to the coast and allow them to enter America through southern Florida. pic.twitter.com/HPFWklWETW
“The men and women of the St. Lucie County sheriff’s office will continue to monitor and assist our federal partners to ensure we protect our borders,” Pearson added.
“The sheriff’s office was not able to provide a number of the total estimated apprehensions that law enforcement has made since it is up to the federal government to record the number of processed individuals,” the story noted.
It shouldn’t be surprising that illegal migrants are coming in through Florida since the entire southern U.S. border has been easy to cross for so many.
Will this ever end? That might be a question best answered after November.
For more than two hours, Emmett Brock waited outside a Downey courtroom. He sat, he stood, he fidgeted, he paced in the emptying hallway. Finally, he heard his name and went inside.
It was March 8, 2024, exactly 392 days after he’d been beaten by a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy in front of a 7-Eleven, then arrested and accused of biting the lawman who pummeled him. Afterward, he’d been sent to the Norwalk station lockup and booked for three felonies and a misdemeanor. By the time prosecutors dropped the case seven months later, he’d already lost his high school teaching job.
It had been a painful year, and to put it behind him Brock wanted a judge to declare him innocent. His lawyer had filed the paperwork, and now Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Evan Kitahara was going to decide on the request.
Twenty minutes after entering the courtroom, Brock walked out an innocent man.
Just over a week later, he filed a federal lawsuit accusing the deputy of“felony crimes” and alleging the department had covered them up.
“I can finally exhale,” Brock told The Times after learning of the judge’s decision. “It felt like I’d been holding my breath for over a year.”
Even if the new developments bring some peace of mind for the Whittier man, they could signal trouble for the deputy who arrested him. When Deputy Joseph Benza made the February 2023 arrest, he signed a declaration under penalty of perjury saying Brock had bitten him.
At this month’s hearing, Kitahara determined there was “no evidence” of that.
Benza is “susceptible to being decertified,” said Brock’s attorney, Thomas Beck, suggesting the deputy could lose his California peace officer certification for alleged dishonesty and be banned from working in law enforcement.“And on the use-of-force issue, he could be prosecuted.”
According to documents Beck filed in court, the FBI has been looking into the case since last year. The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office confirmed to The Times this week that local prosecutors are reviewing the matter as well.
Attorney Tom Yu, who is representing Benza, has maintained for months that his client did not do anything wrong. And records show a Sheriff’s Department review last year cleared the deputy’s use of force.
“I wholeheartedly disagree with Mr. Beck’s representation of what occurred,” Yu wrote to The Times in an email. “I am confident that the federal judge will throw all of the suspect’s claims out during this litigation.”
The Sheriff’s Department said in a statement Monday that it had not been served with the lawsuit but confirmed the incident had been investigated and the findings are under review.
“Our top priority is the safety of everyone involved in any encounter,” the statement said.
On the morning of Feb. 10, 2023, Brock had just left work at Frontier High School when he spotted a deputy who appeared to be berating a woman on the side of the road. As he drove by, Brock casually threw up his middle finger, thinking the deputy wouldn’t see it.
Emmett Brock was driving home from his job as a teacher when he was stopped and beaten by a deputy outside of a 7-Eleven.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
According to the lawsuit filed this week, the deputy abandoned the roadside confrontation, hopped in his cruiser and started tailing Brock. Each time Brock made a turn, the cruiser mirrored his move — but the deputy inside didn’t turn on the lights or sirens and didn’t try to pull him over, Brock said.
Fearing he was being followed by someone impersonating a police officer, Brock called 911 and asked what to do.
“If he hasn’t pulled you over, he hasn’t pulled you over,” the dispatcher said, according to a recording of the call shared with The Times.
But a few minutes later, Brock pulled into a 7-Eleven parking lot on Mills Avenue in Whittier. As he stepped out to buy a drink, the deputy approached him.
“I just stopped you,” Benza said, without explaining why.
“No, you didn’t,” Brock replied, according to an audio recording captured by the deputy’s body camera.
“Yeah, I did,” the deputy said, grabbing Brock’s arm. The deputy then “overwhelmed young Brock,” according to the lawsuit, and “without uttering another word, violently took Brock to the pavement.”
For the next three minutes Brock struggled as the deputy held him down, all of it captured on the 7-Eleven’s surveillance camera.
“You’re going to kill me! You’re going to f— kill me,” Brock shouted, screaming for the deputy to stop.
“Instead Benza rained at least 10 closed fist punches at Brock’s head and face,” the suit says, “while Benza used his greater body weight to pin the plaintiff to the ground as he continued to angrily pummel Brock with both fists, scraping his knuckles in the process.”
After Brock was in handcuffs, the deputy put him into the back seat of his cruiser. Brock was bloodied and his glasses were broken but, according to the lawsuit, the deputy still hadn’t explained why he’d stopped him.
When a sergeant arrived on scene, Brock told him he’d been beaten in retaliation for giving a deputy the finger — an act that could have been a violation of the department’s policy explicitly banning the use of force in retaliation for disrespect.
“Instead of immediately recognizing Benza had committed a felony crime of assault against Brock,” the suit said, the sergeant “purposefully ignored plaintiff’s complaints and took no action.”
As other deputies arrived, Benza showed them his bruised knuckles and blamed Brock — but he didn’t say anything about being bitten, according to the lawsuit.When paramedics arrived, the suit says, he didn’t tell them anything about a bite, either.
Before leaving to go back to the station, Benza and several sergeants walked into the 7-Eleven, according to a 32-page innocence petition Beck filed in court on Brock’s behalf. The lawmen went into the store’s camera room and stayed there for a little over 10 minutes, “presumably screening the audio-free 7-Eleven video recording of the assault,” Beck wrote in the petition.
“With knowledge of this damaging evidence,” Beck continued, the deputy drove back to the station and “falsely reported” to a supervisor that he’d only thrown punches because Brock had bitten his hands.
Then, the petition says, Benza went to urgent care and said he’d been bitten on his right hand — though the physician assistant who treated him wrote in his report that there was bruising but “no bite marks.”
After he left urgent care, Benza filed his declaration under penalty of perjury saying he’d been bitten on his left hand. He said the incident started when he’d been on a routine patrol and decided to stop Brock after spotting an air freshener dangling from the rearview mirror. He left out any mention of stopping a woman on the side of the road and said nothing about Brock giving him the finger.
In an interview with The Times last year, Benza’s attorney said that’s because the person Brock passed on the side of the road wasn’t his client, but another law enforcement officer probably from another agency.
Now, Beck said, there’s evidence to disprove that.
“I have been advised that the FBI has downloaded Benza’s cell phone GPS data and was able to corroborate Mr. Brock’s claim of being pursued along the route Benza claimed he never took,” Beck wrote in the innocence petition. (The FBI told The Times this week that it does not confirm or deny the existence of investigations.)
When he was taken to the Norwalk station for booking — on offenses including mayhem and injuring an officer while resisting arrest — Brock was asked to give a statement, during which he explained he is transgender. One jailer asked if he was a girl, he said, and another asked to see his genitals before deciding to put him in a women’s holding cell.
Though his family bailed him out, Brock said, he lost his job when state authorities notified the school of his arrest. County prosecutors initially charged him with two misdemeanors, but dropped the case in August.
Last fall, Beck said, federal prosecutors reached out, handing over some of the materials he hadn’t been able to get from the Sheriff’s Department and asking to interview Brock. With the new materials, Beck filed a petition asking a court to declare his client innocent.
Now in graduate school, Brock showed up to the hearing this month flanked by his mother, several classmates and a professor. Dressed in a black suit and a green tie, he stood in front of a judge as his lawyer explained the case, arguing for a declaration of “factual innocence.” The prosecutor agreed, and the judge entered a tentative ruling finalized last week.
“Though I am happy that I am factually innocent, I don’t think it will ever be over for me in my heart,” Brock told The Times. “It’s something that I still think about every single day.”
Sheriff’s deputies were involved in a shooting at an apartment complex in the Fair Oaks area of Sacramento County on Friday, the sheriff’s office said. Evacuations at the complex are underway and there is an active threat, the sheriff’s office said just before 11 a.m. The shooting was reported in the 8800 block of Winding Way near Hazel Avenue, the sheriff’s office said around 10:20 a.m.All the deputies were OK, a sheriff’s office spokesperson said.Who fired the shots and other details were not immediately available.People are being asked to stay away from the apartment complex.This story is developing and details may change as more information becomes available. Stay with KCRA 3 for updates.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app.
FAIR OAKS, Calif. —
Sheriff’s deputies were involved in a shooting at an apartment complex in the Fair Oaks area of Sacramento County on Friday, the sheriff’s office said.
Evacuations at the complex are underway and there is an active threat, the sheriff’s office said just before 11 a.m.
The shooting was reported in the 8800 block of Winding Way near Hazel Avenue, the sheriff’s office said around 10:20 a.m.
All the deputies were OK, a sheriff’s office spokesperson said.
Who fired the shots and other details were not immediately available.
People are being asked to stay away from the apartment complex.
This story is developing and details may change as more information becomes available. Stay with KCRA 3 for updates.
Sixteen members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department SWAT team were injured Wednesday afternoon in an explosion at an FBI training facility in Irvine, according to authorities.
The explosion occurred around 1 p.m. in a small building at the Jerry Crowe Regional Tactical Training Facility, according to Sheriff’s Sgt. Frank Gonzalez.
The SWAT team was conducting its annual joint training with a bomb squad at the time, he said. The FBI wasn’t involved and had lent them the facility for the exercise.
Fifteen people were taken to hospitals. One person sustained a leg injury that will require surgery but is not life-threatening. Two others have superficial wounds, including back and leg injuries. The 13 other people went to the hospital as a precaution because of dizziness and ringing in their ears, but many have already been discharged.
BALLSTON SPA, N.Y. (NEWS10) — The Warren County Sheriff’s Office reported that they arrested Andrew Stawinczy, 29, of Ballston Spa for allegedly sending lewd images to two minors on Facebook. Stawinczy was charged with five counts of first-degree disseminating indecent material to minors, promoting an obscene sexual performance by a child, and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
Stawinczy was taken into custody by the Ballston Spa Police Department on March 6 on a warrant for his arrest and turned over to the WCSO. He was arraigned in the Central Arraignment Part Court and released under supervision with a court date scheduled at Warrensburg Town Court.
UC Berkeley spent $7.8 million to deploy its own forces to wall off and secure People’s Park, the storied 2.8-acre green space that activists seized in the ’60s to serve as open space for freethinkers.
That multimillion-dollar total is expected to grow substantially as outside police agencies submit their bills to the university.
And the cost of keeping people out of the park continues to be high: The university pays nearly $1 million a month to station private security guards outside the park, 24 hours a day.
The massive dead-of-night operation to clear the park and surround it with a double-high stack of 160 steel cargo containers was executed in early January, in anticipation of the Berkeley campus being cleared to build a new housing complex.
Litigation continues to block the construction of 1,100 units of student housing, 125 units of supportive housing for homeless people and a memorial to the park south of the Berkeley campus.
University officials hope that the state Supreme Court will hear a case about the future of the park this spring, potentially ruling by summer whether to allow construction on the property, first seized and turned into open space by activists in 1969.
In response to a public records request, Berkeley campus officials revealed Wednesday that they spent $2.85 million to build the 17-foot-high perimeter around the park. Those funds went to pay for the shipping containers (at a cost of $972,000), for gates, lighting, other equipment and supervision ($1.27 million) and for engineering and surveying ($515,000.)
An additional $3.77 million went to pay, house and feed the police officers and sheriff’s deputies who cleared and surrounded the park in early January. Nearly $1.5 million of that money went to pay overtime to officers from the University of California Police Department.
The $7.8-million tally also includes $1.16 million that UC spent to move homeless people from the park to a Quality Inn, where they receive meals and other services.
Still remaining to be submitted and/or totaled are bills from the California Highway Patrol, sheriff’s departments for Alameda and San Francisco counties and from nine other UC and Cal State University police departments. A UC spokesman said “it could take several more months” for those IOUs to arrive. It’s expected that they will add millions of dollars to the cost of the park clearance.
In a letter accompanying the figures, UC Berkeley spokesman Kyle Gibson explained in a statement that the extraordinary operation, cloaked in secrecy, was designed to avoid the sort of conflict that had prevented the university from developing People’s Park for more than half a century.
“Our highest priorities for the closure were safety, avoidance/deterrence of conflict, and the minimization of disruption for students and neighboring residents,” the statement said.
The letter described the “vandalism, violence and other unlawful activities” that occurred when the university tried, and failed, to take control of the park in August 2022. That prior experience “necessitated extraordinary measures, precautions and expenditures” when UC moved in January to secure the park, Gibson’s letter said.
Activists who fought for years to keep the park said they were outraged but not surprised at the high cost of the university’s takeover.
“The recklessness with which UC spends the public’s money is well known to this community,” said Andrea Prichett, a member of the People’s Park Council and Berkeley Copwatch. “Think of other things that could have been done with that money. It’s a tragic waste.”
Park activists have complained, in particular, that the university disrupted a community of homeless people who were supporting one another on the property, which lies just steps to the east of Telegraph Avenue.
But university officials insist that the unhoused residents are better off in the Quality Inn, with food and services provided by community groups and removed from the crime that at times went unchecked in the park.
Although opponents call the steel barricade a “monstrosity,” university officials said it had helped keep the park clear — and ready for construction — for the first time since community members planted flowers and trees there, in 1969.
Authorities have released the identity of a 3-year-old boy who was killed in his Lancaster home on Tuesday night and described his mother’s boyfriend as a person of interest in the brutal slaying.
The toddler, David Hernandez, was found with his throat cut in the 43400 block of 57th Street W when deputies arrived around 10:55 p.m., officials said. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
The Sheriff’s Department said in a news release that Rena Naulls, 39, of Lancaster, was transported to the hospital after allegedly attempting to take his own life at the scene.
Investigators said Naulls is the live-in boyfriend of the victim’s mother and named him “a person of interest” in the case. Naulls was admitted to the hospital and listed in stable condition, police said.
The Times previously reported that a source with knowledge of the investigation who was not authorized to speak publicly said a family friend went to the house at the behest of one of the boy’s relatives, found the child with his throat slit in a bathtub and called 911.
Three of the child’s older siblings, ages 9, 11 and 14, were unharmed and taken into protective custody by the Department of Children and Family Services, according to the source and the Sheriff’s Department. The Times reported that the family had no prior contacts with the Department of Children and Family Services.
Authorities have euthanized all 13 pit bulls that were found in a Compton man’s backyard, where he was mauled to death last week.
The dogs — five adult pit bulls and eight puppies — were all put down “due to evidence linking them to the attack,” according to a statement from Don Belton, spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control.
“Given the potential threat they posed to the community, this action was deemed necessary,” Belton said. He didn’t immediately respond to questions about what evidence led to the decision.
Deputy Miesha McClendon, a spokesperson for the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department, said there were no updates in the case Tuesday night but that the decision to euthanize the dogs was made by Animal Care and Control.
Initially, deputies said the dogs’ owner had been mauled by one or more of his pit bulls.
The owner was identified as 35-year-old Dominic Cooper, according to KTLA-TV Channel 5.
Deputies and firefighters responded to a call about a person who appeared to have been attacked by his dog on North Thorson Avenue in Compton early Friday, according to the Sheriff’s Department.
Upon arriving, they encountered the 13 dogs. Sheriff’s investigators initially said it appeared that Cooper had been feeding them when he was attacked.
Animal control officials said he appeared to have been involved in breeding and selling pit bulls.
Animal control later took them all of the dogs into custody with the consent of Cooper’s father, according to the agency.
Times saff writer Karen Garcia contributed to this report.
The body of an El Monte woman who disappeared while hiking alone on Mt. Baldy was recovered Sunday morning, ending a treacherous, weeklong search, officials said.
Lifei “Ada” Huang, 22, disappeared about two hours into a solo trek Feb. 4, just as the worst of last week’s historic storms hit Southern California, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff-Coroner Department.
Lifei “Ada” Huang, 22, disappeared about two hours into a solo trek Feb. 4 on Mt. Baldy.
(Lifei Huang)
Huang was reported missing just before midnight; rescue crews went out to search for her around 2:30 a.m. on Feb. 5. But “extreme” snowfall and avalanche risks stymied their efforts, officials said.
Three other hikers were rescued Feb. 7 after getting pinned down by the storms the day before on the Bear Canyon Trail.
“Resources are stretched to their limits, and hikers who get lost may have to wait long periods of time before help is available,” the Sheriff’s Department had warned.
Mt. Baldy has become one of the country’s deadliest destinations for hikers, racking up scores of rescues and almost a dozen deaths in recent years. The Sheriff’s Department has pushed to limit access to the peak.
But Huang was an experienced adventurer, her Instagram page shows.
She had recently hiked the Wave, a difficult and sometimes dangerous rock formation in the Arizona desert. She enjoyed beach camping in Santa Cruz, stargazing in Joshua Tree and snowboarding in the San Gabriel Mountains.
Friends posted notes to her page praying she would be home to celebrate the Lunar New Year.
On Saturday, the Sheriff’s Department got a tip that someone flying a drone may have spotted Huang’s body near the San Antonia Creek Falls.
High winds kept the air rescue team from searching the area until early Sunday, when medics located Huang’s remains.
Sheriff’s deputies shot and killed a man in Lancaster who they say charged at them with two machetes, officials said.
Deputies encountered the man Tuesday morning at an Albertsons on 20th Street West, where he was accused of harassing shoppers, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Deputies say they saw the man standing outside the entrance to the grocery store with two machetes in his backpack.
“As the deputies attempted to speak with him and calm him down, the suspect became agitated and grabbed both machetes,” the department said in a statement.
The man then entered the Albertsons, refusing deputies’ “numerous commands” that he drop the machetes, authorities said.
Deputies tried “less-lethal” methods, including stun guns, to stop the man. But authorities say he suddenly charged at deputies, three of whom then shot him.
The man — described as being between 35 and 40 years old — was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to the Sheriff’s Department. His name had not been publicly released as of Tuesday evening.
No one else was injured. The two machetes were recovered at the scene, authorities said.
Investigators said they later tied the suspect to the stabbing of an employee at a local gas station earlier in the day. That person was treated for non-life-threatening injuries, according to authorities.
The sheriff’s homicide and internal affairs bureaus will investigate the shooting, as is standard. The Office of the Inspector General will provide oversight throughout the investigative process.
The L.A. County district attorney’s office will also conduct a legal analysis to determine whether the shooting was justified and whether any charges will be filed.
An oversight panel has recommended that former Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva be deemed ineligible for rehire after officials found he discriminated against Inspector General Max Huntsman, according to records obtained by The Times.
In the initial complaint filed in March 2022, Huntsman accused Villanueva of “dog whistling to the extremists he caters to” when he repeatedly referred to the inspector general by his foreign-sounding birth name, Max-Gustaf. In an interview with The Times editorial board a few weeks later, Villanueva — without any evidence — accused Huntsman of being a Holocaust denier.
“You do realize that Max Huntsman, one, he’s a Holocaust denier,” Villanueva told the board. “I don’t know if you’re aware of that. I have it from two separate sources.”
At the time, Villanueva refused to identify the sources. On Wednesday, he did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.
Records show that after the department investigated the allegations, a County Equity Oversight Panel met in 2023 and found that Villanueva had violated several policies against discrimination and harassment. By that point, Villanueva was no longer sheriff, and the panel recommended that he “should receive a ‘Do Not Rehire’ notation” in his personnel file. Villanueva is currently running for county supervisor, and it’s not clear how the finding could affect his campaign.
On Wednesday, the Sheriff’s Department confirmed to The Times that it upheld the panel’s recommendation. Meanwhile, Huntsman said he was “happy” with the finding.
“I’m glad that Villanueva is no longer the sheriff and, now that he is gone, the facts have been treated in a more fair and objective way,” he told The Times. “But it doesn’t undo the damage that is done when an agency is allowed to operate above the law.”
Throughout his time in office, Villanueva repeatedly sparred with Huntsman, who was one of the department’s top critics as well as the chief watchdog tasked with its oversight.
Amid that tension, on March 9, 2022, Huntsman filed a complaint — which he told The Times this week he was required to do under county policy — accusing Villanueva of sending an email “throughout the Sheriff’s Department that was a racially biased attack.” In the email, Villanueva allegedly referred to Huntsman by his full name. Around the same time, during an interview on KFI-AM radio , the sheriff raised the issue again, adding, “He’s dropped the Gustaf for some reason, and there might be a story behind that.”
When Villanueva found out about Huntsman’s complaint, he in turn told The Times editorial board about it, adding in the new claim about Huntsman’s supposed denial of the Holocaust.
The editorial board functions independently of The Times newsroom, and the interview — during Villanueva’s reelection campaign — came as part of the board’s usual endorsement process in the 2022 election cycle.
At the time, Huntsman wrote a letter to the Board of Supervisors, alerting them to the sheriff’s allegations and offering a response. He wrote that Villanueva was “dog whistling to his more extreme supporters that I am German and/or Jewish and hence un-American.”
Huntsman explained his family’s history, saying his German grandfather had been conscripted into the Nazi army, but was not allowed to carry a rifle because he had previously employed Jews. Growing up during the Holocaust, he said, his father had developed a deep distrust of authority. Huntsman’s father left Europe for North America after the war ended but abandoned the family shortly after his son was born. “He gave me the name Max-Gustaf and so I do not use it,” Huntsman wrote. “I would never deny that the Holocaust happened.”
During his internal affairs interview about his complaint, records show, Huntsman added that his father was a “piece of work — as a result of the Holocaust.” He said that the “way the Nazis functioned” did great damage to his family.
“I don’t claim that’s as bad as the Holocaust, but it had a direct impact on me,” he said, according to a transcript of the summer 2022 interview. “So the idea that I would deny the Holocaust is crazy. I have no love for Nazi Germany; quite the opposite.”
When Villanueva began using the inspector general’s birth name, Huntsman said he believed it was an effort to say: “This guy’s a foreigner; he’s either German or Jewish or both.”
During his internal affairs interview — conducted by an independent investigator hired by the county — Huntsman also detailed the genesis of his tensions with the former sheriff, which he said dated back to at least 2019 when the Office of Inspector General began investigating Villanueva’s controversial decision to rehire a deputy who’d been fired for domestic violence and dishonesty.
When Huntsman’s office prepared to issue a report on the matter, he said, he gave a draft to the Sheriff’s Department.
“When I did that he shut off our computer access and I was asked by people in the county to try to convince him to change his mind,” Huntsman said, according to the internal affairs transcript. “In that context he said to me, ‘If you issue this report, there’ll be consequences.’”
Not long after that, Huntsman said, Villanueva announced that the inspector general was the target of a criminal investigation, and sent a letter to the Board of Supervisors asking them to relieve Huntsman of duty.
Huntsman stayed on the job, but his tensions with Villanueva continued.
Though heavily redacted Internal Affairs Bureau records show Huntsman was interviewed by an investigator in summer 2022, it wasn’t until October 2023 that the county oversight met to discuss the case and issue its recommendation.
Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies shot a man wielding a shotgun while responding to a robbery in Norwalk on Saturday, authorities said.
Around 5:40 p.m., deputies were alerted to a robbery in progress in the 11000 block of Rosecrans Avenue, the Sheriff’s Department said in a statement Sunday. The suspect, a man in his late 30s, stole money and merchandise from a business while pointing a shotgun at its employees, sheriff’s officials said.
Upon arriving at the scene, deputies recognized the suspect based on clothing described in the 911 call. As they tried to detain him, the man “produced” a shotgun, according to the Sheriff’s Department statement. Four deputies opened fire, wounding the suspect, who was taken to a hospital with injuries that weren’t life-threatening, the statement said.
Authorities didn’t name the man but said he robbed the business alone.
The Sheriff’s Department’s Homicide and Internal Affairs bureaus are investigating the incident, which is standard procedure for all shootings involving deputies.
Six people were found shot to death Tuesday night in a desert community in San Bernardino County, according to authorities.
Around 8:15 p.m., deputies responded to an area off Highway 395 in El Mirage for a wellness check, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson Mara Rodriguez said in an email. El Mirage is located about 50 miles northeast of Los Angeles.
Officials initially said five bodies were found, but a sixth was discovered during their investigation, Rodriguez said during a Wednesday morning press conference.
An investigation is underway after six people were found dead in a remote desert area in the community of El Mirage.
(KTLA)
The bodies had gunshot wounds, FOX 11 reported. Their identities were not released by officials as of early Wednesday.
Details about when or how the people died weren’t released by authorities. The investigation is ongoing.
OnScene footage of the incident showed sheriff’s vehicles bypassing yellow tape in order to get to the scene.
A long north-south corridor through the California interior, Highway 395 runs from the I-15 in Hesperia to Carson City, Nev.
Four men were found dead at a Palmdale residence on Tuesday — two in the backyard and two inside the home — according to Los Angeles County authorities.
Sheriff’s deputies were contacted Tuesday by the Los Angeles County Fire Department after fire crews found “multiple persons down” at a residence in the 37000 of 17th Street East. The Fire Department had been dispatched to the home at 4:35 p.m.
When law enforcement arrived, officers found four people around the property, all of whom were pronounced dead.
“There were obvious signs they had been deceased for a while,” said Chris Reynoso, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
The deaths are under investigation by law enforcement, but a Sheriff’s Department spokesperson told The Times there was no threat to the community.
Deputies were at the scene Tuesday night trying to determine the circumstances surrounding the deaths.
Authorities on Monday suspended their search for possible survivors after a Cozy Mark IV plane crashed into the water near Half Moon Bay Sunday night, shortly after taking off from Half Moon Bay Airport.
Wreckage from the aircraft was found upside down in the water, and a woman’s body was discovered nearby. Authorities are still trying to determine what happened.
The body was spotted by a commercial fishing boat close to the site of the crash Monday morning and taken to the San Mateo County Coroner’s Office. The woman had not been identified as of Monday evening, but she is believed to be associated with the crash, the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
The National Transportation Safety Board said its preliminary investigation indicates there were two people on board the plane.
Shortly after noon on Monday, Sgt. Philip Hallworth, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, said urgent rescue efforts had been called off because the prospect of survivors was unlikely. The plane went down near Moss Beach, about two miles north of the Half Moon Bay Airport. A large piece of the plane washed up on the beach at Ross Cove.
Along with the sheriff’s office, the Coastside Fire Protection District, California Highway Patrol and U.S. Coast Guard are involved in the investigation.
Witness reports described a plane flying erratically before falling from sight, according to the sheriff’s office.
“We were having dinner out on the patio and we heard this motor engine puttering — like you hear in the movies, when a plane is about to crash,” Melissa Richter, who was visiting the area from Maine, told ABC 7 News. “It was definitely pivoting back and forth, and then it looked like it put on the gas, went a little bit faster, then it went down and the engine cut out.”
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department released body camera footage Friday showing the moments leading up to a deputy fatally shooting a 27-year-old Black woman in Lancaster.
Niani Finlayson, who authorities said was armed with a kitchen knife, was shot in front of her 9-year-old daughter on Dec. 4. She had called the police for help during a domestic dispute with a man authorities described as her boyfriend.
The footage released Friday shows that the deputy who shot her was first handed a Taser, but he dropped it and fired a handgun instead.
Investigators are continuing to review the case, which is expected to be sent to the district attorney’s office to determine if any charges will be filed.
“Any time a life is lost, regardless of the circumstances, is a difficult time for everyone involved,” L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna said in a statement. “The department released the body-worn camera footage ahead of the legal time frame to demonstrate our commitment to transparency and the visual representation of the facts in this case. As the comprehensive review process continues, the department will gain additional insight into the incident with the goal of improving public safety.”
Shortly after 6 p.m. on Dec. 4, Finlayson called 911 to report that her boyfriend wouldn’t leave her Lancaster apartment, authorities said. During a frantic call with a police dispatcher, audio of which was released along with the body camera footage, Finlayson said the man would not leave her house or “get his hands off of me.”
Three deputies heard screaming as they approached the apartment in the 2100 block of East Avenue J-8. Body camera video shows one of the deputies attempting to kick in the front door.
The door opens and Finlayson appears — holding what authorities say was an 8-inch kitchen knife.
“I’m going to stab him,” she can be heard telling the deputies before moving out of sight toward the living room.
The body camera video shows a deputy, identified by the department as Ty Shelton, entering the apartment closely behind another deputy. On his way in, Shelton asks the other deputy to give him a Taser.
After deputies moved into the apartment, Finlayson can be seen standing next to a man, with one hand on him and the other appearing to hold a knife. Shelton drops the Taser , raises his handgun and fires four shots at Finlayson.
The man then yells, “Why did you shoot?”
Finlayson was taken to a hospital where she later died. The man was arrested on suspicion of child abuse and assault on a peace officer but was later released, according to the sheriff’s department.
Shelton did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“She was not engaging in any type of physically threatening behavior at all,” Bradley Gage, the family’s attorney, said at a news conference Dec. 21. “In fact, she was the victim.”
Shelton was involved in at least one other fatal shooting in Lancaster, according to county records. In 2020, Shelton killed 62-year-old Michael Thomas as he and another deputy tried to detain him during a domestic violence call.
The deputies said Thomas tried to grab one of their guns. His fiancee disputed that, telling a local TV station that Thomas had refused to let the deputies enter the house and was turning away from them when he was shot.
Prosecutors declined to file charges against Shelton in that case, county records show, though they acknowledged “there may have been other reasonable options available” to him instead of killing Thomas.
The union representing L.A. County sheriff’s deputies urged the public to allow for a thorough investigation before coming to any final conclusions.
“This was obviously a tragic outcome, an outcome attributable to a violent and highly volatile situation in that apartment that night,” Richard Pippin, president of the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs said in an emailed statement Friday.
“Our deputy found himself faced with a woman who threatened to stab someone and was then poised, knife in hand, to carry out that threat. This video exemplifies the profound challenges and no-win situations our deputies frequently face. The true motives of groups or individuals who jumped out with outrageous assertions before even seeing the video should be apparent to everyone.”
Ventura County sheriff’s narcotics investigators busted a “large-scale transnational drug trafficking organization” this week that was operating a cocaine delivery service in Ventura and Los Angeles counties, authorities said.
Detectives made eight arrests and seized more than 5 pounds of cocaine, five firearms and “a significant amount of suspected drug proceeds,” sheriff’s officials announced in a news release Friday. The bust followed a five-month investigation into the drug trafficking operation.
The delivery service used drivers to supply cocaine to hundreds of people in Ventura and Los Angeles counties on a daily basis, authorities said.
The investigation launched earlier this summer revealed that 40-year-old Joel Cruz Ayala and 28-year-old Elmer Ayala-Ayala, both of Bakersfield, “were working for the organization as full-time dispatchers,” according to the news release.
The pair, detectives said, were tasked with taking incoming orders and dispatching drivers to customers.
Luis Cruz, 33, was identified as the dispatch house manager, “who was in direct communication with high-ranking members of the organization in El Salvador,” according to the sheriff’s news release.
The organization also employed multiple delivery drivers, including Wilfredo Castillo, 24, Lisandro Moreno, 22, Kevin Bonilla, 20, Jose Ayala Hernandez, 40, and Noel Cruz, 31.
All five were arrested at their residences in Panorama City and North Hills “in possession of a large amount of pre-packaged cocaine ready to be delivered, as well as large sums of suspected drug proceeds.”
Cruz Ayala, Ayala-Ayala and Cruz were located and arrested at their residences and the dispatch house in Bakersfield.
“A significant amount of evidence was located, exposing their large-scale transnational drug trafficking organization, including money transfers to higher ranking members of the organization in El Salvador,” the release states.
Detectives from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Narcotics Unit believe the arrests will greatly disrupt the larger organization. “However, detectives continue to investigate numerous other leads which will aid them in their pursuit of dismantling it completely,” according to the release.
WWE wrestler Gionna Daddio, who wrestles under the name Liv Morgan, was arrested in Central Florida for marijuana possession after traffic stop.
According to the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office, she was pulled over after crossing the yellow and white lines on the road in Bushnell, in Central Florida.
In the arrest affidavit, local law enforcement initially stopped the jeep in case there was a medical incident happening, but soon claimed there was a smell of marijuana from the vehicle. Apparently, the driver admitted marijuana was in the vehicle at that point.
After a search, a clear plastic bag with “a green leafy substance” and a vape pen with an oil-like substance inside were recovered and used to make the charges.
She was able to bond out of the Sumter County Jail.
The family of a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy has filed a claim against the Sheriff’s Department, alleging that excessive overtime hours he was forced to work in the county jails drove him to suicide.
Deputy Arturo Atilano Valadez was one of four current and former Sheriff’s Department employees to die by suicide in a 24-hour span early last month. Atilano, who was about to turn 50, was assigned to the North County Correctional Facility at the time of his death.
“When it comes to him, he was working so much overtime, his wife said that he was like a zombie,” said Bradley Gage, an attorney representing Atilano’s widow and two daughters in the claim, which is a precursor to a lawsuit.
Gage said that sometimes, Atilano and other deputies were so exhausted that they took turns sleeping in jail cells. According to the claim, Atilano’s family is seeking $20 million in damages.
A statement provided by the Sheriff’s Department on Saturday did not address the allegations.
“A loss of a department family member is extremely tragic and our continued thoughts are with the family during this difficult time,” the statement said. “The department has not received the official claim, but is deeply committed to ensuring the well-being and safety of all its employees.”
At a news conference last week recounting his first year in office, Sheriff Robert Luna said his agency is in the midst of a “staffing crisis” that has left it short about 1,200 sworn deputies.
“The people who are working here are taking up that slack — they are working their tails off,” he told reporters. “I recognize that, we recognize that, and we have been working very hard behind the scenes to figure out a way to reduce overtime, because that’s how we’re filling in the gaps.”
The Sheriff’s Department on Saturday could not immediately provide information about the number of vacancies of sworn personnel at the jail where Atilano was assigned and overtime requirements for deputies there.
A request by The Times for Atilano’s work history, including his time sheets, overtime hours and assignments, is also pending.
Deputies sometimes volunteer for overtime shifts for extra money. Gage said that in Atilano’s case, those shifts were mandatory.
“It’s illusory to say it’s voluntary,” Gage told The Times. “They’re required to work eight overtime shifts in a month … So if they don’t volunteer, then they get drafted.”
Gage said that Atilano joined the department more than 21 years ago and spent the last dozen working in the jails. Gage said Atilano asked to leave the custody assignment, but his transfer requests were repeatedly denied. He added that forced overtime is a problem department wide, beyond custody facilities.
Gage is also representing the parents of a deputy who was shot in the head while driving his patrol car in September. The family of Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer alleges that he was forced to work so much overtime that he struggled to stay alert.
“They’re so exhausted, working so much overtime, that they can’t function,” Gage said.
