(April 7, 2015, 9:40 a.m.) -- UPDATE: LBPD says it has arrested two individuals in connection with Monday's (April 6) double-shooting in the 800 block of Gaviota Ave. LBPD Public Information Officer Sgt. Megan Zabel says:

The arrestees are: Savon Moun, 32, of Long Beach, detained in the 1900 block of East 10th Street shortly after the shooting occurred. After an initial investigation, Moun was booked on the charge of attempted murder; he's currently being held at the LB jail on $1,000,000 Bail.

Also arrested was a male juvenile, age 17, detained in the 800 block of Rose Avenue shortly after the shooting occurred. After the initial investigation, LBPD booked the juvenile on a charge of attempted murder; he's currently being held without bail.

Both shooting victims are now in stable condition, PIO Zabel says.

LBPD says the shooting is being investigated as possibly gang related.

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LBREPORT.com's unofficial map below cumulates shootings over time (Jan. 1, 2014 to date) for context.

Red Xs=2014 and 2015 murders to date; Blue Xs=2014 and 2015 shootings, person wounded; Brown Xs=shots fired at victim(s), not hit; Purple Xs=2014 shots at occupied residence/vehicle; Green Xs=shots at unoccupied vehicle/residence; Grey Xs=shots fired (no hit, no target identified); Orange X's=non-fatal stabbings. Map is unofficial for shootings in area shown.

(April 6, 2015, 5:55 p.m.) -- Two men (adults) were shot this afternoon (Mon. April 6) in the 800 block of Gaviota Ave. and one is reported in critical condition.

Initial information is sketchy. LBPD Public Information Officer Marlene Arrona says officers were dispatched at approximately 4:42 p.m.; a subject (note: not ID'd as suspect) has been detained; the shooting is "being investigated as possibly gang related" and LBPD's investigation is ongoing.

Within roughly the past twelve months, most of the shootings (fatal and non-fatal) in the area NE of downtown/Central LB were in parts of the nearby 1st, 6th (and western portion of) the 4th Council districts. However, LBREPORT.com notes the following in or on the border of the 2nd Council district::

• March 31, 2015: A man is shot at midafternoon in the area of 7th St./Alamitos Ave. near the Museum of Latin American Art.

• Sept. 21, 2014: A "no hit" shooting occurs overnight in the 1200 block of E. 4th St. (northern edge of Alamitos Beach neighborhood) near Orange Ave.

• July 16, 2014: Gunfire hits two occupied (inhabited) residence and an unoccupied vehicle in the 8 a.m. hour in the 700 block of Gaviota Ave.

• June 11, 2014: Man is stabbed in the area of 8th St./Gardenia Ave.

• May 30, 2014: Shots fired in the 700 block of Rose Ave. at an parked, unoccupied vehicle.

• Mar 24, 2014: A store clerk is shot and critically injured in a robbery at a mini-mart on 7th St. between Orange and Cerritos Aves. (border of 1st and 2nd Council districts.)

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As previously reported by LBREPORT.com, in September 2014, the LB City Council voted without dissent to adopt a FY15 budget that no longer funds LBPD's now-former field anti-gang unit. Until October 2012, the unit included twenty officers plus two Sergeants, deployed in gang impacted areas where officers could interact with residents and gather intelligence.

In August 2012, then-Mayor Bob Foster recommended a FY13 budget that proposed to eliminate the unit, and then-Vice Mayor Robert Garcia, chosen by Foster to chair the Council's Public Safety Committee, held no hearings on the public safety aspects of the proposed budget. However the Council balked and voted to fund half of the field anti-gang unit using "one time" funds for a year.

A year later in September 2013, again with no hearings by Garcia's Public Safety Committee on the proposed budget, the Council failed to budget additional sums for the field anti-gang unit, which LBPD scrambled to maintain at a further reduced level by drawing officers from patrol and backfilling with overtime. In July 2014, exiting Mayor Foster and entering Mayor Garcia both recommended a FY15 budget without funding for the field anti-gang unit. The Council's Public Safety Committee, now headed by Councilwoman Suzie Price (chosen by Garcia and endorsed for office by Foster) held no hearings on public safety aspects of the Garcia-Foster proposed FY15 budget. (Councilwoman Price said such an action would be "unprecedented.")

In September 2014, the Council voted without dissent to adopt a FY15 budget that provided no funding for LBPD's field anti-gang unit.

LBPD continues to maintain a conventional gang unit (often working indoors on investigations and the like) but LB no longer has the field anti-gang unit that City previously had.

Although city officials frequently say that LB crime is at 40+ year lows (using a citywide statistic), in applying for the state taxpayer funds (a grant called "My Sister's Keeper") under the CA Gang Reduction, Intervention [application obtained by LBREPORT.com using the CA Public Records Act] the City acknowledged that in 2014, gang membership in Long Beach was 12.82/1,000 people, more than twice the state average of 6.18/1,000 people.

"Although violent crime in Long Beach dropped to the lowest level over the past forty years, youth and gang violence has spiked in certain neighborhoods," the city said in its grant application, stating that "gang related murders in 2012 were up 51% and gang shootings were up 18.9% since 2011 as reported by LBPD." It added (as previously acknowledged in statements by LBPD) that "gang violence contributes to at least half of the homicides in Long Beach."