Victim In Sunday's Fatal Drive-By Shooting (1100 block E. PCH) Was Nephew To Now-Former Chair Of City Hall's Now-Former Youth & Gang Violence Prevention Task Force, Lydia Hollie
As reported earlier: Sunday midafternoon murder; Fatal drive By shooting 1100 block E. PCH (Area Lemon Ave. b/w Orange and Atlantic Aves.)
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(Dec. 15, 2014, 11:20 a.m.) -- LBREPORT.com has learned that the victim in Sunday's midafternoon fatal drive-by shooting in the 1100 block of E. PCH (just east of Lemon Ave. between Orange and Atlantic Aves.) was the newphew of the now-former chair of Long Beach City Hall's now-former Youth & Gang Violence Prevention Task Force, Lydia Hollie (J.D., M.A.Ed.)
In a release issued this morning (Dec. 15), LBPD identifies the victim as Robert Lee Hollie, 33 of Long Beach. LBREPORT.com has confirmed the familial relationship with a spokesperson for the family, who indicates a statement may be forthcoming later today.
In its release, LBPD says its preliminary investigation indicates that Mr. Hollie "had been approached by two male Blacks in a dark colored vehicle, when one of the occupants opened fire striking the victim. The vehicle then fled westbound on Pacific Coast Highway."
LBPD's release states: "A motive for the shooting is unknown, however, the incident is being investigated as possibly gang-related."
[Update, 12:28 p.m.] Writing on Facebook, Jerlene Tatum states that she is sharing the following on behalf of Lydia Hollie [since she is apparently not on Facebook.] Ms. Tatum writes: "Robert, Jr. [the victim of the shooting] was not gang affiliated, he has a 5 year old son and a 6 year old daughter. He was a son, a father, brother, nephew, uncle, cousin, and friend."
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Red Xs=2014 murders; Blue Xs=2014 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; Orange X's=non-fatal stabbings. Map accounts for shootings in area shown.
The crime scene is roughly a block south of Martin Luther King Jr. Park. Graffifi was visible on Dec. 14 roughly half a block north of the crime scene on the sidewalk and a number of other locations.
A little over a week earlier, gunfire flew and two persons were hit on Saturday night (Dec. 6) in the 2200 block of Lewis Ave. (between MLK and Orange, north of Hill St.)
That double-shooting occurred just blocks from a double-shooting in January, 2014 (between MLK and Atlantic, north of Hill St.)
That was a few blocks from double shooting to the west in Sept. 2014 (between Pacific and LB Blvd. north of Hill St.)
And that was just blocks from a double shooting a bit further west between Pacific and Magnolia Ave.) in April 2014 in which one person was killed.
All of these, including Sunday's (Dec. 14) midafternoon fatal shooting, were in the 6th Council district, represented since 2007 by Councilman Dee Andrews. In the most recent election cycle for that Council district (April 2012), Council incumbent Andrews faced no ballot challengers..
The City of Long Beach Youth Violence and Gang Prevention Task Force, which was chaired (roughly 2005-2009) by the victim's aunt Lydia Hollie, was disbanded several years ago when its then-funding sources (mainly U.S. Department of Justice "Weed and Seed" grant for $1 million and Sacramento CalGRIP grant for $400,000, allocated for various "prevention" programs) evaporated and weren't replaced by other budgeted sources.
More recently, on September 2 and 9, 2014 the Long Beach City Council voted (without dissent) to approve a FY15 budget recommended by Mayor Garcia that ended funding for LBPD's former 22-member field anti-gang unit. Mayor Foster proposed the action in Aug. 2012 (FY13); at that time, the Council instead cut the field anti-gang unit in half in Sept. 2012, using "one time funding" to operate it at half-strength. In Sept. 2013 (FY14), the Council quietly let the field anti-gang unit shrink to single digits (taken from patrol) and in Sept. 2014 (FY15 budget), the Council voted to eliminate the field anti-gang unit entirely. An internal LBPD gang unit remains.
The police staffing cuts occurred in the context of annual budget reductions (recommended by Mayors Foster and Garcia and approved by Council majorities) that have left L.A. County's second largest city with a current budgeted sworn staffing strength (available for citywide deployment, not including contracted officers restricted to/paid by the Port, Airport, LB Schools or LB Transit) roughly equivalent per capita to cutting over 25% of L.A.P.D.'s officers. Despite the economic downturn (cited by Long Beach's Mayors and Councilmembers for the budget cuts), both Los Angeles (L.A. County's largest city) and Signal Hill (one of the County's smallest) continue to budget higher levels of police staffing.
As part of the budget reductions, the Long Beach City Council has also cut Fire Dept. resources, leaving three fire stations without fire engines capable of spraying water to extinguish fires. In January 2014 (as previously reported by LBREPORT.com), an ELB residence burned across the street from Fire Station 17, since it no longer has a staffed fire engine...and an engine had to travel a further distance (with the fire doubling in size every minute) to douse the blaze.
(Dec. 14, 2014, 6:23 p.m., updated victim information 7:15 p.m.) -- A quiet Sunday afternoon along Pacific Coast Highway in Central Long Beach became the scene of a fatal drive-by shooting today (Dec. 14).
LBREPORT.com has learned the following (preliminary information) following our initial report -- flashed on our front page (www.LBREPORT.com) earlier today -- that gunfire was heard in the 1100 block of E. PCH (near Lemon Ave. between Orange and Atlantic Aves.) We have since learned via LBPD that the gunfire struck a man in his 30's...and that victim is deceased.
Multiple LBPD units were on scene shortly before 1:30 p.m.
The following is very preliminary information via LBPD Public Information Officer Nancy Pratt, who confirms that the shooting took place in the 1100 block of E. PCH...and LBPD responded at about 12:45 p.m. "A male victim was struck in the torso and transported to a hospital in serious condition. He was pronounced deceased shortly after arriving," Ms. Pratt says.
