NLB portion of LB's six 2014 murders to date

In initial information, LBPD Public Information Officer Nancy Pratt tells LBRPEORT.com that officers responded at roughly 5:40 p.m. to a "shots fired" call in the 3400 block of Andy Street. Officers arrived to find a man (adult) who was the victim of a gunshot; LBFD responded and determined that the man was deceased at the scene.

[Update] LBPD has identified the victim in a release as Christopher Franklin, 20, of Long Beach. A motive for the shooting is currently unknown. [End update]

There's no immediate suspect information available; based on preliminary information, detectives are investigating the crime as possibly gang-related. LBPD asks anyone with information regarding the incident to contact Homicide Detectives Hugo Cortes or Peter Lackovic at (562) 570-7244. Anonymous tips may be submitted by calling 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), texting TIPLA plus your tip to CRIMES (274637), or visiting www.lacrimestoppers.org. [End update]

It's Long Beach's sixth murder of 2014...and the second fatal shooting in two days in NLB's 9th Council district. On Friday Feb. 21, a man was fatally shot on Linden Ave./59th St. (just north of South St., west of Atlantic Ave.) roughly a block from a new library under construction that elected officials call part of an Uptown Renaissance.

From LBREPORT.com's Amnesia File:

The Andy Street neighborhood was the subject of a 2007 story in the now-former District Weekly, citing residents' successful efforts to reverse neighborhood crime and decay. In 2008, then-Vice Mayor Val Lerch was invited to address the Neighborhoods USA national conference (in Hampton, VA) on the neighborhood's successful turnaround.

However starting in August-September 2009, Mayor Bob Foster (elected in 2006 on a campaign promise to put 100 more police officers on the street within four years) recommended budgets that Council majorities enacted (Sept. 2009, 2010, 2011 over dissent by Schipske, Neal and Gabelich, 2012 and 2013) that erased roughly 20% of LBPD's citywide deployable sworn officers, including (voted action Sept. 2012) much of LBPD's field anti-gang unit.

In 2010, then-Vice Mayor Lerch was mortified while accompanying then-Congresswoman Laura Richardson on a bus tour of the area when apparent gang members were openly smoking marijuana along Andy Street. At a Feb. 2, 2010 Council meeting, Lerch expressed outrage, only to have Mayor Foster downplay the incident.

"Anecdotal stories like that are interesting but, you know, I've seen the crime stats," Mayor Foster said. "This [Police] Department has done a great job. Crime's actually been going down, not up, and I'm gettin' tired of hearing that it's constantly going up. It is not in this city. I agree we have to have adequate staffing levels, but let's not try to scare people into this. Let's do this in a rational way..."

The exchange occurred during an item co-agendized by then-Vice Mayor Lerch (Mayor Foster's choice to chair the Council's Public Safety Committee) who sought ways to hasten the start of a replenishment Police Academy class to replace retiring/exiting police officers. Months earlier in September 2009, the Council voted without dissent not to fund a Police Academy class in FY10 and voted to reduce LBPD's level for taxpayers by 76 officers (59 sworn + 17 recruits) in FY10. (Mayor Foster and city management originally proposed to cut 88 officers, from which the Council restored 12.)

During the Feb. 2, 2010 Council item, city management indicated it planned a replenishment Police Academy class during FY 2011...but by the start of FY11, Vice Mayor Lerch was no longer on the Council. Lerch sought a third term via a write-in in April 2010 and was endorsed by Mayor Foster...but was outpolled by Steven Neal.

With Lerch gone, Mayor Foster filled the Public Safety Committee chair with Councilman (now Vice Mayor) Robert Garcia, who for the past two years failed to hold hearings of the Public Safety Committee on the public safety impacts of management proposed/Foster-recommended police and fire budgets. Those included a 2012 Mayor-recommended budget that would have entirely eliminated an LBPD field anti-gang unit; the Council ultimately tapped one-time funds to give the police chief discretion to restore up to half of the anti-gang unit but in August 2013, LBPD management acknowledged that the unit was at a little over half of that budgeted half strength.