(July 9, 2006, initial post) -- LBReport.com has learned that a 15 year old male was fatally shot at roughly 12:30 a.m. today (July 9) in the area of 1st St . and Pine Ave. in downtown LB.

Details are sketchy as we post. LBPD Public Information Officer Sgt. David Cannan says initial information indicates a group was walking on Pine Ave. approaching 1st St. when words were exchanged with a group in a car, the 15 year old approached the car...and was fatally shot.

Sgt. Cannan says a heavy downtown police presence, coupled with many people in the area, helped LBPD spot the car. Several suspects were apprehended. Some suspects may be outstanding. LBPD Detectives are actively working this case as we post. LBReport.com will be posting updates to this page as received. (Revisit this page, click reload or refresh on your browser for updated text).

The news comes one day after a 22-year old Gardena resident was shot and killed in a car to car shooting on LB Blvd. near the 710 freeway in NLB.

The Pine Ave. shooting occurred just hours after city management and outgoing Mayor Beverly O'Neill said their policies with Council approval had produced a structurally balanced FY 07 budget -- but that doesn't include $25-$30 million a year City Hall says is needed for police, fire and library services.

For each budget forwarded during her twelve year incumbency, the O'Neill administration failed to deliver police officers for taxpayers as recommended in a City Hall "Strategic Plan" issued the year she took office...and during her administration LB became less safe per capita in terms of violent crime than NYC [not necessarily downtown but in terms of citywide statistics. Source: FBI crime statistics cited by Morgan Quitno press]. Multiple City Councils acquiesced in this...and the Council is the body ultimately responsible for determining City Hall spending.

Reelected in 2002 on less than a majority vote after delivering a "State of the City" message that claimed LB City Hall was "on the right track," Mayor O'Neill oversaw two Council votes (9-0) that boosted the pensions of non-public safety city employees (including herself), then said City Hall faced a looming $102 million structural deficit (spending exceeding revenue) over the next three years.

City Hall dealt with the structural deficit by implementing a financial plan that (among multiple measures) cut library hours, cut school crossing guards and increased fees as part of a "cost recovery" system (the latter two items billed as an efficiency measures)...but still fails to provide police, fire and library services at levels city management says justifies a tax increase.

At the July 11, 2006 Council meeting, Councilmembers are scheduled to vote on whether to give themselves a retirement benefit amounting to 50 hours of sick leave for each year of their incumbency. On May 23, 2006, the Council voted 8-0 to give this benefit formula to exiting Mayor O'Neill...amounting to a "golden handshake" that in her case will be worth roughly $31,000 in taxpayer paid health insurance costs.

At a City Hall "Community Budget Summit" yesterday, City Manager Jerry Miller noted that City Hall's structural deficit (spending exceeding revenue) will be erased without a single city employee losing his or her job by eliminating some 400 budgeted positions...and most city employees went on to higher paid positions.