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(Mar. 24, 2014, 7:25 p.m.) -- LBPD has issued a release on yesterday's (Mar. 24) quadruple-victim predawn shooting in downtown Long Beach in which a 33 year old Compton man was killed.
[LBPD release text] -- On Sunday, March 23, 2014, around 2:55 a.m., Long Beach Police responded to a shots fired call in the area of 6th Street and Long Beach Blvd., which resulted in the death of a male adult. (Mar 23, 6:20 p.m.) -- The L.A. County Coroner's office tells LBREPORT.com (source: Lt. Larry Dietz) that the decedent in this morning's (Mar. 23) predawn quadruple shooting in the 600 block of LB Blvd. is Charles Edward Bell, II, 33. of Compton. (Mar. 23, 2014, 10:30 a.m.) -- As flashed on LBREPORT.com's front page earlier this morning, four people were shot today -- one of whom died at the scene -- in the parking lot of a Denny's restaurant on Long Beach Blvd. at 6th St. in downtown Long Beach Scene shortly after dawn today. LBREPORT.com photo The crime scene is adjacent to the northern end of the "CityPlace" shopping area. Scene shortly after dawn today. LBREPORT.com photo LBPD Public Information Officer Marlene Arrona tells LBREPORT.com (initial information) officers responded at 2:55 a.m., found four shooting victims, one dead at the scene. PD believes it's possibly gang related. Investigators were visible on scene shortly after dawn.
Los Angeles market media was also on scene.
This morning's multi-victim shooting includes LB's sixth murder since Jan. 1 (three of which occurred in NLB.) Downtown's 1st Council district, represented since May 2009 by Councilman (selected as Vice Mayor by Council incumbents in 2012) has had two of LB's murders since Jan. 1. For context over time, the map below shows murders in downtown/Central LB (red X's) from 2010 through 2013 and non-fatal shootings (blue X's) that came to our attention from Aug. 2011 through Dec. 2013. (Other parts of LB not shown on this map.)
Long Beach has seen crime decreases. and some citywide crime categories are now at or near historic lows, a trend visible in some other area cities as well. However some parts of Long Beach experience crime at levels significantly higher than others areas which are nearly entirely free of murders and shootings. In August 2012, Mayor Foster recommended a budget that proposed to eliminate LBPD's field anti-gang unit; the City Council responded by funding up to half of the anti-gang field unit for one year. In Aug. 2013, the Council's Budget Oversight Committee learned that nearly half of the halved anti-gang officers were no longer in the anti-gang unit (and workload is handled by overtime.) As of mid-March 2014, there's been no Council discussion of how many anti-gang field officers LB has today. Since May 2009, LB's 1st Council district has been represented by Councilman Robert Garcia (named Vice Mayor by Council incumbents in 2012.) Starting in August 2009 in response to the economic downturn, Mayor Bob Foster recommended, and Councilman Garcia voted with four other current Council incumbents (Lowenthal, DeLong, O'Donnell and Andrews) to approve, budgets that resulted in the largest reduction in Long Beach police officers for taxpayers within a four year period in the city's 100+ year history. The City of Long Beach currently provides L.A. County's second largest city with a citywide deployable per capita police level roughly equivalent to what Los Angeles would have if its City Council cut over 25% of LAPD's police officers. In mid-2010, Mayor Foster appointed Councilman Garcia to chair the Council's Public Safety Committee. For the past two years, Garcia has declined to hold meetings of his Committee to discuss the public safety impacts of budgets recommended each August by Mayor Foster. Mayor Foster, who exits in less than four months under term limits, has endorsed Vice Mayor Garcia for Mayor in an election in which vote-by-mail ballots are circulating now with polling place election day on April 8.
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