LBPD Public Information Officer Arantxa Chavarria tells LBREPORT.com (preliminary information) that at about 5:35 p.m., officers were sent to the 2300 block of E. 14th St. for a call and found two men (adults) on the sidewalk. LBFD transported both victims to a hospital where one was pronounced deceased and the other had what are described as non-life-threatening injuries.

[Dec. 30 update] In a release, LBPD states:

The [deceased] victim has been identified as 32-year-old Bradley Meas of Long Beach. Officers also located a second male adult victim in the courtyard of the apartment complex with a gunshot wound to his lower body. He was also transported to a local hospital where he was treated for his injuries then released. Three other victims were present at the time of the shooting but were uninjured.

Preliminary investigation revealed that prior to the shooting, the decedent and the four other victims were on the sidewalk in front of the dispatched location. Two male adult suspects approached the group on foot, one of the suspects yelled at them and subsequently opened fire on the group striking the decedent and the other victim. The suspects fled on foot before police arrived.

The exact motive for the shooting is unknown, however, the incident is being investigated as gang-related. Detectives are actively working to gather additional information to further the ongoing investigation.

The Long Beach Police Department is seeking the public’s help in gathering additional information regarding this incident to further the ongoing investigation. We urge anyone who may have information regarding this incident to immediately contact the Long Beach Police Department Homicide Detail Detectives Sean Magee or Leticia Gamboa at (562) 570-7244. Anyone wishing to remain anonymous may call 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), or text TIPLA plus your tip to 274637 (CRIMES), or visit www.lacrimestoppers.org.ng.

It's the second homicide and ninth shooting (persons hit + not hit; fed'l rules count two victims as two shootings) in Councilman Daryl Supernaw's 4th district in 2019. The 4th dist. also had three additional shootings (persons hit + not hit) on its border with districts 2, 5 and 6.

The maps below show cumulated fatal, non-fatal and no-person hit shootings cumulated from Jan. 1, 2018 to Dec. 29, 2019

Jan 1, 2018 to date: Red Xs=homicides; Blue Xs= shootings, person wounded; Brown Xs=shots fired at victim(s), not hit; Purple Xs=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; Blue * asterisk=victim hit, police unable to locate crime scene. Map is unofficial.

For context, the second map shows shootings cumulated from Jan. 1, 2014 through Dec. 31, 2017.

[Scroll down for further.]

Amnesia File: In an action LBREPORT.com included among our Runners-Up for 2019 "Outrage of the Year," on April 30, 2019 Councilman Supernaw offered the reasoning below for not restoring LBPD's field anti-gang unit (eliminated in budgets that preceded his arrival in 2015) and discouraged members of the community from bringing up the subject in the future. Below is a transcript of a salient portion of that April 30, 2019 Committee agenda item:

Councilman Supernaw: I'm going to bring up a topic that has appeared before and that is field gang units, and to our esteemed chair here she's probably say "asked and answered" in her parlance but I think it bears repeating just so members of the community don't bring this up again.

My understanding is that the function of the field gang unit still exists but we don't specifically have a field gang unit. I guess I would say back when we did, that field gang unit could take on other responsibilities at any given time if there were burglaries, they could be assigned to that for a day, and I don't want to divulge how any systems work, but from what I understood you to say in terms of intervention strategies, that there are gang officers and the Direct Enforcement Officers within in a patrol division can function at any given time as a field gang unit. Would that be accurate?

Commander Robert Smith: Councilman, I would say that the Directed Enforcement Teams, they have many functions but one of their emphasis is certainly on gang crimes.

Councilman Supernaw: OK, thank you. And in terms of the crimes being committed, I'll just speak for the 4th Council district, we need to put things in perspective. In 2013, the 4th district specifically Beat 11, led the city in homicides with 8. Knock on wood, we haven't had a homicide in the 4th district for over two years, so thank you for the great work.

Councilman Supernaw was recently re-elected without a ballot opponent.

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On Dec. 6, 2016 (about six months after LB voters approved the Measure A "blank check" sales tax increase), LBPD Deputy Chief Richard Conant told the Public Safety Committee (responding to a question by Supernaw) that as a result of the Mayor/Council's decision to end funding for the field anti-gang unit, LBPD uses its gang intel team plus Directed Enforcement Team plus a crime analyst to try to replicate what the field anti-gang unit previously did. He said it's "similar," not the same as what LB taxpayers previously received.

Deputy Chief Conant "...Our gang field team was a in-the-field rollin' around responsive team to calls. In place of that, since fiscal cuts, we are utilizing our Direct Enforcement Team in a similar fashion. As you know, our Direct Enforcement Team is a proactive team that handles our quality of life related issues and/or acts as an immediate response team for Divisional Commanders for gang crimes, and any criminal trend or crime trend that may be occurring in a respective Division. Our Direct Enforcement Teams work in conjunction with out gang intel team, effectively working as an extension of the gang enforcement unit...

In addition, when the Division's "Dircted Enforcement Team" is handling gang cases, it can't handle other issues. Taxpayers previously had a field anti-gang unit PLUS a Directed Enforcement Team. Now, despite measure A, they no longer have a field anti-gang unit and each Division's only "Directed Enforcement Team" is unable to handle multiple other issues when it's handling gang issues.

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On April 30, 2019, LBPD Commander Smith told the Council's Public Safety Committee that Long Beach "is home to nearly two dozen documented local street gangs and several other regional gangs that frequent our city for a variety of reasons."

LB Financial Management Department has told LBREPORT.com that restoring 10 citywide deployable officers (fully turned-out/equipped) would cost (figure for rough budget estimate purposes) about $2 million. That would put the budgeted cost of restoring LBPD's field anti-gang unit (20 officers + 2 sergeants) at a little over $4 million.

In June 2016, LB voters approved the Measure A General Fund ("blank check") sales tax that currently brings LB City Hall roughly $60 million in additional revenue each year (with text explicitly stating that it would only be temprary.) Mayor Garcia and the Council have now advanced a March 2020 ballot measure asking LB voters to make the Measure A sales tax permanent.

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Dec 30, 10:05 a.m.: Text added from LBPD release; text also added re field anti-gang unit; stats added re 4th dist. shootings on 4th dist. order with adjoining districts.

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