In the first, LBPD Public Information Officer Lt. Jam,es Richardson says officers responded at about 9:35 p.m. to shots fired in the area of 17th St/ Gundry Avenue, confirmed a shooting had occurred and in a preliminary investigation determined that a vehicle containing four men (described as male Blacks) pulled up to a group of subjects standing in the area. "Two of the suspects exited the vehicle with guns and fired into the group. Two adult females were struck by the gunfire. Both received non-life threatening injuries and were treated at a local hospital. There is no known motive at this time and the investigation is ongoing."

In the second, LBPD Public Information Officer Lt. James Richarson says that at about 11:20 p.m., callers reported shots heard in the area 400 block of E. 16th St. (at roughly Elm Ave.) Responding officers found bullet casings in the street but no victims came forward and no vehicles or structures were found hit at the time.

As previously reported by LBREPORT.com, within a recent six week period (April 15 through May 31 ) Long Beach had 20 shooting crime scenes [persons hit (including a homicide) and pesons-not-hit (vehicles or buildings damaged/hit)], 17 of which disproportionately impacted working class areas in LB's 1st and 6th Council districts.

[LBREPORT.com has repeatedly described the disproportionate number of shootings and homicide experienced by families and businesses in LB's predominantly working class 1st and 6th Council districts as a "tale of two cities" and LB's worst chronic inequity.]

[Scroll down for further.]

LBPD crime stats don't separately report shootings. Like many law enforcement agencies, LBPD includes shootings within "aggravated assaults," which satisfies federal reporting standards but makes it difficult to access data on LB shootings. This is a discretionary action enabled without objection for years by the LB City Council. (In Los Angeles, LAPD does provide shooting crime stats in its publicly released stats.) LBREPORT.com independently tracks shootings, confirming each one prior to reporting them.

Sponsor

Sponsor

In the 1st district, Mary Zendejas was elected to the City Council in a November 2019 no-runoff special election with over $100,000 in campaign contributions from corporate/development interests, government-affairs lobbyists and organized labor (reported in LBREPORT.com's Follow the Money coverage here, here, here, here, and here). Those sums were amplified by $30,000 from the LB Police Officers Ass'n PAC, Mayor Garcia and immediate past 1st dist. Council incumbent (now state Senator) Lena Gonzalez, who bypassed LB's voter-enacted contribution limits to candidate campaigns by giving $10,000 each to the LB Firefighters Ass'n PAC which then used the sum to run an "independent expenditure" campaign (not legally bound by candidate contribution limits) to support electing Zendejas.

Mayor Garcia then appointed newly-elected Zendejas (with Council voted approval) to chair the Council's "Elections Oversight Committee" where she recently proposed increasing the amounts candidates can raise during election cycles. Zendejas will face 1st dist. voters in March 2022 (with fundraising slated to begin in March 2021.

Sponsor

Sponsor

In the adjacent 6th Council district, Council incumbent Dee Andrews (first elected in 2007, named by the Council as its Vice Mayor in mid-2018) supported by the LB Police Officers Ass'n PAC, Mayor Garcia and corporate/development interests. His opponent, Suely Saro, is supported by organized labor.

Sponsor