The killing took place during LB's City Council meeting (with Vice Mayor/6th dist. Councilman Dee Andrews attending for an hour, then leaving after casting a tie-breaking vote in favor of a politically-polarizing hotel-workers safety ordinance favored by hotel-owner interests and opposed by a union favoring a petition-initiated November ballot measure and hoping to organize hotel workers.)

Initial information is sketchy. LBPD Watch Commander Lt. Michael Richens tells LBREPORT.com that at about 10 p.m. on Oct. 23, officers responded to an alley in the 1300 block of Wesley Drive, found a man (adult) with multiple gunshot wounds and LBFD pronounced him deceased. Homicide detectives were on-scene at daybreak; there's no immediate motive known; it's unknown if the homicide is gang related and LBPD's investigation is ongoing. (In a near-noon hour release, LBPD says the victim was 34 years old.)

On March 12, a man (adult) was shot and killed in the same block of Wesley Drive, which followed a non-fatal shooting a few blocks away near the location of the World Famous VIP Records (PCH/MLK).

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. Map is unofficial. A separate map (not shown here) shows shootings in NLB

[Scroll down for further.]

For context, LBREPORT.com provides a map below showing cumulated shootings in the area Jan. 1, 2014-Dec. 31, 2017:

A continually updated chart on LBREPORT.com's front page (right column, near top) shows last night's killing was the 5th homicide in the 6th district (incumbent Andrews since May 2007) in 2018, a number exceeded only by the 1st district (Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez since mid-2014) with 10 homicides. In their most recent re-elections, both incumbents had the endorsement of LB's Police Officers Association PAC; Andrews (2016) won with a write-in; Gonzalez (2018) was re-elected without a ballot opponent.

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LB's total of 27 homicides to date in 2018 (with two months remaining) has exceeded the 22 (a record low) in 2017 and 23 (tied for a record-low) in 2016. In 2016, LB had 36 homicides; in 2014, LB had 23.

Mayor Garcia held a press events to announce (to LB and L.A. media) LB's 2017 and 2016. Neither he nor any Council incumbents have have agendized any City Council items to address the concentration of LB's violent crimes impacting LB's mainly working class neighborhoods [which LBREPORT.com has repeatedly called LB's most serious inequity, a "tale of two cities."]

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