Carjacking

Eleven Los Angeles police officers fired more than 60 shots, police sources said Friday, in the fatal wounding of an armed carjacking suspect in Koreatown at the end of a televised slow-speed pursuit. Authorities said police fired Thursday night after the suspect pointed his handgun at customers at a gas station, endangering people there. "When he pulled out his revolver and pointed it at people inside the store, the officers took action, fired their rounds, and the suspect expired at the scene," Cmdr.

WATERTOWN, Mass. - With the Boston area jumpy from the deadly marathon bombings, a shooting that killed a police officer at MIT and a nearby carjacking triggered a massive police response. By early Friday, one suspect was in custody and police had cordoned off an area of the Boston suburb of Watertown, where witnesses reported loud explosions. Police followed the carjacked vehicle to Watertown, according to scanner traffic. It was unclear whether the incidents had anything to do with Monday's marathon bombings, but hours into the siege police issued an alert on the scanner for a white male wearing a gray hoodie, with black curly hair.

Re "Tough New Law on Carjacking," (Oct. 1): Did I miss something or wasn't it always illegal to murder someone and steal their car? NORA BARSUK Glendale

A 29-year-old paroled gang member who was acquitted two weeks ago on charges of attempted murder and carjacking is now accused of shooting a Fullerton police officer multiple times at close range. After being pulled over in a routine traffic stop early Sunday, Marcos Allen Bush pulled out a gun and shot the officer at point-blank range in the chest, according to the Orange County district attorney's office. Bush is accused of firing at the officer several more times, hitting him twice in the arm and again in the leg, before speeding from the scene with an unidentified passenger.

I fail to understand why Leshawn Cummings will not be tried for carjacking with a minimum 15-year prison sentence ("Manslaughter Charges Filed in Carjacking," April 24). I have a problem with the prosecutors' statement that "there is no evidence Cummings was intending to commit a carjacking." What constitutes a carjacking if not the fact that Cummings jumped in the truck and drove off? What good is our "tough" carjacking law if prosecutors are allowed to render it ineffective? PAT BARLOG Granada Hills

Police are investigating a possible connection between a carjacking that ended in Placentia on Monday and a shootout in Anaheim the day before that left one man dead and two others injured, according to investigators. One of two carjacking suspects matches the description of the gunman in the Anaheim slaying, said Lt. John Haradon of the Anaheim Police Department.

A minivan apparently stolen in a carjacking that left a man dead at a Panorama City carwash over the weekend was recovered Tuesday morning, police said. Juan Pablo Mendez, 63, of Van Nuys, died Sunday after he was found beaten and unconscious near the 14500 block of Van Nuys Boulevard, Los Angeles Police Lt. Joe Eddy said. Mendez's red 1995 Mercury Villager was found near the carwash. "We're in the process of examining the van for evidence," Eddy said. No arrests have been made, he said.

Torrance police arrested four carjacking suspects Tuesday after a 30-minute pursuit of a stolen sport utility vehicle, police said. No one was injured. About 12:05 a.m., officers patrolling near Sepulveda Boulevard and Pennsylvania Avenue ran a check on a vehicle's license plate and determined that it had been taken in a carjacking in Riverside County on Monday, said Torrance Police Lt. Paul Besse.

A 19-year-old Ft. Worth man became the first person to be convicted of carjacking under a new federal law put into effect last October. Demond Henderson was charged with pointing a gun at another Ft. Worth man who had stopped his Jeep in his driveway while he went to open the garage door in November of last year, FBI special agent Todd McCall said. Henderson took the man's keys and drove off in the Jeep, McCall said.

Two teen-agers were the victims of a carjacking early Saturday morning when an unidentified man ordered them out of their car at gunpoint in a remote area northeast of Santa Clarita, authorities said. The victims, a boy and a girl, both 17, were not injured, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Kim Ruppert said. The incident occurred in the 29500 block of Bouquet Canyon Road about 3:30 a.m. when a man put a gun to the head of the boy and ordered him and his companion out of the car, Ruppert said.

A camp ranger carjacked by Christopher Dorner and who called 911 is seeking the entire $1.2-million reward offered for the now-deceased ex-L.A. police officer who killed four people before taking his own life in a Big Bear-area cabin. Through a law firm, Rick Heltebrake has filed a claim to collect the reward offered by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and funded by various entities. It was not long after Heltebrake called 911 that San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies surrounded the cabin where Dorner was hiding Feb. 12 and where he shot himself.

BEIJING -- Thousands in the northeastern city of Changchun mourned during a candlelight vigil Tuesday night for a 2-month-old boy who officials say was strangled to death by a carjacker. Xu Haobo was sleeping in the backseat of his parent's SUV early Monday morning when his father stopped for a few minutes to turn on the heat in a store the family owned, authorities said. "He left his kid in the car with the heat on, and he didn't take the keys," a bystander at the scene in Changchun later told TV reporters.

Orange County sheriff's officials said they don't know what prompted a series of shootings across multiple cities early Tuesday morning that left at least four people dead and others wounded. Authorities believe the violence began in Ladera Ranch, south of Mission Viejo. The first call came at 4:45 a.m. reporting a shooting on Red Leaf Lane, where deputies discovered a woman shot dead at the scene. The suspect, described as a man in his 20s, fled the area in an SUV. PHOTOS: Shootings at multiple locations in O.C. Sheriff's Department spokesman Jim Amormino said “multiple incidents” then occurred in Tustin and another at the Santa Ana border before the suspect apparently shot and killed himself in Orange.

Authorities are searching for two carjacking suspects involved in the shooting of a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy Sunday morning in South El Monte. The deputy, a 13-year veteran assigned to the department's Temple Station, was taken to a hospital, where he was treated for his injuries and released, said Capt. Mike Parker, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Department. His name was not immediately released. The deputy was wounded about 9 a.m. after exchanging gunfire with a man and woman who were riding in a 1994 Ford Explorer near the intersection of Durfee Avenue and Michael Hunt Drive, Parker said.

Justice is blind, and that's good, or she might be embarrassed by the case of a Phoenix-area man who stripped naked during a recent madcap skein in which he caused crashes that injured seven people in suburban Scottsdale, closing several roads and causing witnesses to cover their eyes. On Thursday, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge set a cash-only bond of $100,000 for 45-year-old John Hugh Brigham on charges that he carjacked one car and attempted to steal another, injuring several victims, including a pregnant woman nearly at full term who suffered two broken legs.

SEATTLE -- Seattle was paralyzed at midday Wednesday by two shootings that occurred within half an hour of each other in two of the city's most congested areas, sparking massive manhunts for what initially appeared to be two different suspects. The first shooting occurred about 11 a.m. at a popular cafe near the University of Washington. An unidentified gunman opened fire on five people, killing two of them and critically wounding the others. Half an hour later, a woman was shot and killed in an apparent carjacking in downtown Seattle in a parking lot near the city's Town Hall lecture center.

A 16-year-old boy was hospitalized after an attempted carjacking early Thursday, police said. Two men were in custody after the 12:50 a.m. incident on Olds Road, police said. The unidentified boy apparently picked up two older men--one of whom he knew--on Pleasant Valley Road. Police said he drove them to the 4900 block of Olds Road, where they asked him to get out. According to police, the men beat up the boy and took his watch, jewelry, money and Lotto ticket.

A 17-year-old was sentenced Thursday to 13 years in prison for carjacking a Canyon Country woman's car from in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant. Gilbert Dominguez of Quartz Hill and his accomplice, Carlos Anguiano, 19, of Los Angeles, pleaded no contest Thursday in San Fernando Superior Court to carjacking. Each admitted that Dominguez was armed with a handgun. Dominguez got 13 years and Anguiano was sentenced to six years in prison, according to Dep. Dist. Atty. Garrett Worchell.

Eleven Los Angeles police officers fired more than 60 shots, police sources said Friday, in the fatal wounding of an armed carjacking suspect in Koreatown at the end of a televised slow-speed pursuit. Authorities said police fired Thursday night after the suspect pointed his handgun at customers at a gas station, endangering people there. "When he pulled out his revolver and pointed it at people inside the store, the officers took action, fired their rounds, and the suspect expired at the scene," Cmdr.

The headlines reflect a previously unknown cruelty: a woman gunned down in a rich Cairo neighborhood, a rash of carjackings, a deadly soccer riot, a stream of smuggled arms that have given muscle to criminal gangs once easily outgunned by police. The revolution that inspired this country one year ago has set loose a menacing air that Egyptians find unfamiliar. Bristling beneath the political battle for power against the ruling generals is an insecurity over crime and a bitterness that has darkened Egypt's congenial nature.