Inglewood Police Department

Margaret Wilson was roused from sleep early Thursday when a running gun battle between Inglewood police and three gunmen came to a dramatic end just outside her door. Wilson, a retiree who recently bought a condominium with her husband in Inglewood, said the chaotic exchange of gunfire reminded her of the civil war that had forced her to flee Liberia and return to the United States in 1998. "But I didn't think I was going to run into a war in my own backyard," she said.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and the Inglewood and Redondo Beach police departments have been authorized to hire 56 officers this year using federal grants of more than $4.2 million. The money is expected under President Clinton's Cops Ahead program, which has given approval for 105 cities and counties in California to add 480 law enforcement officers. The Sheriff's Department plans to hire 49 officers with its $3.6- million share over three years.

The Inglewood Police Department is going back to school to get reacquainted with the city's neighborhoods. Using $1 million from a federal grant, the city hired nine police officers to spearhead a community policing program based in the city's elementary schools. The first of four public safety centers opened Saturday at Oak Street Elementary School. The program is designed to complement and enforce neighborhood watch programs, said Councilman Jose Fernandez.

Neilson Williams, hospitalized for three days in June after a violent altercation with Inglewood police, has not been charged with any wrongdoing, according to a Police Department spokesman. Williams was struck by police officers and rendered unconscious by a chokehold after leaving an Inglewood park late on the evening of June 23. One of the officers in the beating was Jeremy J.

State and federal officials on Friday called for additional investigations of the Inglewood Police Department after this week's fatal officer-involved shooting, the third such incident in the last three months. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) said in a statement that she planned to call for a federal probe at a news conference Monday at City Hall. The state Legislative Black Caucus also called for California Atty. Gen.

An Inglewood police lieutenant has filed a federal civil rights suit that claims he was denied a promotion to captain because he is Latino. David Garza Jr. said this week that he has been unjustly rejected in four attempts at promotion since 1973. "It's been frustrating," said Garza, 51, a 27-year Inglewood Police Department veteran. "For years I've watched other people being promoted who I think have fewer qualifications." Garza's lawsuit asks the U.S.

An upswing in gang violence and drug dealing caused Inglewood's murder rate to rise 50% last year, making 1989 the second-deadliest year in the city's history, according to year-end estimates released by the Inglewood Police Department. Police reported 46 murders in Inglewood last year, compared to the record 55 reported in 1980.

Police Sgt. Sam Cohen set out to sweep the dark Inglewood streets of teen-agers. The city's new curfew for minors had just taken effect, but, as soon as Cohen pulled out of the station in his patrol car at 11 p.m., the emergency calls started coming in. Burglaries. Drug deals. A drive-by shooting. Cohen raced back and forth across town in response, occasionally passing youths gathered in clumps along city streets. When the curfew ended the next morning, Cohen had arrested no curfew violators.

Rejecting defense claims that prosecutors withheld crucial evidence from the grand jury, a judge Tuesday refused to dismiss an indictment against an Inglewood police officer charged in connection with the alleged beating of a youth during a videotaped arrest in July. A lawyer for Officer Bijan Darvish, who has been charged with filing a false police report about how his partner, former Officer Jeremy J.

Civic pride is on the upsurge in Inglewood this week, after city officials brought the prestigious All-America City Award home to the self-proclaimed "City of Champions." Inglewood won the award, given annually by the National Civic League, after a grueling two-day competition in Chicago, emerging as one of 10 winning cities from a field that originally included 109 applicants. At Inglewood City Hall, hopes are high that the award will go a long way toward polishing the city's image.