Jaywalking

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani wants to ban jaywalking. He's serious. He means business. And the sound you hear, from the congested sidewalks of midtown Manhattan to the byways of Greenwich Village, is laughter. It all began Monday, when aides to the mayor revealed that he is considering a major move against jaywalkers, just as he has cracked down on squeegee men and other irritants.

An 82-year-old Thousand Oaks woman who was hit by a truck and killed Wednesday evening was jaywalking, according to the Ventura County Sheriff's Department. Assunta Defabiis was returning from a trip to the grocery store at 6:05 p.m. when she stepped in front of a truck driven by Robert Feller, 68, of Thousand Oaks. Feller, who was driving east in the 200 block of Wilbur Road, didn't see her, Deputy John Popp said. Defabiis was taken to an area hospital and died two hours later, deputies said.

The 18-year-old driver who struck and killed another teenager on her way home from school Friday afternoon probably will not be charged with a traffic violation, Los Angeles police said Saturday. The victim, Grant High School student Inna Marutyan, 16, was jaywalking across Oxnard Street when an eastbound Jeep struck her in the lane closest to the curb. Marutyan apparently was returning home to an apartment building across the street from the school.

A 16-year-old student jaywalking on her way home from Grant High School was struck and killed by a motorist Friday afternoon in front of a stunned crowd of teenagers leaving campus for the weekend. Inna Marutyan, a sophomore who came to the United States from Russia two years ago, was heading to her family's apartment across the street from Grant when she crossed the 13100 block of Oxnard Street without checking oncoming traffic, police said.

Re "Hells Angels Uneasy Riders During Event," Sept. 8: It's so sad to see a good police department stoop to sweating the little stuff when it cites members of the Hells Angels club for jaywalking. Jaywalking? Am I missing something? How many citations for jaywalking have been issued in the entire past year in all of Ventura County? How many in Simi Valley? I'm betting the Hells Angels attorney can win his case on just these statistics. As a combat veteran of World War II, I really don't relish realizing that trifles are what I fought for. Please, don't tell me. Better to keep me in the dark.

Police are investigating the death of a pedestrian who was jaywalking when he was struck by a motor vehicle. Police said the unidentified man was hit about 11:30 p.m. Friday while crossing Harbor Boulevard near 5th Street. The man, who carried no identification, was described as a Latino about 20 years old. The driver of the vehicle has not been arrested, police said.

Sheriff's deputies this week launched a task force targeting drivers who fail to give pedestrians the right of way and pedestrians who illegally cross the street. Capt. Richard Odenthal said his personnel had spent the last 18 months "talking to people" about traffic laws, "but we didn't get very far with voluntary compliance. A lot of people just don't pay attention."

A simple, sad memorial marks the spot where 18-year-old Dwight Thomas Stiggons was shot to death by a West Covina police officer last weekend while running away after he was stopped for jaywalking. Just in front of the avocado-green garage where Stiggons was ultimately cornered and then struck in the back by a bullet sit two roses, one pink, one white, bobbing in a paper cup from a Subway sandwich store. West Covina police say Stiggons was fired on as he was coming up from a crouch and turning, his hand emerging from the waistband of his baggy dark blue pants.

A simple, sad memorial marks the spot where 18-year-old Dwight Thomas Stiggons was shot to death by a West Covina police officer last weekend while running away after he was stopped for jaywalking. Just in front of the avocado-green garage where Stiggons was ultimately cornered and then struck in the back by a bullet sit two roses, one pink, one white, bobbing in a paper cup from a Subway sandwich store.

An unarmed jaywalker shot dead in West Covina over the weekend when police mistakenly thought he was reaching for a gun was identified on Sunday as 18-year-old Dwight Stiggins of Los Angeles, sheriff's officials said. No further information was available Sunday about the shooting or about Stiggins, who ran Saturday morning when a still-unidentified West Covina police officer stopped him for jaywalking.