Montebello Police Department

The owner of a popular Montebello restaurant was found slain in his garage early Wednesday morning, police said. Salvatore De Lorenzo, owner of Salvatore's, appeared to have been bludgeoned on the head, police said. Officers discovered his body in a pool of blood at the home on Alfred Place just after midnight . Patrol officers went to his house after receiving a call about a suspicious vehicle in the neighborhood. The car was registered to De Lorenzo.

A boy with brick-red curls and a film of sunscreen masking his freckles squeezed a chunk of dead squid onto his bait hook. Noah Lopez, 12, bit down on his lower lip and watched as the baby-blue fishing line that matched his hoodie unraveled into the Pacific Ocean. A moment after another boy yelled, "I just caught two!," Noah thought he felt a nibble. He started to crank up his line but felt no tension. He drooped his shoulders, let his line back out and waited. That morning, Noah, along with 73 other young students from Montebello, embarked on a fishing trip to San Pedro.

An elderly sister and brother were bound and beaten in their South Montebello home Monday afternoon and the robber escaped with an unknown amount of valuables, police said. Mary Morrill, 83, and Arthur Behnke, 85, who live in the 100 block of Los Angeles Street, suffered bruises to their heads and arms. They also suffered cuts and abrasions to their wrists and ankles in their attempt to free themselves. They were hospitalized in fair condition.

The man approached the wall and began to spray paint with wild abandon. Immediately, an alert went off at the Montebello Police Department, and a female voice identified the location: "Tagging at 1st and Whittier, northeast Floor Shop." The screens on numerous surveillance monitors flashed red as cameras zoomed in. Ultimately, there were no arrests. The tagger was part of a demonstration Wednesday of Montebello's new $1-million anti-graffiti system.

The Montebello Police Department will continue to close a busy section of Whittier Boulevard this weekend in an effort to stem a recent surge of cruisers along the major commercial thoroughfare, police officials said. The cruisers, who unexplainably began appearing in large numbers in January, have been responsible for numerous traffic jams and at least one gang-related shooting, Capt. Michael Kight said.

Police are seeking the public's help in finding a man seen shopping with a popular Montebello restaurant owner who was later found bludgeoned to death in his home. Hours before he was killed, Salvatore De Lorenzo, 67, known as a kind Italian immigrant who often extended his hand to those in need, may have been shopping for the modestly dressed man seen in a store's security video. The man, whom police did not call a suspect, is "someone we would like to speak with," said Det.

The man approached the wall and began to spray paint with wild abandon. Immediately, an alert went off at the Montebello Police Department, and a female voice identified the location: "Tagging at 1st and Whittier, northeast Floor Shop." The screens on numerous surveillance monitors flashed red as cameras zoomed in. Ultimately, there were no arrests. The tagger was part of a demonstration Wednesday of Montebello's new $1-million anti-graffiti system.

Family and colleagues of Montebello Police Officer Michael Galvez are appealing to the public for help in identifying the person responsible for the off-duty hit-and-run accident that left him paralyzed at the chest. Galvez, 30, of Walnut, was in stable condition at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood, where he was taken a week ago after the accident, hospital officials said Friday. Witnesses told authorities that the officer, who was taking his daily jog about 7:20 p.m.

The Downey Police Department's newest reserve officer hesitates, if only for a moment, when asked if he would have any qualms about using a gun in the line of duty. But the Rev. Jeff Johnson, the new reserve officer and the department's first chaplain, says he is trained and ready to use a weapon to protect himself or someone else. "Of course it would be a life-or-death situation," said Johnson, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel in Downey.

A Montebello policewoman shot and critically injured a man early Saturday when she mistook his bizarre behavior for an armed assault on a convenience store, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. As the unidentified suspect clung to life at a local hospital, sheriff's investigators reported that the officer had fired a shotgun into the man's upper torso around 2 a.m.

Police are seeking the public's help in finding a man seen shopping with a popular Montebello restaurant owner who was later found bludgeoned to death in his home. Hours before he was killed, Salvatore De Lorenzo, 67, known as a kind Italian immigrant who often extended his hand to those in need, may have been shopping for the modestly dressed man seen in a store's security video. The man, whom police did not call a suspect, is "someone we would like to speak with," said Det.

The owner of a popular Montebello restaurant was found slain in his garage early Wednesday morning, police said. Salvatore De Lorenzo, owner of Salvatore's, appeared to have been bludgeoned on the head, police said. Officers discovered his body in a pool of blood at the home on Alfred Place just after midnight . Patrol officers went to his house after receiving a call about a suspicious vehicle in the neighborhood. The car was registered to De Lorenzo.

An elderly sister and brother were bound and beaten in their South Montebello home Monday afternoon and the robber escaped with an unknown amount of valuables, police said. Mary Morrill, 83, and Arthur Behnke, 85, who live in the 100 block of Los Angeles Street, suffered bruises to their heads and arms. They also suffered cuts and abrasions to their wrists and ankles in their attempt to free themselves. They were hospitalized in fair condition.

A Montebello policewoman shot and critically injured a man early Saturday when she mistook his bizarre behavior for an armed assault on a convenience store, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. As the unidentified suspect clung to life at a local hospital, sheriff's investigators reported that the officer had fired a shotgun into the man's upper torso around 2 a.m.

Family and colleagues of Montebello Police Officer Michael Galvez are appealing to the public for help in identifying the person responsible for the off-duty hit-and-run accident that left him paralyzed at the chest. Galvez, 30, of Walnut, was in stable condition at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood, where he was taken a week ago after the accident, hospital officials said Friday. Witnesses told authorities that the officer, who was taking his daily jog about 7:20 p.m.

Parents of a 17-year-old youth who was shot to death by Montebello police Jan. 1 filed legal claims against the city Monday. "I'm not ready to forgive. I'll never forget," the boy's father, Anthony Mosqueda Sr., told reporters in front of Montebello City Hall. Anthony Mosqueda Jr. died after being shot by a Montebello police officer on South Spruce Street.

A former secretary in the Montebello Police Department has filed a $10-million federal lawsuit against the city, claiming that police routinely made suggestive sexual comments to her and that the chief allowed colleagues to distribute nude photos of him. Lourdes Valtierra Rivas, 33, said in the lawsuit that for eight years she was subjected to the harassment while working in the department. She quit last year. "She went through hell, big-time hell," said Rivas' attorney, Monday U. Abengowe.

Los Angeles County sheriff's narcotics officers, assisted by U.S. Customs agents and the Montebello Police Department, announced Friday that they had made the largest single drug seizure since a money-skimming scandal racked the law enforcement agency.

Prisoners aren't expected to feel like guests in a hotel, but wardens these days may be behaving more like innkeepers, worrying about their occupancy rates and profit margins. At least in Montebello. The City Council on Tuesday approved "privatization" of the newly renovated jail that had been out of commission since the early 1980s because of escalating costs. Montebello police have been paying $50 a head to book people at the Monterey Park jail--or nearly triple that price at L.A. County Jail.

Ruben Gallegos, his wife, Rebecca, and four friends and family members ought to be happy. Or at least relieved. They're $315,000 richer. A Los Angeles Superior Court jury last month ordered the city of Montebello to compensate them for the excessive force that Montebello policemen used four years ago in breaking up a family dinner party. It was neither a Rodney G. King-like beating nor a Rodney G. King-like award. But the bruises inside, the ones you can't measure, will not go away.