OPINION
January 29, 2013
First there was Kelly Thomas, the unarmed homeless man who was allegedly brutally beaten to death by police in Fullerton. Then there was Manuel Angel Diaz, shot in the back and killed by police last summer in Anaheim, prompting riots and clashes with officers lasting at least three days. And now comes Jose de la Trinidad, who according to a recently released coroner's report was shot by Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies five times in the back and once each in the right hip and right forearm.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
January 14, 2013 | By Rick Rojas and Marisa Gerber, Los Angeles Times
Yesenia Rojas, vibrant in her purple shawl, sang with a voice so powerful it rose above the rest of the procession as they shuffled down the damp Anaheim sidewalk. " Era mexicana. Era mexicana, " they sang with a statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe hoisted high, candlelight and street lamps illuminating their way. " Madrecita de los mexicanos. " The singsong serenade lauds the patroness, the mother of all Mexicans. On this drizzly evening, Rojas led the group down Anna Drive, where she and her family have made their home.
NATIONAL
November 12, 2012 | By Matt Pearce
The man, Michigan police said, simply walked in and pulled out a gun. Never asked for anything. Never said a word. Just pulled out a gun, and pointed it at the officer behind the front desk of the Southfield police station, and pulled the trigger. Police in Southfield, a Detroit suburb, had few explanations for why Harold Joseph Collins, a 64-year-old veteran, drove his Dodge to the police station, walked through the door on Sunday afternoon with a .380 handgun and decided to open fire on Veterans Day. He had no apparent motive and no criminal history.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
October 25, 2012 | By Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times
The L.A. County district attorney's office will not charge a man with involuntary manslaughter after he falsely claimed he was robbed at gunpoint, setting off a chain of events that ended with an officer fatally shooting a college student. Pasadena police shot and killed unarmed 19-year-old Kendrec McDade on a narrow street in the city's northeast section March 24 as he was being chased by an officer and his path blocked by a police car. Prosecutors found that Oscar Carrillo lied when he said he was robbed at gunpoint by McDade, but the lie just "was one in a series of acts ... that culminated in the fatal shooting," the prosecutor's report said.
NATIONAL
October 21, 2012 | By Matt Pearce, This post has been corrected, as indicated below.
Radcliffe Haughton, a 45-year-old Wisconsin man suspected of killing three people and wounding four others in a Sunday morning shooting at a spa, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot, police said. Police said they found Haughton's body inside the Azana Salon and Spa in the western Milwaukee suburb of Brookfield, where the shooting erupted shortly after 11 a.m. Police had said earlier they had found an improvised explosive device inside the salon after the shooting. It was unclear whether the device had been disarmed by the time they found Haughton's body.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
October 9, 2012 | By Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times
The Anaheim police officer who fatally shot an unarmed man in July, spurring unrest in the city, is an amateur boxer on the side who uses the nickname "Buckshot" when he is in the ring, according to an amended wrongful-death lawsuit filed against the city Tuesday. Anaheim police have declined repeated requests by The Times to identify the officer involved in the July 21 shooting, citing safety concerns. The incident was one of two fatal police shootings in Anaheim during that weekend that led to weeks of street protests and violence in Orange County's largest city.