Pomona Police Department

A 20-year-old El Monte man was fatally shot Tuesday on the Pomona Freeway by someone who pulled alongside him and then fled, police said. Fermin Saldivar, was driving east between Garey Avenue and Reservoir Street about 5:15 a.m. when an older model red Honda Prelude pulled alongside and a passenger opened fire, said Sgt. Dave Keetle of the Pomona Police Department. Saldivar was hit once in the upper torso.

Two men were killed and a third wounded in a shooting late Saturday night at a Pomona triplex. The shooting occurred just after 10:50 p.m. at the property in the 700 block of East Columbia Avenue, a Los Angeles County fire dispatcher said. A woman who answered the phone at the Pomona Police Department on Sunday said the department would not comment until Monday morning. Greg Estel, who has owned the triplex for 18 years, spent Sunday afternoon cleaning up blood after detectives cleared the scene.

Police Capt. Jack D. Blair has been named acting chief of the Pomona Police Department, replacing Richard M. Tefank, who was fired Tuesday by the City Council after three years on the job. Blair, 53, who joined the department in 1960, had been assigned to the administrative staff services division and was active in gang-prevention programs. He was appointed acting chief by Fire Chief Tom Fee, who is acting city administrator.

For Pomona Police Chief Joe Romero, 2011 was going to be a significant year. His department would celebrate its 100th anniversary, and he would announce his retirement. But Tuesday morning, all of that changed when he met with City Manager Linda Lowry, who told him that his services would no longer be needed. Lowry could not comment further on Romero's dismissal, because he was still an at-will employee, making it a "personnel matter," said Mark Gluba, assistant to the city manager.

For the first time in the Police Department's history, a woman has become a motorcycle traffic officer, officials have announced. Jennifer Turpin-Wickman, a nine-year law enforcement veteran, began her duty this week as a motorcycle officer--one of eight in the department, according to Lt. Ronald McDonald. McDonald said Turpin-Wickman completed a two-week training course at the San Bernardino County Sheriff Training Center, then was assigned to a training officer for an orientation period.

A Pomona police officer was killed Saturday in a darkened, isolated industrial complex, fatally shot in the chest despite the bulletproof vest he was wearing. Discovered lying by his patrol car about 1:30 a.m., Daniel Fraembs, 37, became the first Pomona police officer shot to death in the line of duty in the city's 108-year history.

A man filling up his car at a Pomona gas station was shot and killed early Sunday after a confrontation with one or more people who drove up in another car, a police lieutenant said. The attack happened about 2:46 a.m. at an Arco gas station and mini-market on Reservoir Street. Police identified the victim as Albert Orosco, 31, of Pomona. "The victim was pumping gas," said Lt. Charles Watts, of the Pomona Police Department. "A car pulled up and he was shot." Watts added: "We have no motive.

The city's newest police office is nestled between stores that tout old political buttons, decades-old lamps and other antique wares. In an office complete with a vintage radio, the Pomona Police Department opened its fifth community service center earlier this month. This center, at 106 S. Locust St. in the "antique row" district of the downtown area, is being funded by the Pomona Central Business District. Area business owners are providing the rent money for their new neighbors.

The Sheriff's Department has rejected the Pomona City Council's request that it supply an interim police chief and an investigative team to look into allegations of corruption in city government. Undersheriff Robert Edmonds said that lending an employee to head the Pomona Police Department would be disruptive to the Sheriff's Department's own operations. Any corruption investigation, he said, would be "more appropriately" handled by the district attorney.

The Pomona Police Department is recommending that eight of the nine officers on an elite task force be disciplined, from written reprimands to firing, after an investigation found two separate incidents of on-duty misconduct. The department's internal affairs unit recommended firing three officers and possible suspension, demotion or written reprimands for the other five, said Police Chief Charles M. Heilman.

Two women ran out of the courtroom wailing Monday as images of victims' battered faces, bound hands and rope-burned necks flashed on a giant screen during the first day of accused serial killer Ivan J. Hill's murder trial. Los Angeles County prosecutors also played voice recordings of Hill prodding police to catch him during his three-month string of killings. "I did it again," Hill said in a Jan.

A Pomona woman was arrested on suspicion of child endangerment after her 2-year-old daughter was found locked inside a running washer at a coin-operated laundry, police said. Responding to an emergency call at Lucy's Laundromat in Pomona on Saturday night, police and fire units found the girl locked inside the washing machine. Unable to pry the machine open, police used batons to smash the glass-paned door.

Lawyers filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Thursday against Pomona on behalf of the estate of a 30-year-old father of seven who was shot and killed by four Pomona police officers in January. George Hernandez was killed after leading police on a 100-mph chase from Pomona to the Red Roof Inn on Holt Boulevard in Ontario. Hernandez crashed his car and ran from the officers.

The force used against a young punk rock fan following an Aug. 3 concert in Pomona was defended by police Friday after officials watched a videotape of the incident, while one council member said she is concerned about what she saw. The tape, which was released by one of the concert hall owners, shows an officer squaring his bean-bag gun to knock a young man off a stone marker and another officer grabbing the downed man's hair and trying to yank him to his feet.

Police are searching for a man who allegedly stabbed his girlfriend to death, injured a man who came to her aid, and fled with his 3-year-old son Tuesday. Police did not release the 28-year-old woman's name because her family had not been notified. The toddler was found unharmed at his grandmother's house in Chino. Investigators say that about 1 p.m., Jose Mario Armendariz, 32, stabbed the woman outside the apartment they shared in the 800 block of Reeves Place.

Acting on residents' complaints, Pomona police shut down several homeless camps Monday and made arrests for drug and parole violations, authorities said. Eight arrests were made during the 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. sweeps, said Lt. Darrell Cummings. Two homeless men were arrested for parole violations, one for possession of methamphetamine and five on outstanding warrants, Cummings said. Citations were issued for having shopping carts and for setting up camps in violation of city law, he said.

Rick Shaurette took command of Pomona's Police Department this week after the City Council approved an unusual job swap that promoted him to chief and demoted Chuck Heilman to Shaurette's position of deputy chief. Mayor Eddie Cortez said the council on Monday unanimously approved the swap recommended by City Administrator Severo Esquivel after Heilman requested that he be demoted.

A young man who told Pomona police that he woke up in a ditch along the San Bernardino Freeway with a near-total loss of memory a week ago has been identified as James Belmore, 22, who has been missing from his home in Sault Ste. Marie in Ontario, Canada, since Nov. 4.

A Pomona Police Department policy mandating strip-searches of all felony suspects is unconstitutional, a federal judge declared in a tentative ruling Monday. U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson made his remarks in connection with a lawsuit by a 48-year-old woman who was strip-searched after being arrested on suspicion of passing a counterfeit $20 bill.

For the first time in the Police Department's history, a woman has become a motorcycle traffic officer, officials have announced. Jennifer Turpin-Wickman, a nine-year law enforcement veteran, began her duty this week as a motorcycle officer--one of eight in the department, according to Lt. Ronald McDonald. McDonald said Turpin-Wickman completed a two-week training course at the San Bernardino County Sheriff Training Center, then was assigned to a training officer for an orientation period.