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Police Officers killed by gang members in Los Angeles County

By Alex Alonso for Streetgangs Magazine
June 7, 2004
Updated: November 15, 2005

The relationship between gang members and the police has been a tenuous one. Because police come into contact with gang members in often tense situations those interactions can be unpredictable. Officers come into contact with gang members usually in response to reported criminal activity. Gangs and gang members spend a majority of their time, socializing and interacting with their peers engaged in non-criminal socialization, but when the police come into contact with them more times than not, the officer is investigating a violation or crime.

Because of this unstable relationship, hostilities perculate and the contact between the two can result in deadly force. Although extremely rare, police officers need to safeguard themselves when coming into contact with any gang member, but the thousands of face-to-face interactions that take place between police and gang members on a daily basis occur without incident.

Police officers risk their lives everytime they are on patrol or investigating a crime, but contrary to popular belief, being a cop is not the most dangerous job in the US. The level of danger that police officers encounter does not rank in the top ten of jobs with the highest fatality rates. Firefighters die at a higher rate putting out flames, miners loose their lives more often, loggers are surrounded by danger everyday, and crab fishermen had the highest on-the-job mortality rate in 2001. Below is a list of the most dangerous jobs that Americans faced in 2002.

OccupationFatalities per 100,000
Timber cutters117.8
Fishers71.1
Pilots and navigators69.8
Structural metal workers58.2
Drivers-sales workers37.9
Roofers37
Electrical power installers32.5
Farm occupations28
Construction laborers27.7
Truck drivers25
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics; survey of occupations with minimum 30 fatalities and 45,000 workers in 2002

In 1997, there were 161 peace officers killed world wide, and nearly 87 percent of those killed were from agencies in the United States. Although the media plays up the danger that police officers are surrounded by when dealing with street gangs, the most dangerous calls for police officers were domestic violence, and not with gang members. Below is a list of all police officers and deputies that have been killed in the line of duty by gang members in Los Angeles County. During the same period (1988-2003) there were a total of 72 law enforcement officers in Los Angeles County that were killed or died in the line of duty and gang members accounted for 21 percent of those killings.

  1. Officer James Beyea, 24, LAPD, North Hollywood Division, June 7, 1988, allegedly killed by a robbery suspect and Vineland Boys gang member Robert Steel, 17 who was later killed in shootout in an attempt to arrest him.
  2. Officer Daniel Pratt, Sept 3, 1988, LAPD, 77th Division killed by Kirkton Moore, 27, of the Harvard Park Brims.
  3. Officer Kevin Michael Burrell, Feb 2, 1993 Compton Police Department killed by Regis Deon Thomas from the Bounty Hunter Bloods, .
  4. Officer James Wayne Mac Donald, Feb 2, 1993 Compton Police Department killed by Regis Deon Thomas from the Bounty Hunter Bloods.
  5. Officer Charles B. Heim, October 22, 1994, Los Angeles Police Department, Hollywood Division on temporary assignment killed by Manuel Vargas Perez
  6. Deputy Stephen W. Blair, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, May 12, 1995, Century Station.
  7. Officer Daniel T. Fraembs, Pomona Police Department, May 11, 1996, killed by Ronald Bruce Mendoza of Happy Town Gang.
  8. Officer Mario Navidad, Los Angeles Police Department, Wilshire Division, December 22, 1996, killed by Aleim Ulloa Ortiz
  9. Deputy Shayne York, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, Aug. 14, 1997, killed by Kevin Boyce of the Rollin 60s Crips
  10. Deputy Michael Hoenig, Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department, Oct 30, 1997, .
  11. Officer Steve Gajada,Los Angeles Police Department, Hollenbeck Division, Jan 1, 1998, killed by Mario Machado, 17
  12. Officer Filbert H. Cuesta, Los Angeles Police Department, Southwest Division, August 9, 1998, killed by Catarino Gonzalez, 23, from 18th Street Gang
  13. Officer Brian Brown, Los Angeles Police Department, Pacific Division, November 29, 1998, killed by Oscar Zatarain, 23.
  14. Officer Daryle W. Black, Long Beach Police Department, April 30, 2000, killed by Ramon "Gumby" Sandoval Jr., 18.
  15. Officer Matthew Pavelka, 26, Burbank Police Department, November 10, 2003, allegedly killed by David A. Garcia, 19, from Vineland Boys.
  16. Officer Ricardo Lizarraga, Los Angeles Police Department, Newton Division, February 20, 2004, allegedly killed by Kenrick Johnson, 32, of the Rollin 20s Bloods
  17. Officer Thomas J. Steiner, 35, California Highway Patrol, April 24, 2004, was killed by Valentino Mitchell Arenas, 16, from Pomona 12th Street barrio, in front of the Pomona South Courthouse, Steiner was to testify in traffic cases.
  18. Deputy Jerry Ortiz, 35, Los Angeles County Sheriff's, June 24, 2005 allegedly killed by Jose Luis Orozco, 27, from Hawaiian Gardens

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