Saturday, May 13, 2000

News from Glendale in the Times Community Newspapers

Police go on gang offensive
Officials say Thursday's drive-by shooting might have been retaliation for Aguirre slaying.

By ALECIA FOSTER AND BUCK WARGO

     GLENDALE -- Glendale Police officials said more officers will be patrolling city streets this weekend in light of Thursday's shooting of an 18-year-old man.
     After a Friday meeting between Police Chief Russell Siverling and City Manager Jim Starbird, the decision was made to increase patrols throughout the city, Young said.
     "Just in case, we're stepping up our enforcement," said Glendale Police spokesman Sgt. Rick Young.
     Police say the shooting might have been retaliation for the beating and stabbing death of a Hoover High School student May 5.
     The police spokesman said he would not give out specific numbers as to the increase of officers hitting the streets this weekend.
     The 18-year-old Armenian man, whose name was not released, was standing outside Domino's Pizza on Kenilworth Avenue just south of Glenoaks Boulevard at 9:33 p.m. Thursday when the shooting occurred, police said.
     An eyewitness told the News-Press she had just bought doughnuts at the Winchell's and was waiting to exit the parking lot when a 1986 or 1987 Honda Accord drove by heading north on Kenilworth. The witness, who did not want to be identified for fear of retaliation against her children, said a Latino man leaned in front of the driver and shot the Armenian man, hitting him in the leg.
     The car then drove off slowly, crossing Glenoaks and turning on Dryden Street, she said.
     Young said the man was standing near a crowd of seven other people.
     "The victim has no gang affiliation," he said.
     Police believe the three Latino men in the car were gang members, Young said.
     Hoover High School student Raul Aguirre, a Latino youth who was not a gang member, was killed May 5 while trying to break up a fight between two Armenian gang members and a Latino gang member, police said.
     The incident has raised concerns among Glendale residents and community leaders about the degree of gang activity and racial tensions existing within the city.
     Thursday's shooting happened the same day city officials said the department's five-officer gang unit may be reconstituted. The unit, which monitors gangs in the city, was deactivated because of the "angel of death" murder investigation.
     Those officers were assigned other duties to fill needs of detectives working the case at Glendale Adventist Medical Center involving former respiratory therapist Efren Saldivar, police said.
     The department assigned its special enforcement unit to help monitor gang activity, and reserve officers were also used for patrols.
     "When you do what we did, you lose a little bit of your intelligence and hands-on rapport with the gang members," said police spokesman Sgt. Rick Young.
     Young said there has not been an increase in gang activity in the last couple of years. In a city survey, Glendale residents said fighting gangs was one of their biggest priorities.
     The gang unit started in 1989 and gang activity peaked in 1992, Young said. At that time, there were more than 30 active gangs in the city involving 3,000 kids, but that has been reduced to five gangs, with about 1,000 kids, he said.
     "We've been able to keep a pulse on it with our special enforcement detail," Young said. "The biggest problem with gangs now is that they have been coming in from other cities,"
     City Manager Jim Starbird said more funds will be identified for the gang unit in the 2000-2001 budget.