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Inland Valley Daily Bulletin Rialto homicide rate spikes to 14 people in 2004 Number is third largest in decade By BRAD A. GREENBERG and LOLITA HARPER STAFF WRITERS Friday, December 31, 2004 - RIALTO - Fourteen. As in 14 homicides police have investigated this year. Or 14 bodies that the coroner has examined for clues to a killing. And 14 families that now have an empty place at the dinner table. Detectives actually count their death toll at 15, police Sgt. Vince Licata said, because one victim is brain dead and remains on life support. The number is the third most for Rialto in the last decade; the most was in 1996, when 26 homicides were reported. "It's been a busy year," Detective Josh Lindsay said. Lindsay said the city's homicide count ebbs and flows, depending on a variety of factors: gang wars, drug-turf wars, reputed gang members getting out of prison, and the list goes on. In 1998, there were six homicides. The national average was 6.3 per 100,000 residents, according to FBI data. But national numbers have fallen slightly while Rialto's have climbed. Homicides from 1998 to 2001 showed a modest increase, growing from 6 to 10 in that time period. Homicides spiked in 2002, with 18 killings tallied in Rialto, an 80 percent increase from 2001. The following year 13 people were killed, but this year's trends show another upswing. This year will complete the third straight with killings in the teens. Rialto is not the only city experiencing a moderate increase in homicides. San Bernardino tallied 52 as of Dec. 30, which was up one from 2003. The unincorporated area of Fontana, patrolled by the Sheriff's Department, had seven, which is a relatively high number given the population of that area, Capt. Ross Dvorak said. The uptick in Rialto has come despite an increase in patrols. The department hired 10 additional officers after the utility tax passed in June 2003. There are 106 sworn officers to patrol this city of 97,000. There also is a chief, deputy chief and five lieutenants. "You could have 3,000 officers, but you're not going to stop someone from shooting someone in an alley," City Administrator Henry Garcia said, defending the effectiveness of the divisive tax. Police Chief Michael A. Meyers did not return repeated calls for comment. Mayor Grace Vargas declined to comment. Meanwhile, families and residents are frightened. Pamela Whyte, the wife of a Los Angeles police detective, lives on Shamrock Street, in the middle of the violence. "You never know what is going to happen," said Whyte. "I wake up (in the) morning, and my neighbor says, "Did you hear the gunshots?' No, not this time. "I mean, nobody wants to live in a war zone." Detectives agreed that it is hard to stop murders because they often can't predict them until after the fact. Most of the killings involve drugs and gangs. Others are domestic disputes that erupt in a shooting, bludgeoning, stabbing or strangling. Sometimes, the victim is simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Such was the case with Jose Luis Soria, who was shot dead the night before Thanksgiving en route to a store for cough syrup for his infant son. "He wasn't bothering anyone, he wasn't selling dope, he wasn't fighting," Detective Gary Cunningham said. "Crimes like that I wish we could prevent." By putting people away for pushing drugs or illegal gang activities, officials say they can clean up the element. "There is no way to prevent them," said Detective Gary Cunningham. "You can try and slow them down by being more proactive, by being highly visible in high-crime areas." There is no hard and fast rule to stopping murder, many said. In 1991, New York City had about 2,200 homicides. That number fell below 400 last year. Frank Zimring, a criminal law professor at UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, said this drop had to do with refocusing police resources. Putting more police on the street is often more effective than having harsher punishment, Zimring said, but the officers need to be strategically deployed if they are to make a difference. That's the idea behind the department's Crime Impact Team, which is scheduled to be fully staffed on Jan. 9, Licata said. The team, which will target gang activity and street crime, has proven effective in the past, detectives said. In the early 1990s, when violent crimes were at their worst in Rialto, the Police Department went on the attack with a special unit designed to track gangs and narcotics. As things improved, the unit was scaled-back and officers returned to traditional patrol duties. Cunningham said this revamped detail will help homicide detectives immensely because a majority of the killings involve gang members. Police will look forward to tapping into the information gathered by Crime Impact Team officers, which will include index cards with names, monikers and pictures of known gang members and associates. News Topics | Home | Research | History | Blood Gangs | Crip Gangs | People| Life in a Gang | Gallery | Iraqi Cards | Memorial | Migration | Graffiti | Resume| Injunctions Homicides | Maps | California Prisons | Contact

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