Posted on 12/03/2003 10:49:45 AM PST by BenLurkin
Sheriff's deputies on Monday arrested two reputed gang members suspected in a brazen daylight assault on a father as he attempted to take his 13-year-old daughter home from a Christian elementary school. Kyle Stowers, 18, of Lancaster and Renaldo Mixon, 25, of Lennox were arrested early Monday evening on a felony charge of assault with a deadly weapon or force likely to produce great bodily injury related to the Nov. 21 beating.
"We expect to have more arrests in the future," said Detective Bill Costleigh of the Lancaster Sheriff's Station. Costleigh is assigned to Operation Safe Streets, one of the department's gang details.
A third suspect has been identified but is not yet in custody, he added.
The arrest came the same day as a parental meeting at which sheriff's and city officials addressed parents and community members' concerns about escalating crime and gang presence in the central Lancaster neighborhood.
The man was attacked as he attempted to leave Lancaster Christian School, 44339 Beech Ave., after picking up his daughter. As he exited the school's pick-up yard off Cedar Avenue, a group of eight to 10 males, ages 13 to 25, blocked his path, according to witnesses.
When the man rolled down his window and asked them to move out of the way, members of the group responded by kicking his car.
The man got out of his car and was beaten to the ground and then kicked as he lay there, unable to defend himself, while others in the group egged on the attackers, officials said.
The girl was struck in the face by one of the assailants when she got out of the car to plead with the attackers to leave her father alone.
The man's 9-year-old son, who remained in the car, also witnessed the attack.
"It's an outrageous crime that a parent would be beaten in front of his children," Costleigh said.
The attack prompted a tremendous response by Lancaster residents who were outraged by the callousness of the incident, Deputy District Attorney David Berger said.
"We're in the process of trying to establish whether they are known gang members or simply people trying to establish a new gang," he said.
"The idea that you can't pick your children up from school without this sort of thing happening in full view of the children," Berger said. "You have to wonder what kind of an effect that's going to have on the children."
The victim suffered some cuts, bruises and soreness, the deputy DA said.
"He's a very lucky man," Berger added, calling the attack "particularly galling when you're taking the trouble to give your children an education."
Deputies from the Top Bomb and gang units saturated the area and interviewed all potential gang members, Costleigh said, adding that they were able to have witnesses to identify suspects.
Costleigh credited Deputy John Hutack for his alertness after spotting Stowers in the area of the school where the crime took place.
Hutack, with the assistance of Deputy Bobby Rush, first arrested Stowers and then Mixon, who was in the same area, Costleigh said.
Scchol administrator Sherry Wood, who witnessed the attack, said the father is going to keep his daughter enrolled in the school.
"I can't tell you how upsetting it was. I shook for days afterward," Wood said.
Incidents of vandalism, burglary and trespassing that have occurred recently at the school are attributable to gang members seen loitering at apartment buildings along Cedar and Beech avenues, Berger said.
The apartment buildings long have been the source of complaints of drug dealing and gang activity, he added.
One building, in the 44000 block of Cedar Avenue, is owned by Proud American Investments LLC, itself owned by Edgar Reinoso, according to state records.
Reinoso was sentenced last month to 10 days of cleanup work for the Department of Transportation, along with three years' probation for failure to correct multiple housing code violations at five of his 19 rental properties in Palmdale.
Reinoso's attorney, Richard Nahigian, cut short a phone call seeking comment Tuesday and did not return a second call.
The school, which has about 177 students in kindergarten through eighth grades, was out of session the week after the attack. Parents were sent a letter informing them of the attack and of a meeting Tuesday evening.
"We want to have a safe environment for our children," said Wood, who noted that a lot of drug dealing goes on in the neighborhood.
Wood said most parents appear inclined to support the school.
"They are definitely concerned, but at the same time they are going to keep their children in the school," she said.
Wood said she spoke with the father who was attacked, and he told her he would do whatever he could to make sure whoever did this to him wouldn't do it to somebody else.
The incident is a "very serious matter in our eyes," Assistant city Manager Dennis Davenport said.
"We're going to aggressively pursue catching all of the people that were involved in this and prosecute them as the law will permit as a real message that we are not going to allow people thinking they can take over a portion of our community," Davenport said.
The city could pursue poorly maintained rental properties, such as those on Cedar Avenue, as public nuisances to encourage the property owners to clean them up.
The attack demonstrates the need for a program like LAN-CAP, Lancaster's crime-free rental housing program seeking to target crime emanating at or near rental housing, said Berger, who is hoping the City Council will decide to put the issue on the ballot.
The proposed program has come under criticism from landlords, who say a proposed $95 per unit annual fee needed to fund the program is unfair.
The City Council in November tabled a decision on whether to place the proposed fee on the April ballot.
A revised proposal is expected to go before the council Tuesday.
"It's my belief that with a program like LAN-CAP … we're going to start being able to make a difference," Berger said, adding that the attack is "a classic example of the sort of problem that emanates from badly run rental housing."
Too good for these slumlord's. I have no respect for people that care so little about the communities they own property in and are willing to rent to criminals, drug-dealers, and other predator's while the hard-working people that live in these neighborhoods have to live alongside that filth and decay. They outta sentence him to live in his own property for 6 months.
Section 8 housing. Beware. But it's property owners that step up to the plate with their hands out to get that Section 8 money.
Berger misses the point. It is not about "the children" and whether they see it. It is about criminal violence that is a lethal threat to law abiding citizens. The perps should be executed. Putting them in prison is a waste of resources and a danger to society. They should be put to sleep like violent animals are.
RUN THE PUNKS OVER!!!
Section 8 will destroy a neighborhood.
A good lesson from the incident-do not get out of your vehicle when assailants approach, lock your doors and use the vehicle as a weapon if necessary.
No the most egregious crime is that a father is not allowed to carry a handgun for his and his children's protection against such human refuse...
And that such garbage are given even more consideration than those whose tax dollars are taken to house feed and clothe them.
Or a justice dept that turns a blind eye and a deaf ear to victims while keeping them oppressed, defenseless, and and in perpetual victim-hood...
fodder for society's predators..
Its difficult to keep things half way habitable when those you rent to have no respect for their own property let alone the property of others...
Well gee whiz maybe if you screened your renters and enforced your rental agreements, hired security guards or perhaps even (gasp) visited your run-down rental properties other then to pick up the rent things might be a little better. I know being an absentee landlord and a slumlord is tough, but it's even tougher on the working working people paying good money to live in the xxxxholes, next to the animals you rented to. And it's a Hell of a lot tougher on the neighborhood, city and local law enforcement who have to clean up the mess.
Former member now trying to stay on the straight and narrow? Refusing to pay stand-over money? Gave testimony against another gang member in criminal trial?
Anyone?
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