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A former NBA player and actor was sentenced to 90 years to life in prison on Friday for a series of violent sexual assaults, some of which occurred in Los Angeles County, authorities said. “During their investigation, detectives learned [that] in 2010, Byrd was convicted of sexual assault involving a different victim,” the LAPD release stated. “Detectives also discovered that Byrd had been arrested for sexually assaulting a young woman in Washington State in 2005.” Byrd’s victims told investigators that he was “initially charming” before he subsequently forced them into a variety of sex acts. “He started as a charmer,...

Police arrested a man suspected of using a sledgehammer to kill a woman in her 60s at El Camino College in Torrance on Christmas Eve, authorities said. The attack was reported just after 7 a.m. Sunday in the 16000 block of Crenshaw Boulevard, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Authorities said the victim was collecting recyclables at the campus when she was assaulted. The woman was taken to a hospital, where she died the next day. She was described as an Asian woman between the ages of 60 and 65. Her name has not been released. An investigation...

Police discovered the naked body of a 32-year-old man inside a barrel at Malibu Lagoon State Beach on Monday. Authorities identified the deceased victim as Javonnta Murphy, an aspiring musician from Sylmar, California, according to the Los Angeles Times. A lifeguard allegedly discovered the 55-gallon drum in the lagoon at around 10 a.m. Monday, according to Lt. Hugo Reynaga. Upon inspection, Murphy’s body was found sealed within the barrel, showing no signs of decomposition, the Times reported. While the origins of the barrel remain untraced, detectives observed distinctive markings that may link it to a printing company, the outlet noted....

The committee to recall Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón has filed a lawsuit that contends the committee has evidence that tens of thousands of petition signatures were wrongly rejected and seeks the certification of the recall petition. https://signalscv.com/2023/07/recall-gascon-committee-sues-county-claiming-thousands-of-wrongly-rejected/ https://twitter.com/SCVSignal/status/1677479063487913985

The victim of a deadly carjacking in Inglewood, California, was identified Friday as a 63-year-old man from La Habra. Officials with the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office identified the man who died Thursday as Larry Walker, whose SUV was allegedly carjacked by a suspect wanted by police regarding a previous robbery and murder, NBC Los Angeles reported Saturday. During the recent incident, the victim became tangled up in his seatbelt and was dragged for over two miles, according to law enforcement. On Saturday, City of La Habra Mayor Jose Medrano shared a photo of Walker and asked citizens to pray...

Inflation is impacting the entire United States population as prices continue to be a burden for families, but certain California cities are feeling the impact more than others. In a new study from WalletHub, cities were ranked on how much inflation is rising. The study pointed to the year-over-year inflation rate of 8.2% last month, but noted that some cities are feeling costs increase more than others. In the report, 23 Metropolitan Statistical Areas were examined. The site looked at the Consumer Price Index information available for the most recent month and compared it to two months ago and one...

The L.A. County Board of Supervisors approved a vaccine mandate for all county employees that went into effect on Oct. 1, and Villanueva has previously said he does not plan to enforce the mandate. On Thursday, Villanueva took his concerns to the public, noting that “homicides continued to rise” and might continue to do so, while as much as “20%-30% of [the Sheriff’s Department] workforce is no longer available to provide service” with the mandate in place. “The Board’s vaccination mandate is causing a mass exodus within the Department, which is an absolutely absurd result … We are experiencing an...

In an exclusive interview, Law Enforcement Today learned that L.A. County is mandating that employees register their vaccination status through Fulgent Genetics, an international technology company with ties to China, with a required consent to release their personal and genetic information to foreign nations. https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/1449327351628709888/PxC4fEyK?format=jpg&name=small Hilda Solis, chairwoman of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, issued an executive order on Aug. 4 requiring the county’s 110,000 employees to provide proof of vaccination against COVID-19 . First responders, including the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department are being required to upload their medical records and personal information into a Fulgent app...

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva called an egg-throwing attack this week on Black Republican recall candidate Larry Elder by a White woman wearing a gorilla mask a hate crime and blamed "woke privilege" for liberal silence on the issue. "QUESTION: How is this not a hate crime? ANSWER: Because "woke privilege" means a white woman can wear a gorilla mask and attack a black man without fear of being called a racist. Where is the outrage from our politicians?" Villanueva tweeted on Thursday. Villanueva said he plans to investigate the attack as a hate crime because the woman wore...

Durst, 78, was sentenced to life in prison without parole Thursday for murdering his close friend, Susan Berman, inside her Benedict Canyon home in 2000. Durst has been held in a wing of USC Medical Center under the watch of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department throughout the trial, but it was not immediately clear if he was still in that facility or when or where he became infected with the coronavirus. The 78-year-old spent the majority of the trial seated in a wheelchair. In court filings, Durst’s attorneys repeatedly sought a mistrial, claiming Durst was too sick to testify...

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has issued a statement saying that while mask-wearing is mandatory indoors, there is an exception for film, TV, and music productions, and the Emmys represent a television production. Celebrities could be seen unmasked at the 73rd Emmy Awards on Sunday. But the LA County Department of Public Health website plainly states that people must wear masks at indoor public settings, regardless of their vaccination status. TheBlaze reached out to the department for a comment about the lack of masks at the Emmys despite the indoor mask-wearing requirement. Here is the department's response:...

Breakthrough cases: Over 25% of new COVID-19 cases in Los Angeles County are fully vaccinated people In June fully vaccinated people accounted for 20% of all the cases diagnosed in LA County, while unvaccinated and partially vaccinated people accounted for 80% of the cases.Video of the news report: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulrcte_S06k

LOS ANGELES - With local COVID-19 infection numbers surging upward, topping 1,000 new cases for the fifth straight day, Los Angeles County supervisors Tuesday lamented continued resistance to vaccines while health officials announced an outreach effort to bring shots to people's doors. The county reported 1,103 new COVID cases on Tuesday, lifting the cumulative total from throughout the pandemic to 1,259,772. The county also reported 12 new fatalities due to the virus, increasing the death toll to 24,554.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva wrote to the L.A. Board of Supervisors on Wednesday to ask them to declare a “state of emergency” on the local homeless crisis, saying that “failed policies” were causing death on the streets. Villanueva has recently adopted a more assertive approach, vowing to clear homeless encampments from the Venice Beach area and standing up to the L.A. City Council on its failure to contain the spread of tent cities throughout the city. This week, he stepped up his efforts by calling on the L.A. County Board of Supervisors to act, in a press conference....

This year, violent crime across liberal-run Los Angeles County is out of control amid the “defund the police” movement. A private security firm that describes itself as a “subscription law enforcement service” has launched a pilot program in the metro area to fix this. Motherboard reports Citizen, a neighborhood watch app, partnered with LAPS, or Los Angeles Professional Security, a private security firm, to provide a “subscription law enforcement service” to residents and businesses. From neighborhood watch app to now a Citizen-branded vehicle driving around Los Angeles, providing security services to clients is a business idea that will likely flourish...

Charles and Willa Bruce moved to California from New Mexico with son Harvey. In 1912 they bought land on Manhattan Beach and opened a resort . The resort was one of the first to welcome African Americans to the coast. In 1924 city officials seized two dozen properties through eminent domain. Bruces fought in court, lost, and left the area: the proposed park was never built. On Friday Los Angeles County officials announced the land was being returned. The family are yet to say what they will do with the land, worth around $72m.

Twitter locked the account of former acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell after he shared an image of ballots sent to him by a friend living in California, who says they were addressed to his parents — who he claims have been dead for ten years.“He’s my friend in California, a very close friend of mine. It’s his parents who were sent these ballots, and he gave me the photo, and he gave me permission.” “This is my position. If Twitter is going to employ someone who is going to be so concerned about community action, and me posting...

On August 12th Los Angeles County filed charges prohibiting Grace Community Church from holding religious services. But a local judge decided in favor of Grace Community Church to allow religious service if congregants wore face coverings and practiced social distancing.Pastor John MacArthur said at the time that the church was meeting indoors because it was their constitutional right and that it was commanded by God for his people to come together in worship.Factories, pot shots, liquor stores and department stores are allowed to stay open but not houses of worship.County officials were outraged at the judge’s decision this week telling...

For the past 45 years Grace Community Church has leased a large portion of its parking lot from Los Angeles County. On Friday the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works terminated that agreement – no doubt in retaliation for the church invoking its Constitutional rights to gather for Sunday worship. “If Grace fails to vacate the premise as required, the District may enter the premises and remove Grace’s personal property,” the letter said. The California mega-church was given 30-days to to vacate the property. The church had been paying $8301.41 per month to use the parking lot.

Los Angeles County residents can expect to remain under some type of “Safer At Home” restrictions well into the summer barring any major change in the fight against the coronavirus, the county’s public health director said Tuesday. Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer made the suggestion during a Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday, saying some form of stay-at-home restrictions will likely remain in place “for the next three months”. “There’s now no way, unless there was a dramatic change in … this virus and the tools that we have at hand to actually fight against this virus, there’s no way that...