Police News: Violent Intruder on Lucerne, Prostitution Crackdown
Violent intruder arrested after six hours in Lucerne home
Vendors arrived on Larchmont Boulevard at 5:30 a.m. to set up for the popular Sunday Farmers Market. This morning, Aug. 17, on the normally quiet street they encountered a guy screaming and waving a baseball bat.
Soon after and around the corner, the same man threw a rock and broke the large front window of a home on the 200 block of North Lucerne Boulevard. Panicked, the parents and teens left their home in pajamas a couple of minutes after 8 a.m.
The family called 911 and within moments, Los Angeles Police Department deployed an airship, police talk for helicopter, to the location. Then, two LAPD officers arrived at the location and surrounded the Lucerne home. More LAPD units arrived, including Senior Lead Officer Tyler Shuck and Capt. Scott Wilhem of Wilshire Division. Los Angeles Fire Department was on hand and streets were closed to traffic.
Officers tried to persuade the suspect to come out of the home to no avail. Shuck believes the person was either mentally ill or under the influence of narcotics.
Since the suspect wouldn’t leave of his own accord, officers labeled it a “barricaded suspect.” That means a crime has been committed and the suspect is potentially armed—in this case he had a baseball bat and access to kitchen knives—and is in a position of advantage, since he could hide anywhere in the home.
They called Special Weapons and Tactics who came armed and apprehended the suspect. LAPD arrested him for burglary around 2:30 p.m. The suspect was placed in jail. The Chronicle was attempting to get information about his preliminary arraignment as the paper went to press.
The family on Lucerne were safe though shaken up and there was substantial damage to the interior of their home. But the incident was over. The airship could leave.
SLO Shuck heard frustration from some residents regarding the length of time it took to remove the suspect—six hours. But he said, “This was a textbook response to the situation. Exhausted all the resources available. Did it completely by the book.” He went on to say officers always want to de-escalate a situation. Past experiences make the present protocols. If LAPD had gone in sooner and something had gone wrong, people would have been upset about that.
“Catching bad guys doing bad things,” said Shuck, “that’s why I became a police officer.”
Vice task force made 10 arrests for prostitution
WILTON DRIVE AND FIRST STREET was the scene of an arrest for lewd conduct.
Sheila Hoyer was awakened by muffled noises outside her window and saw several black-and-white police cars with lights gleaming, and a man and woman in handcuffs. According to Hoyer, “The guy looked very nervous.” The man and woman were arrested for a lewd act at the corner of Wilton Drive and First Street Aug. 20 at 2:38 a.m.
This arrest was part of a larger Vice Task Force conducted by Olympic Division’s Los Angeles Police Department. During this operation, 10 arrests for prostitution were made according to Senior Lead Officer Danny Chavez. Olympic has been conducting these random sting operations every other week.
New this time was that Olympic impounded six cars of the john’s arrested. They want offenders to have to pay fees to get their vehicle and possibly answer to a significant other, according to Chavez.
With each arrestee, Olympic tries to educate the sex workers and the johns that they should take their business someplace else because they are cracking down on this illegal activity. “We’re seeing less and less familiar faces,” said Chavez. “Some take the talks to heart and don’t come back. We want to keep the pressure on.” Not that the situation is being eliminated, but it is making a difference. There are always new opportunists.
This task force focused on “johns”—the men who solicit sex workers. Olympic’s vice team sent undercover police into the field to arrest sex workers.
They also have operations where undercover officers pose as sex workers and arrest johns. As Chavez said, “If there aren’t any clients, there’s no business for the sex workers and they go elsewhere.”
Category: News
