INSIDE INGLEWOOD-According to the LA Times Homicide Blog and Crimemapping.com, there were 34 shooting homicides reported in the City of Inglewood since April, 2013. To date, none have been solved.
Inglewood's mayor, James T. Butts, hand-picked the current police chief, Mark Fronterotta (photo), and had him appointed in January, 2013. In a City of Inglewood press release regarding the appointment, Butts stated, "I was his first supervisor when he went to patrol after graduating from the police academy."Soon afterward, an unprecedented city-wide gang injunction was passed.
Only one related arrest was made by Inglewood Police Department (IPD), but that man was released after IPD were accused of destroying video evidence from the man’s house and refusing to seek video evidence from retail stores miles away from the shooting which took place on October 8 and claimed two victims: Dora Lee Dawson, 64, and Crystallyn May Nguyen, 18.
The man, Justin Marquis Scott, 19, was able to retain a lawyer—Juliette Robinson—who successfully collected three separate videos from chain retail stores in Compton showing that Scott was miles away from the double shooting homicide at the moment it occurred. Based on that evidence, Scott was freed. The shooter remains at large.
Reached via e-mail, Robinson stated, “[IPD] removed the home surveillance system of his mother which shows what time he left the home on the day of the shooting (which frankly would have ended any questions), and they questioned him for hours and ignored his alibi. All this was done because they wanted to solve a case by any means necessary. The Inglewood Police department set up my client to take a fall on a crime that they knew he didn't commit.”
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The most recent shooting took place on June 27. Paul Ray Kemp, Jr., 40, was shot by Inglewood police. Residents and friends state that Kemp was unarmed and shot in the back. They also state that the officer, whose name has not been released, shot himself in the hand. (Initial reports in the L.A. Times stated that an officer had indeed been shot in the hand but did not state how.)
Reached via e-mail, neither Fronterotta nor any of his many public relations officers responded to requests for comment.
Compared to nearby cities, Inglewood’s murder rate may be perceived as alarmingly high.
Dating back to January, 2013 and including the latest data on the LA Times Homicide Blog, the murder count for cities surrounding Inglewood are as follows:
Culver City-2 … Torrance-2 … Manhattan Beach-0 … Hermosa Beach-0 … Redondo Beach-2 … El Segundo-0 … Lynwood-6 … Carson-10 … Hawthorne-6 … Gardena-3
(Randall Fleming is a veteran journalist and magazine publisher. He has worked at and for the New York Post, the Brooklyn Spectator and the Los Feliz Ledger. He is currently editor-in-chief at the Morningside Park Chronicle, a weekly newspaper based in Inglewood, CA and on-line at www.MorningsideParkChronicle.com. Mr. Fleming’s views are his own and do not reflect the views of CityWatch.) Photo credit: Randall Fleming
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 12 Issue 70
Pub: Aug 29, 2014
