cop killed in n.e.los angeles

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surcaliman

surcaliman

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#1
Nov 1, 2005
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A Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy leaving his Cypress Park home for work at the Men's Central Jail was killed in a drive-by shooting early this morning, Los Angeles police said.

Juan Abel Escalante, 27, a father of three, died near his car shortly after the 5:40 a.m. shooting at Aragon Avenue between Maceo Street and Thorpe Avenue, police said.


Police said a white, four-door vehicle approached the 2 1/2 -year veteran. Numerous gunshots were fired from the vehicle, striking the deputy.

"Today is a very difficult day," said Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, who was on the scene along with LAPD Chief William J. Bratton. "There are people within our Sheriff's Department that are grieving, as am I."

Escalante and his family were living at his parents' house, where he grew up, Baca said. He was in the process of buying a home in Pomona.

Baca called Escalante, who was a U.S. military veteran, "a local success story" and a deputy who was "dedicated and hard-charging in the best sense of the word."

"He lived up to the dream of serving his country, serving his county and honoring his family," Baca said.

Police officers wouldn't say whether the deputy was in uniform, or how many shots were fired. Rookie deputies typically work in county jails for their first assignments.

"We have no information about the suspect," said LAPD Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz. "The best detectives in our Police Department are handling this case."

A neighbor, Gloria Ruiz, said that her son and Escalante grew up together and had both served in Iraq. She said he had a strict upbringing and his mother "would gleam whenever he had good grades."

Bratton described the area as a historically troubled one because of a feud between the gangs in the Cypress Park and Glassell Park areas, but said that it had been quiet in recent months after an LAPD raid earlier this year.

In an incident that occurred just a few blocks away from today's shooting, a 37-year-old man was fatally shot more than a dozen times in February by suspected gang members as he held the hand of a 2-year-old girl, who was picked up by a passerby and carried to safety.

Police officers later found themselves in a gun battle after they pulled over the suspected gunmen's vehicle and one of the car's occupants began firing an AK-47. None of the officers was injured, but one gunman was killed and another wounded.

Thousands were forced to stay in their homes during the shootout, and several schools were locked down.

Today's death was the second in recent years in which a sheriff's deputy was fatally shot while leaving for work.

In March 2006, Deputy Maria Cecilia Rosa was killed in Long Beach shortly before 6 a.m. as she was leaving a friend's house for work at the Inmate Reception Center at Men's Central Jail in Los Angeles. The shooting was found to be a botched robbery.

In May, the gunman in the shooting was convicted and sentenced to death, and an accomplice was sentenced to life in prison for the slaying.
 
surcaliman

surcaliman

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#3
Nov 1, 2005
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LOS ANGELES An off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy was gunned down outside his house at sunrise Saturday in the gang-ridden Cypress Park area of Los Angeles, authorities said.

Dep. Juan Escalante, 27, was a sheriff's deputy for two-and-a-half years, and was assigned to the county's Men's Central Jail, Los Angeles Police said.

Escalante was found by his wife and his mother after a car passed by his house, and someone inside the vehicle fired about five shots, at 5:40 a.m., witnesses said.

Police chief William Bratton and sheriff Lee Baca rushed to the scene, and Baca called this "a difficult day."

"We know that the public at large is grieving the loss of a deputy sheriff, a new deputy sheriff who was in the department for just two years, working at our central jail," Baca said.

Neighbors told Los Angeles station KNX that the victim's mother and wife were seen standing over the deputy's body in the street shortly after the neighbors heard five gunshots, and a car speeding by.

Escalante was reportedly a resident in the 3400 block of Thorpe Avenue, and may have been shot as he was going to work.

"As to whether this shooting this morning is gang-related, it is much too early to say," Bratton said at a news conference as police, sheriff's and coroners investigators worked in the neighborhood.

The shooting occurred near Isabel Avenue, a notorious hotbed of gang activity and murders about three miles from the Men's Central Jail.

Bratton said LAPD officers have this year "had major operations against the Avenues Gang, and the Cypress Park Gang" in the neighborhood, a densely-populated section of bungalows and apartment complexes just north of the Los Angeles River near the Pasadena (110) Freeway.

"I would point out however that after those operations earlier this year crime in this area has diminished significantly," Bratton said in remarks broadcast by KNX. "This is the first homicide, now, in several months since the roundup up of most of the gang leadership of the Avenues group."
 
numba2stunna

numba2stunna

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#4
Jun 4, 2004
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That's too bad now them kids ain't got no father... but dude must have messed with the wrong people.... do the L.A. County Sheriff's department take their patrol cars home? If so it could have been random just killing any cop they seen on the streets.

I hate the police... but not that much... I just say F*** the Police... not kill them...
 
Kon1

Kon1

Sicc OG
#11
May 17, 2002
9,537
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#11
yeah that's all bad I got potnas wit fam in NELA shit is getting rough. Keep y'all heads up and stay on ya p's and q's.....
 
BOOBOO619

BOOBOO619

Sicc OG
#12
Apr 26, 2006
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#12
He was a cop, but fuck, RIP. No one deserves to die like that.

I must say it's pretty dumb idea to be a cop, live in a bad area and with your parents still. That's a good reason to not be a cop. Move the fuck out before hand.

"So officer Escalante, where do you live?" I'm still living with my parents. "ha ha ha ha ha"

That's every Mexican's situation. lol Atleast white parents can afford to buy their children homes before they enter an occupation of that significance.
 
BOOBOO619

BOOBOO619

Sicc OG
#14
Apr 26, 2006
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#14
Nuttkase said:
lol.

Wow. Do you live in a fantasy world where every white person parents buy them a Benz and a condo when they turn 18 or something?

That is easily one of the dumbest statements I have ever read on here.
Click to expand...
I'm just fucking around bro. I do have a white friend whos parent's hooked him up with a dope condo. All expenses paid. haha

Who gives a shit though, if your fortunate to get hooked up like that, so be it. You should be proud of your race, if your white, don't deny the fact that most of your ancestors have played their cards right (most of them were hardworking people with entrepreneurial mindsets), therefore the younger generations like your parents and yourself are able to inherit businesses and other assets.

My Mexican families from both sides don't own shit and never had, interms of business. Oh wait a minute, someone in my family does own a Tortilleria. lol
 
Ghost Dance

Ghost Dance

America's Nightmare
#16
Nov 1, 2007
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Oak Park...916
#16
DFresh77 said:
because AK's ain't made to snipe people...maybe you should learn your rifles and guns before speaking on them...
Click to expand...
When did I say anything about an AK being a snipers gun?

You pull the fuckin trigger and spray up an area, and if theres ppl in that area they should get clapped.SIMPLE

Maybe you should step up ur reading comprehension before speaking on me.
 
surcaliman

surcaliman

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#17
Nov 1, 2005
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#17
Sheriff's deputy who was shot dead guarded highly dangerous inmates


Authorities are investigating whether his job at the L.A. County jail, which put him in touch with Mexican Mafia gang members, is connected to his death. They are also considering two other motives.

By Stuart Pfeifer and Tami Abdollah, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
August 4, 2008


A Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy gunned down Saturday outside his boyhood home in Cypress Park had been assigned to guard the most dangerous inmates in the county, including members of the notorious Mexican Mafia gang, authorities said Sunday.

Los Angeles police and sheriff's officials said the prospect that Deputy Juan Abel Escalante was killed because of his work at the jail remained one of three possible motives. Investigators were also considering the possibility that neighborhood gang violence or a personal grudge were behind the killing.


"As of right now, all of those possibilities are on the table," said Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz.

Escalante, 27, was shot to death outside his parents' home about 5:40 a.m. Saturday as he left for work at the downtown Men's Central Jail. He was assigned to the "high power" unit, where dangerous inmates -- many of them violent gang members -- are housed in single-man cells, Diaz and Sheriff Lee Baca said.

Detectives from LAPD's robbery-homicide division were investigating the killing with the assistance of detectives from the sheriff's homicide division and the jail's gang unit. Baca said Escalante's assignment put him in touch with members of the Mexican Mafia, a gang known to direct street crime and violence from behind prison walls.

"Until we can verify anything, it has to be looked at. In a homicide of this kind, with a person who's from a neighborhood that's had some difficulty with gangs, you can't rule anything out, particularly that," Baca said.

Witnesses said they saw a white, four-door car approach Escalante shortly before gunfire erupted. The deputy, his wife and their three children were living with his parents while preparing to purchase a home in Pomona.

At Men's Central Jail on Sunday, deputies wore black bands across their badges and dress uniforms with black ties in remembrance of their fallen colleague.

"They're not taking it well," said Sheriff's Sgt. Ron Bottomley, who supervised Escalante for the last year. "It's a very sober situation. We're a family. He had two families. He was a great family man, and he had a family here. Just like his family is grieving him, so are we."

A small memorial for Escalante was set up near his parents' home at the corner of Thorpe and Aragon avenues.

Bouquets of flowers surrounded about a dozen candles that were arranged in the shape of a cross. White roses and blue carnations were left with a simple note: "In memory of Deputy Escalante."

Cypress Park, a blue-collar neighborhood northeast of downtown, has had a history of gang warfare. Earlier this year, a shooting outside an elementary school near Escalante's home touched off a fierce gun battle between gang members and police in nearby Glassell Park.

Escalante had been considered a local success story because he grew up in a neighborhood plagued by gang violence and was pursuing a career in law enforcement.

"He was this close to moving out of that neighborhood," said Bottomley, moving his thumb and index finger millimeters apart, "and getting into, for him, his dream home. It would be his first home. We're talking weeks away. He was so happy everything was going well. . . . Now are they going to have that dream home? In a matter of seconds, everything was taken away from him."

Many of the 800 employees at Men's Central Jail have been touched by Escalante's death.

"He was the cream of the crop, and that's what really hurts," Bottomley said, his eyes red and tearing up. "You've got three kids that are going to have to grow up without a dad.

"He was close to everybody. He was one of those outstanding guys that there wasn't a person in the jail that [could] say anything bad about him. He was a good, fair man, an outstanding deputy. He was fair with the inmates but firm. If I gave him orders to do something, he was saying, 'Yes, sir' before I could finish it."

Escalante, an Army reservist, was a 2 1/2 -year department veteran. Most deputies for their first assignments work in county jails for several years before they are transferred to patrol duties.

"We always try to be prepared for everything, but one thing we cannot be prepared for is when you lose somebody," Bottomley said. "And through all of it, you have to stay professional and do your job. But you know, we're all human. In some aspects we have to be more than human. . . . You still have to come in the next day and do your job, and a part of you has been torn away."

One sheriff's deputy, who asked not to be identified because he had not been given authorization to speak to the media, said guards at Los Angeles County jails often confront fear that inmates may try to harm them outside jail walls.

"You never talk about your family, where you live, your hobbies," the deputy said. "Most guys don't wear wedding rings. You don't want to give the bad guys ammo to be able to say, 'I know the name of your wife, your children.' "

It wouldn't be difficult for gang members or former inmates to follow deputies home from Men's Central Jail, the deputy said.

"They know where you work. They could just post up on the driveway and wait for you to leave," he said.
 
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