Skip to main content

long-running feud between the notorious Avenues Gang and the rival Cypress Park gang, whose territory includes the northeast Los Angeles neighborhood

Los Angeles Police Department and sheriff's investigators had initially focused their investigation on Escalante's work at the Men's Central Jail, where he guarded the most dangerous inmates, including members of the Mexican Mafia. Investigators have combed Escalante's personal life for clues. But they are now zeroing in on the possibility that Escalante was slain by local gang members -- perhaps by assailants who were not even aware that he was a lawman.Authorities are especially interested in the long-running feud between the notorious Avenues Gang and the rival Cypress Park gang, whose territory includes the northeast Los Angeles neighborhood where Escalante was killed.Investigators know that finding new witnesses four months after the killing is difficult, especially when there's a risk of reprisals from gang members. Standing in a neighborhood where gang roots run deep and allegiance carries over from generation to generation, Escalante's wife told reporters that detectives had assured her that anyone with information could contact the LAPD anonymously.
"Don't be afraid not to say something because you are scared of retaliation," she said.By calling, she said, tipsters will allow her three children to know that "our justice system works.""Abel lived and breathed for his kids. It is hard," she said, with Alexander Abel, 10, Marissa, 8, and Julian, 3. She said they ask, "When is Dad coming from the cemetery?""How do I explain to you Dad is not coming home," Escalante said.The holidays are the most difficult, she said. It was tough to smile without her husband as her children went trick-or-treating on Halloween. Thanksgiving will be another test. "This family is suffering greatly at this time," said LAPD Deputy Chief Charlie Beck, standing with Escalante and her children to announce a $95,000 reward for information leading to a prosecution in the case.
The deputy was preparing to leave for work from his parents' Thorpe Avenue home Aug. 2 when someone came up from behind and shot him in the head as he was adjusting a child's car seat in the family's car. Sheriff Lee Baca said the crime will only be solved with the public's help. "We are looking for people to do the right thing," he said. Councilman Ed Reyes, who helped arrange the reward, said there was no greater gift to this family this holiday season than to come forward and bring the killer of a loving husband and father of three to justice. "We can make a difference," he said.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Timothy “Fuzzy” Timms, a 45-year-old member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle club, stood up Monday for his First Amendment right to freedom of expressi

Timothy “Fuzzy” Timms, a 45-year-old member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle club, stood up Monday for his First Amendment right to freedom of expression. Timms, a resident of the San Diego community of South Park, refused to take off a black leather vest with the motorcycle club's “death's head” insignia when he reported for jury duty. He's a big burly man, 5 feet 8 inches, 250 pounds, with a full beard and auburn-colored, shoulder-length hair. At 7:45 a.m., Timms' stance got him booted from the San Diego Superior Court's Hall of Justice by sheriff's deputies, along with another Hells Angel who also refused to remove his insignia vest. Nine hours later, representatives of both the Superior Court and the sheriff's department apologized to Timms and club member Mick Rush for “misunderstanding” an order issued April 24 by Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Fraser. Rush also had been reporting for jury duty. “It all boils down to a misunderstanding of Judge Fraser'

Rashawn and Deon Beneby Someone mowed down the brothers, some 15 yards apart, on a grassy strip

''They may have been into drugs but they didn't do anything to harm anybody,'' said their aunt, Cheryl Watkins. ``It was cold-blooded murder to lay them out like that.''Miami-Dade County's 80th and 81st homicides of 2008: Rashawn and Deon Beneby, brothers and suspects in a string of violent robberies, shot dead Thursday afternoon next to the Liberty City middle school they once attended. ''It's cold-blooded, outright killing out there -- and we're not even in the summer yet,'' said the Rev. Richard Dunn, a community activist who lives three blocks away. Witnesses said a group of men were gathered outside an apartment at the Annie Coleman Gardens housing project when the shooting started.Someone mowed down the brothers, some 15 yards apart, on a grassy strip next to the chain-link fence that separates the community from the baseball field at Charles R. Drew Middle School, 1801 NW 60th St. Rashawn was executed -- shot in the head an

Jorge “Rivi” Ayala, Griselda Blanco, aka the Black Widow

Rivi was, for a time, the hit-man of choice for Griselda Blanco, aka the Black Widow. Griselda was the grande dame of the Miami cocaine business, a Colombian mother of three, of impoverished origins, who slaughtered and intimidated her way to the top of a billion-dollar industry. She is a central character in this movie, the most deadly figure in a story in which the bodies are stacked like dominos. Conspicuous by her absence as an interviewee, she is one of the few key survivors of the era whom the film-makers were unable to coax before the lens. “Her release was imminent at that point, as was her deportation. I think she has changed her mind since, because we have been reapproached,” Corben says. contract killer Jorge “Rivi” Ayala, the director of Cocaine Cowboys Billy Corben says: “He told me where there is a body buried in Miami, by the Florida turnpike. It’s all developed now, malls and condominiums. He knows where all the bodies are buried. We told the police. I think he told the