Los Angeles, Ca
Los Angeles family pleading for return of stolen tortoise
A family from Panorama City is turning to the public for additional help in finding their beloved tortoise that was stolen over the weekend.
Gustavo Mendoza told KTLA that a “heartless and evil man” stole the creature between 3 and 4 p.m. Sunday at their residence on Brimfield Avenue near Cantara Street.
The thief was also seen abusing the tortoise, Mendoza stated.
Video sent in by Mendoza shows the suspect sticking his hands through the front gate of the property and using a stick to flip the tortoise onto its shell before lifting it up and over the gate violently.
Upon getting to the top of the gate, he is seen throwing the tortoise into the air and letting it fall onto the ground before kicking it out of the view of the camera.
Jennifer Tapia, also an owner of the tortoise, says that she and her family keep their tortoises outside regularly. They went to look for her on Sunday afternoon, and while Tapia says the tortoise normally goes into hiding because “that’s what tortoises do,” the family quickly realized something was amiss.
“We couldn’t find her anywhere, so we looked at our surveillance footage,” Tapia told KTLA on Monday morning. “We saw this guy that picked her up, and he pretty much abused her and was kicking her around.”
“We’re just scared because we don’t know who it is…if it’s one of our neighbors,” Tapia added. “It’s sad to know that this is happening in our community and that someone could do this to an animal.”
The tortoise, which was a rescue, has been in the family’s possession for five years, Tapia said. They also have another one, which was hiding at the time of the theft.
Anyone with information surrounding the whereabouts of the tortoise or the suspect is encouraged to contact police.
Nancy Fontan and KTLA photojournalist Kris Arciaga contributed to this report.
Los Angeles, Ca
LASD investigating early-morning deputy-involved shooting in East L.A.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is looking into the circumstances surrounding a deputy-involved shooting that occurred early Tuesday morning in East Los Angeles.
Details remain scarce, but an LASD advisory indicates the shooting took place around 1:37 a.m. in the 6500 block of Olympic Boulevard.
While responding, at least one deputy opened fire on the unidentified suspect for reasons currently not known. It is also unclear why deputies were dispatched to the location.
The suspect was struck and transported to a local hospital, LASD confirmed. Their condition was not disclosed.
No further details were released.
Anyone with information surrounding the shooting is asked to contact the LASD’s Homicide Bureau by calling 323-890-5500.
To provide a tip anonymously, call Crime Stoppers (1-800-222-8477) or visit this link.
Los Angeles, Ca
Wildfire erupts near Pepperdine University, evacuations underway
Firefighters are battling a three-alarm brushfire, dubbed the Franklin Fire, in Malibu near Pepperdine University amid high-wind warnings, officials confirmed to KTLA.
It’s unclear exactly how the fire started, but crews with the Los Angeles County Fire Department responded to reports of the blaze, located near Malibu Canyon Road and Station Boundary, at around 10:45 p.m.
Initial reports put the fire at 10 acres, though by 11:45 p.m., officials said the wildfire had grown to 100 acres, prompting mandatory evacuation orders east of Malibu Canyon Road and south of Piuma Road, along with the Serra Retreat area, fire officials said in a post to X, formerly Twitter.
Those at Pepperdine University are being told to shelter in place, while officials with California Highway Patrol have closed portions of Pacific Coast Highway in the area so that evacuees have easy access to leave.
Sky5 is overhead.
This developing story will be updated as additional details become available.
Los Angeles, Ca
Convicted killer who twice avoided execution dies in California prison
A man who was twice sentenced to execution and twice avoided that fate died in a prison hospital over the weekend.
Darryl T. Kemp, 88, died of natural causes Saturday at the California Medical Facility in Solano County, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Kemp was one of more than 600 inmates in the California penal system who was sentenced to death but was instead made to wait out their natural life after the state put a permanent freeze on prison executions.
Kemp, originally from Los Angeles, was convicted of first-degree murder in 2009, found responsible for the 1978 rape and killing of 40-year-old Armida Wiltsey at a reservoir in Contra Costa County.
For Kemp, it was the second time he’d been convicted of rape and murder and then sentenced to death.
In 1960, he was found guilty of killing and raping Los Angeles nurse Marjorie Hipperson. He was sentenced to death following that trial, and waited execution for the next decade.
But in 1972, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional and his sentence was then modified to life with the possibility of parole.
In July, 1978, he was released on parole after serving his full sentence “as defined by the law.”
Weeks later, at Lafayette Reservoir, he would go on murder Wiltsey, who died by either strangulation or suffocation. A little more than two years after that, he fulfilled the terms of his parole and walked free.
He was connected to the Wiltsey’s long-unsolved killing decades later through DNA technology.
During his 2009 trial, in an attempt to avoid the death penalty, Kemp’s defense attorneys argued that he suffered from mental illness that compelled him to rape, and that the killings were the accidental result of sexual assaults in which he restricted his victim’s airflow, according to reporting from the East Bay Times.
The gambit did not pay off and, despite his advanced age, a jury recommended he be executed—a sentence that twice was never fulfilled.
There are currently 611 remaining inmates on death row in California. For more information about the state’s capital punishment, click here.
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