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Additional
Deputies Assigned to Compton Station Following Murder Wave
Recent rash
of hot weather could in part be to blame
By
Allison Jean Eaton
Bulletin Staff Writer
COMPTON – Twenty-nine
additional deputies have been assigned to Compton Sheriff’s Station
after a spike in the city’s murder rate, the station’s
captain confirmed.
Between April 17 and April 30, six people were murdered in gang-related
shootings on Hub City streets. Several of the incidents, including
the slaying of a man in a wheelchair April 20, have been highly publicized.
Capt. William Ryan told The Bulletin last week that as of April 29,
the additional men and women – all gang detectives and investigators – were
assigned to the station until further notice.
Ryan requested the additional resources to address the increase in
homicides, he said. They are costing the city nothing and are in addition
to the extra deputies that make up the Violent Gang Task Force assigned
to the service area two years ago by Sheriff Lee Baca at no charge.
Most recently, a suspected gang member opened fire on the platform
of the Compton Metro Blue Line station at around 6 p.m. last Monday,
April 28, killing one 55-year-old man and seriously wounding another.
Both victims had no known gang ties, detectives said. They believe
the victims were not the suspect’s intended target, whom they
believe to be a rival gang member.
The sharp spike could at least in part be attributed to the recent
spate of hot weather, which sizzled the Southland last month, said
Compton Station’s Lt. Joe Gooden.
“That’s one thing we always look at first. The hotter months
are usually our busier months,” Gooden said April 30. “April,
for the past 10 days, has been very hot. So, can we attribute some
of the rise in the homicides to heat? I would say so, just looking
at some of the statistical data we’ve compiled here.”
Ryan agrees. He said that when the days are longer and hotter, people
tend to spend more time outside, creating more opportunity for individuals
to get into altercations. Additionally, when it’s hot, peoples’ tempers
tend to flare, he said.
The last time the city experienced a sharp spike in the murder rate
was in July 2006, when a heat wave scorched Los Angeles. Seven people
were murdered in eight days, and 20 shootings riddled the city in the
span of a single weekend.
Overall, this year’s homicide rate is up compared to that of
this time last year. As of April 30, 13 murders had taken place in
city limits and four in county unincorporated areas patrolled by Compton
Station deputies for a total of 17. Last year as of April 30, 11 murders
had taken place in Compton proper and three in county unincorporated
areas for a total of 14.
Gooden said that of the 13 murders in the city, 11 have been confirmed
by the department’s Operation Safe Streets Bureau to be gang-related.
Of those 11, nine have been solved, meaning the suspects are in custody
and officials are moving forward with prosecution.
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