Thread: Sheriff Calls Gang Shooting of Deputy 'Barbarism'

http://www.venturacountystar.com/vcs/st ... 96,00.html

Sheriff calls gang shooting of deputy 'barbarism'
By Robert Jablon, The Associated Press
June 26, 2005

MONTEREY PARK -- Sheriff Lee Baca on Saturday said the killing of a deputy shows gang violence in Los Angeles County is out of control.

"This is barbarism. This is ignorance. This is something that doesn't fit the human dignity," Baca said at a news conference at sheriff's headquarters.

He called on state and local officials to provide more funding for anti-gang efforts, both by law enforcement and through social efforts such as providing better education and job opportunities to disadvantaged youth.

He also criticized "incompetent families that don't know what to do with their errant children."

Deputy Jerry Ortiz, 35, was shot point-blank in the head Friday afternoon as he talked to a woman at a Hawaiian Gardens apartment during a street gang investigation, authorities said.

Jose Orozco, 27, was later arrested. Deputies found him three doors away, "cowering in a bathtub" where he apparently had hidden for three hours, Baca said.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger offered his condolences for the killing.

Orozco was a local gang member and a career criminal. He had prior arrests or convictions for assault with a deadly weapon, resisting arrest, burglary, as well as for gun and drug crimes, Baca said.

The sheriff held up a 5-foot-long computer printout that he said was Orozco's rap sheet, then crumpled it angrily, calling the suspect "scum of the earth."

Orozco remained jailed Saturday and could not immediately be reached for comment.

District Attorney Steve Cooley said he could face a charge of first-degree murder, which carries a possible death penalty.

Orozco was on parole but had not contacted his parole officer since January, Cooley said. He also was a suspect in a gang-related shooting in Hawaiian Gardens on Monday that wounded a person, authorities said.

Sheriff's homicide Capt. Ray Peavy said it was believed that Orozco had been "living from house-to-house and on the street" in the blue-collar city 20 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles.

Ortiz of Diamond Bar was a 15-year veteran of the department who worked with a gang enforcement team. He had gone to an apartment complex seeking information about Orozco, Peavy said.

He had talked to a woman he knew at the door and was looking at identification produced by another man in the home when Orozco came up from inside and fired one shot from a handgun, Peavy said.

Orozco probably recognized Ortiz, who was known in the area and was wearing a green sheriff's polo shirt, Peavy said. Orozco may have feared he would be arrested, Peavy said.

Ortiz is survived by his wife and two sons, ages 16 and 6.

Ortiz was the second person in his family to die recently in gang-related violence. His sister's husband, 43-year-old Manuel A. Gonzalez Jr., was a corrections officer at the prison in Chino. He was stabbed to death by an inmate in January. A reputed gang member has been charged in his death.

"Ortiz was the second person in his family to die recently in gang-related violence. His sister's husband, 43-year-old Manuel A. Gonzalez Jr., was a corrections officer at the prison in Chino. He was stabbed to death by an inmate in January. A reputed gang member has been charged in his death."

How much does one family have to pay for Bush's failure to close the borders.

"This is barbarism. This is ignorance. This is something that doesn't fit the human dignity," Baca said at a news conference at sheriff's headquarters.

He called on state and local officials to provide more funding for anti-gang efforts, both by law enforcement and through social efforts such as providing better education and job opportunities to disadvantaged youth.

He also criticized "incompetent families that don't know what to do with their errant children."

It is barbarism. These people have no souls. They are lunatics. Murderers. Rapist. Vermin. The parents, if you call them that, are incompetent, and that is the clean version.

"This is barbarism. This is ignorance. This is something that doesn't fit the human dignity," Baca said at a news conference at sheriff's headquarters.

He called on state and local officials to provide more funding for anti-gang efforts, both by law enforcement and through social efforts such as providing better education and job opportunities to disadvantaged youth.

He also criticized "incompetent families that don't know what to do with their errant children."

It is barbarism. These people have no souls. They are lunatics. Murderers. Rapist. Vermin. The parents, if you call them that, are incompetent, and that is the clean version.

Is it true that this gangmember bastard had a 5 foot long rapsheet? If so that prick should have been executed long ago.

What happened to Three Strikes and You're OUT???

RR

He also criticized "incompetent families that don't know what to do with their errant children."

With all due respect to the sheriff, I don't think a 27 year old thug counts as a "child".

Also, the only "anti-gang" plan that's going to work would have to be similar to the one were currently using in Iraq.