Author: City News Service

WILMINGTON, Calif. – Two people were killed in a two-vehicle collision in Wilmington Thursday evening. The collision occurred just after 8:15 p.m. in the area of 1753 N. Avalon Blvd., near Banning High School, according to Margaret Stewart of the Los Angeles Fire Department. LAFD paramedics were called to the scene and found one person dead inside one of the vehicles. Paramedics set about freeing a person from inside the other vehicle, but found they had also died. The names of the two victims were withheld pending notification of their next of kin. The cause of the crash was under…

LOS ANGELES – The K Line, a rail line connecting Los Angeles with Inglewood and El Segundo, will partially open Oct. 7, Metro announced Thursday. To mark the occasion, Metro will offer free rides on all of its buses and trains that entire weekend. Initially dubbed the Crenshaw/LAX Line, the K Line brings “convenient, fast, reliable and low-cost rail transit” that has not been in the South Los Angeles area since the 1950s, Metro officials said. Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a statement the opening will fulfill a dream that began when Mayor Tom Bradley was in office and sought…

LOS ANGELES – Although a judge indicated in a tentative ruling that she was poised to grant a preliminary injunction sought by free-speech activists who filed a lawsuit against two companies owned by mayoral candidate Rick Caruso — alleging viewpoint discrimination concerning protest restrictions at the Grove — she recommended at the end of a hearing Thursday that the attorneys try and reach their own agreement. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Teresa A. Beaudet’s proposed order would direct those affiliated with Caruso, through Nov. 4, to stop “prohibiting or interfering with plaintiffs’ and the general public’s expressive activity at the…

HOLLYWOOD HILLS, Calif. – Police Thursday sought the public’s help to identify a man who sexually assaulted a woman in the Hollywood Hills. The woman was walking in the area of North Bronson Avenue and Hollyridge Drive, near the Hollywood (101) Freeway, about 6 a.m. Saturday when she was assaulted by the suspect, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. “As the suspect tried to remove the victim’s clothing, she fought him off,” the LAPD reported. “The suspect sprinted away into a neighborhood in an unknown direction.” The suspect was described as a white male, 6 feet tall, about 170…

LOS ANGELES – An Orange County man caught on video punching a flight attendant in the back of the head during a flight from Mexico to Los Angeles International Airport was charged Thursday with a federal count of interfering with flight crew members and attendants. Alexander Tung Cuu Le, 33, of Westminster, was arrested Wednesday when American Airlines flight 377 from San José del Cabo, Mexico, landed at LAX. Le was caught on cell phone video taken by a passenger slugging a flight attendant in the back of the head during the flight. He was detained by the flight crew…

LANCASTER, Calif. – A motorist drove through a stop sign and collided with another vehicle Thursday in Lancaster, killing the other driver, authorities said. The motorist, described only as a woman, was driving north on North 30th Street West when her vehicle struck a westbound vehicle at Avenue F, according to Lt. Clint Skaggs of the sheriff’s Lancaster station. Firefighters and paramedics dispatched to the location at 8:25 a.m. pronounced the other driver, a man, dead at the scene. Paramedics took the female motorist to a hospital with moderate injuries, Skaggs said. She was being treated at Antelope Valley Medical…

ANAHEIM, Calif. – A 33-year-old man suspected of kicking and punching a dog at an Anaheim apartment complex surrendered to police early Thursday. Albert Frank Abad Jr. surrendered at the Anaheim Police Department about 1:30 a.m., when he was arrested on a warrant, Sgt. Shane Carringer said. Abad was charged Wednesday with one felony count of cruelty to animals. Abad dropped off the all-black golden doodle, Steeler, at a veterinary clinic in Los Angeles before turning himself in, Carringer said. Police received copies of doorbell camera video on Sept. 15 showing a man kicking and punching an all-black golden doodle,…

LOS ANGELES – A person was killed and another person was critically injured during a crash involving at least eight vehicles Thursday on the Century (105) Freeway in South Los Angeles, authorities said. Firefighters and paramedics dispatched at 6:58 a.m. to the eastbound freeway at the Harbor (110) Freeway also evaluated five people at the scene, transporting one to a hospital with minor injuries, the Los Angeles Fire Department reported. Firefighters report 8 cars are involved. One person is fatal, 6 others are injured @2UrbanGirls @elianamoreno @Stu_Mundel @RoadSageLA https://t.co/BpuSpEOyWV— Westmont Community News (@WestmontNews) September 22, 2022 The California Highway Patrol…

LOS ANGELES – Hundreds of people gathered in Westwood on Wednesday night to protest the death of Mahsa Amini, an woman who was in police custody in Iran when she died. Men, women and children waved flags, cried and displayed signs demanding answers from Iranian officials for the death of Amini, according to media reports. Related: Iran confirms first deaths in protests over Mahsa Amini’s death Southern California has the largest concentration of Iranians outside of Iran. Amini was reportedly taken into police custody for improperly wearing a hijab and died while in custody. Her death spurred protests in Iran…

WILLOWBROOK, Calif. – A man, armed with what turned out to be a black replica handgun, is in the hospital Thursday after being shot in the leg by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies in the unincorporated area of Willowbrook, authorities said Thursday. Deputies responded about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday to an “assault with a deadly weapon” call in the 1600 block of Imperial Highway, the Sheriff’s Information Bureau reported. ABC reported that the call came in as a woman reportedly being threatened by a man with a gun. Deputies arriving at the scene located a man in a black trench coat…

PALMDALE, Calif. – Authorities Wednesday sought the public’s help to find a 46-year-old woman who was last seen in Palmdale. Juanita Esparza was last seen about 8 a.m. Monday in the 37000 block of 70th Street East, near Knight High School, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Esparza is Hispanic, 5 feet, 8 inches tall and weighs 180 pounds, with brown eyes and brown hair. She was last seen wearing a gray sweater and gray sweatpants. Esparza may be driving a gray 2006 Hyundai Sonata, and could have possibly been heading to a hospital for unspecified chest pains,…

VAN NUYS, Calif. – An athletic trainer suspected of sexually assaulting two boys when he worked at two San Fernando Valley high schools was arrested Wednesday. The Los Angeles Police Department received a report Tuesday from a victim who alleged he “had been inappropriately touched” by 64-year-old Richard Turner at Birmingham High School in Lake Balboa, according to a department statement. Turner was arrested Wednesday, and police identified a second victim who alleged he had been assaulted by Turner in 2017 when he was employed at Van Nuys High School. Anyone with who may have been a victim of Turner…

LOS ANGELES – Six Southern California financial institutions were named Wednesday recipients of nearly $330 million in federal funds aimed at providing loans and other assistance to small and minority-owned businesses. The awards of Emergency Capital Investment Program funds were part of $671 million doled out to 10 institutions across California, and nearly $9 billion nationally, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury. According to the department, the funds are designed to allow financial institutions to “provide loans, grants, and forbearance for small and minority-owned businesses and consumers, especially in low-income and financially underserved communities that struggled the most…

SANTA ANA, Calif. – Owners of Kia and Hyundai cars filed a class-action lawsuit Wednesday in federal court in Santa Ana alleging that the Orange County- based companies failed to install technology to thwart car thieves, leaving the vehicles vulnerable to a rash of thefts spurred by a video that went viral on social media. The federal lawsuit was filed by Stephanie McQuarrie of Florida, Kaitlynn Marchione of Nevada, and Omar Becerra of Los Angeles County, who claimed their vehicles were stolen following a video on TikTok that they say exposed a vulnerability in the vehicles making them easier to…

LOS ANGELES – Police sought the public’s help Wednesday to identify a hit-and-run driver who left a 46-year-old woman severely injured in downtown Los Angeles. The woman was crossing San Pedro Street near East Ninth Street at about 7:55 p.m. on Sept. 8 when a vehicle struck her and fled the scene, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ8kJ9ljW04 Paramedics were called to the scene and took the woman to a hospital with severe injuries. Police described the suspect vehicle as possibly being a 2007 to 2011 Lincoln Town Car with a white-colored top and gold-colored bottom panels, but…