LOS ANGELES (CNS) – At its first meeting since an off-duty officer was killed in Lincoln Heights and four people died in a San Fernando Valley shooting spree, the Los Angeles Police Commission paused Tuesday to honor those victims and the people slain in a pair of weekend mass shootings.
“So many victims of these senseless shootings,” Commission President Steve Soboroff said at the start of the meeting. “I saw today that one of the biggest back-to-school sellers is bullet-proof backpacks for kids, being sold in stores that also sell guns? Let’s take a moment of silence.”
In the past week, nearly three dozen people were killed in mass shootings at the Gilroy Garlic Festival, at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and at an entertainment district in Dayton, Ohio.
On July 25, four people died in a 12-hour crime spree allegedly carried out by Gerry Zaragoza in the San Fernando Valley. He allegedly killed his father, Carlos I Zaragoza, 56, and brother Carlos Pierre Zaragoza, 33, in their Canoga Park apartment, Azucena “Susie” Lepe, 45, a female acquaintance at a North Hollywood gas station and Datwon Harris, 55, a Reseda resident and a complete stranger on an Orange Line bus in Van Nuys.
Moore said the LAPD is continuing its outreach efforts to Latino communities in Los Angeles, noting that the gunman in the recent mass shooting in El Paso had expressed anti-immigration views and referenced white supremacist literature.
The chief said the department will work to identify people who may be capable of mass shootings and try to get them to mental health services to try to prevent a recurrence of such events.
“If there are instances (where officers can help in) persuading or redirecting those energies to some other path, that’s what our desire is as law enforcement,” Moore said.
The LAPD has a Mental Evaluation Unit that addresses calls for mental health assistance. More information on the unit can be found at www.lapdonline.org.