Witnesses frequently are not willing to come forward with information about crimes. In addition to inadequate staffing, mistrust of police on the part of many residents also has hampered law enforcement efforts in Compton. “It’s incredible what’s going on over there.”īratton called the situation in Compton “very controllable,” but said reducing crime would require higher levels of law enforcement, as well as creating new opportunities for young people there. to try and police one of the most dangerous cities in America? Sorry, you get what you pay for,” he said. “Quite frankly, it’s a problem in Compton that they only want to pay for 78 sheriff’s deputies. “We’re pushing it their way,” he said.īut Bratton also criticized Compton for not finding more money to pay for additional patrols. Bratton said in a meeting at The Times in December that he believed his department’s success in reducing crime in South Los Angeles could have had a role in violent gangs concentrating in Compton. The LAPD deploys more than 250 officers in the Southeast Division to patrol an area about the size of Compton. The division also reported a drop in shots fired and shooting victims. 24, down from 72 during the same period in 2004. The LAPD’s Southeast Division station, which serves about 150,000 residents, recorded 62 homicides as of Dec. The per capita income in Compton is about $10,000, half of the county average.Īs violence escalated in Compton, crime dropped in nearby areas patrolled by the Los Angeles Police Department. A gang injunction being drawn up by an attorney for the city probably will take months before it is ready to be imposed, city officials said.Ĭompton, a city of 10 square miles and roughly 96,000 residents, disbanded its 100-year-old police force five years ago and now contracts with the Sheriff’s Department for 75 full-time deputies at a cost of more than $13 million a year.Īs the violence in Compton rose during the year, Sheriff Lee Baca did not shift additional gang officers or investigators into the Compton station.īaca’s department has more than 1,000 unfilled deputy positions, and department officials have said they cannot increase the number of deputies assigned to Compton unless the city can pay more.Ĭity officials said they had no additional money. The rise in killings, the vast majority believed by sheriff’s investigators to be gang-related, prompted concern among residents and elected officials but little action. It might be OK for this moment on this day, but tomorrow all hell may break out.” “You never know what’s going to happen from day to day. “I think the people feel that they’re somewhat frightened,” said Otha Ray Scott, 74, a Compton Block Club commissioner and 49-year resident.

Dobson said her son told her that a man had walked up to him and fired without saying a word. The adult son of City Councilwoman Lillie Dobson was shot and wounded in the leg while riding his bike near his mother’s house late last year. In addition to those killed in 2005, sheriff’s gang officials recorded 282 shootings and attempted murders in Compton through the end of November, a nearly 25% increase over the same period the previous year. Nine victims were men in their 40s or older. Fifteen were teenagers, six of them 15 or younger. Overall, at least 25 of Compton’s dead were Latino, and 43 black. The city’s last victim, Jose Casillas, 19, was shot to death in the early morning on New Year’s Eve. On Christmas Day, two Compton men were shot to death - one in the city, one just outside its borders. Two months and 10 homicides later, Labrina Pullard, 17, was shot to death while sitting in a car with her boyfriend, who was wounded in the attack. In October, a gunman fired at a male victim on a residential street until he was out of ammunition, then used his weapon to beat to death the victim’s female companion. By then, Compton had recorded 51 killings. The shooting, in the middle of a September afternoon, was recorded by security cameras at a Compton-area mall where Hipolito, his wife and his teenage brother had gone to shop.

Her father, Osiel Hipolito, a 20-year-old sailor and veteran of the war in Iraq, did not.ĭeputies said Hipolito had no gang ties, and that the attack began when a gang member asked where he was from, and he replied: the U.S. A baby girl was delivered by emergency caesarean section, born a month early with a gunshot wound to her leg that required surgery. Three months later, a gunman shot another pregnant woman in the belly. Within weeks of that shooting, the city had recorded 43 homicides - more than all of 2004. The youngest was a fetus, shot and killed in an attack in June that wounded five people, including her mother, who was eight months’ pregnant.

Compton la 1990