Reporter Corps on KPCC: Touring South LA’s Manchester Square

January 30, 2014 By Leave a Comment


"Touring Manchester Square" | Skylar Endsley Myers

“Touring Manchester Square” | Skylar Endsley Myers

Public radio station KPCC teamed with Intersections this week to present “Touring South LA’s Manchester Square,” an audio slideshow by Skylar Endsley Myers about the neighborhood where she grew up. Myers created the project as part of Reporter Corps South LA, our program that trains young adults to cover their South LA communities using multimedia journalism. KPCC will broadcast and publish online more Reporter Corps “neighborhood tours” over the coming months.

Check out the piece on KPCC’s Take Two page. And thanks, Curbed L.A., for the shout-out.

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Filed Under: Neighborhoods, Reporter Corps Tagged With: , ,

South LA woman pleads not guilty to attempted murder

January 6, 2014 By 1 Comment


Patricia Cormack's residence in South L.A.'s Hyde Park. | Google Maps

Patricia Cormack’s residence in South L.A.’s Hyde Park. | Google Maps

A 55-year-old woman described by neighbors as a friendly church-goer who had taken care of foster children pleaded not guilty Friday to the attempted murder of her boyfriend and his brother at her home in South L.A.’s Hyde Park.

Patricia Cormack is being held on ­­­­­­­­­$4 million bail, said a district attorney spokeswoman, and will appear next in court on Jan. 24.

The pre-dawn shooting on Dec. 30 left Derek Everett and Darryl Ward hospitalized with multiple wounds, police said. The criminal complaint filed by the DA describes the weapon as a handgun.

Officers found the men, both in their fifties, asking for help shortly after 5:30 a.m., said Detective Ernie Mendoza. Police detained Cormack the same morning and searched her home before arresting her on $500,000 bail. Detectives haven’t revealed the suspected motive for the shooting.

Neighbors on a quiet block of 74th St. with well-kept single-family homes said they were surprised to find police cars, ambulances and helicopters rushing to their block that morning.

Megan Faux, who has lived across the street from where the shooting occurred since 2000, said Cormack regularly attended services on Sundays and bible study on Wednesdays at the City of Refuge church in Gardena. Faux also said Cormack had taken care of girls in foster care.

One neighbor on the block said Cormack was a “pleasant lady” who would greet her on the street. Another said she often saw Cormack walking a small, fluffy white dog.

Cormack’s next-door neighbor awoke Monday morning to the barking of his Rottweiler-German shepherd and saw police arrive to assist the wounded men.

“The first guy came out, put his hands up, saying, ‘She shot me,’” he recalled. The second followed, then Cormack emerged without resisting arrest, he said.

The brothers lived at the residence and had helped take care of Cormack’s mother before she died a couple of months ago, said the neighbor, who requested anonymity. The family owned the house for at least 30 years, he said, as long as his own family had lived on the block. Lately, Cormack had talked about wanting to move out.

Cormack’s two-bedroom white stucco house with a Mediterranean red tile roof showed no sign of a scuffle on Monday afternoon, at least from outside. A green watering hose was curled on the trimmed lawn. A silver Mercedes with a crucifix hanging from the rearview mirror was parked in the driveway behind what appeared to be an old, rust-colored Dodge bearing a blue-and-yellow California license plate. Children’s playthings, including a Disney-themed toy car in hot pink, were scattered near the arched entryway.

In 1994 Cormack pleaded guilty to drug possession with intent to sell, according to county records. The charges were dismissed four years later after she completed a court-ordered program and probation. If convicted for attempted murder, Cormack could face a prison sentence of 25 years to life.

Reach the author at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter at @dainabethcita.

Filed Under: Crime, Criminal Justice, Hyde Park

Top Intersections stories of 2013

January 6, 2014 By Leave a Comment


It’s our first full week of January 2014 — but before leaping forward, let’s take a look back. In 2013, Intersections covered community development, visual and performing arts, health, education, poverty, politics, crime, history and more…  What were the highlights? Here are one editor’s top 10 picks. 

South LA teenager finds home in poetry

Kenzie featuredApril 7, 2013 By 

“On a chilly night in South L.A., over a hundred young people have packed into a small theatre for an open-mic poetry reading. Seventeen-year-old Kenzie Givens is an African American poet and tonight is her first time performing at the venue. On stage, Givens looks tough. She’s dressed in a leather jacket, mini-skirt and combat boots and her hair is done up in dreads. Despite her apparent confidence, Givens doesn’t always fit in with her peers. She writes poetry because she often can’t connect with students her age.”

South LA corner stores try to get healthy

Oaks Jr marketApril 30, 2013 By  

“There’s not a lot of merchandise on the shelves at Oak’s Jr. Market these days. The refrigerators along the wall keep some beers and sodas cool. A shelf stores canned chili and Aunt Jemima syrup. But the shelves below the sign that reads “Fresh Produce” sit vacant, waiting to be filled with fruits and vegetables.”

Breaking South LA’s cycle of teen pregnancy

 TeenPregnancyMay 29, 2013 By 

“For months, Marissa had kept her small baby bump hidden. She practiced soccer drills with her dad, wore loose clothes and pretended she was still a normal teenager. She hadn’t told anyone she was pregnant because she was too scared. … South L.A.’s teen birth rate remains stubbornly high at nearly double the national average, according to the L.A. County Department of Public Health. And it continues to be the highest in the county, nearly 10 times the rate for the more affluent Westside, which includes Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and Malibu.”

South LA’s man in Sacramento

King doesn't have a bail agent's license. His sister and his niece operate the bond business, but he knows the pathway through the criminal justice system, inside and out.

May 29, 2013 By 

“What makes [Celes] King different from others is that he’s neither a lobbyist nor a gadfly, neither elected nor appointed. He’s the master community advocate. The son of legendary civil rights bail bondsman Celes King III is now engrossed in a fight to save his family’s livelihood – the bail industry – and continue advocating for marginalized communities.”

Street art finds another canvas at the home of South LA resident

graffiti_featureJuly 5, 2013 By 

“Awash with bright, spray-painted colors, the brick wall enclosing a portion of Arcelia Gante’s house is becoming a piece of public art. Five years ago, her family moved into the house located on the corner of La Salle Avenue in South Los Angeles, and since then graffiti artists have used the side of her house to create intricate murals and portraits.”

Photoetry: A testament to the community

article imageOctober 14, 2013 By 

“I felt that with my poetry I could express the humanity of my community,” [Hiram] Sims said. … This does not mean Sims paints an overly idealistic image of the community. Sims challenges ideas of race, violence and religion in the community in poems such as “The Wrong Red Shirt,” “god Hates Me,” and “I Feel the Love (Ode to the LAPD).” Balancing these tensions in his work was not always easy. Sims knew at the outset that he did not want to portray the same image of South L.A. often portrayed in movies.”

South LA neighborhood in the aftermath of the Martha Sanchez shooting

By Sinduja Rangarajan

November 8, 2013 By 

“Brenda Ramirez and her husband had finished work and were driving home when they saw police and a crowd gathered around a South Los Angeles discount store a block away from their upholstery shop. Enrique Espino, a high school student, was sitting on his couch watching TV when he heard his neighbors run out of their homes. Eva Alvarez, who was working in her bail bond store, saw an ambulance on her store’s surveillance camera and sprinted towards the shop across the street. Their neighbor, Martha Sanchez, had been shot.”

First person: Thanksgiving without turkey?

A turkey drumstick for Thanksgiving. | Flickr/ D. Sharon Pruitt

November 27, 2013 By 

“As our family ate tacos and cupcakes on the occasion of my grandmother’s 65th birthday last week, my four-year-old brother Bryce—the youngest of the seven of us, four of whom were present—asked her, “Nana, what are we doing for Thanksgiving?””

 

Leimert Park: Chronicles of a changing community

Leimert Park 040713This historic South L.A. neighborhood had a year of ups and downs, but is still vibrant. Community members are optimistic that the new Metro station and long-standing art centers and small businesses can coexist.

Leimert Park plays to its own beat
May 23, 2013 By Ashley Riegle

Leimert Park targeted by investors
October 15, 2013 By Brianna Sacks
Leimert Park’s World Stage fights eviction
November 22, 2013 By Brianna Sacks

Reporter Corps

reporter corpsIn 2013 Intersections inaugurated its first Reporter Corps class, a group of college-age students from South L.A. who spent the summer learning to report on their communities. Here are three of their stories that have been published — with more to come in 2014.

Crenshaw High’s magnet conversion and Baldwin Hills families
October 7, 2013 By 

Growing up queer in Watts: What happens when school is still not a safe place
October 13, 2013 By 

‘College Isn’t For Us?’
October 21, 2013 By 

Filed Under: Community Tagged With:

County warns against New Year’s Eve celebratory gunfire

December 31, 2013 By Leave a Comment


A sign at the Central Sheriff Station in Lynwood warns against illegal gunfire. | Daina Beth Solomon

A sign at the Century Sheriff’s Station in Lynwood warns against illegal gunfire. | Daina Beth Solomon

Every New Year’s Eve, “pops” and “bangs” resonate throughout the Los Angeles area — some from fireworks, and others from bullets blasting into the air.

But the celebratory gunfire has caused serious and sometimes fatal injuries to innocent bystanders, and L.A. County Sheriff’s deputies are planning to step up patrols this year to try to stop the practice and catch offenders.

“Shooting guns to celebrate the New Year is reckless, dangerous, and can be deadly,” Sheriff Lee Baca said Tuesday at a press conference in Lynwood.

Shooting into the air can be prosecuted as either a misdemeanor or a felony, with punishment ranging from one year in jail with a $1,000 fine to three years in prison with a $10,000 fine. When shots result in death, the shooter can be prosecuted for murder.

On New Year’s Eve 2012, the Sheriff’s Department received 93 reports of gunfire. Two people were wounded, and two properties damaged. Baca said he estimated that 400 other incidents went unreported.

The Sheriff’s Department and the L.A. Police Department are urging residents to call 911 at the sound of gunfire – even if it could just be fireworks.

“Certain people don’t call, and if they don’t, we have no way of knowing,” said Baca.

Police say bullets can plummet to earth at 300 to 700 feet per second from a height of up to two miles – collecting enough force to penetrate the skull. Eighty percent of injuries from such gunfire wound the head, shoulders or feet, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Shooting on holidays may appeal to revelers because guns are readily available while fireworks are not, said gunshot wound expert Marie Russell, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at USC’s Keck School of Medicine. (Fireworks that explode in the air are illegal in L.A. County without a permit.)

Arresting offenders is tricky because many shooters dash inside their homes after pulling the trigger, said Baca.

Since 2001, the department has used a ShotSpotter Gunshot Location System at the Century Sheriff’s Station in Lynwood to help law enforcement officers pinpoint the location of gunfire. Its acoustic technology can detect and locate shots within a zone of two square miles — like an “automatic 911,” said sheriff’s Capt. Ernest Chavez.

But even with technology’s help, Baca said, “We’re not catching it all.”

South Los Angeles typically has the heaviest concentration of celebratory gunfire in the county, he said, followed by parts of the Eastside.

Cities across the nation contend with fatal celebratory gunfire on major holidays, with children and women as frequent victims.

The last death by celebratory gunfire in L.A. happened on the Fourth of the July in 1999. Brian Perez, age 9, was playing in the yard at a family barbecue when he was struck by an errant bullet.

In Orange County, 9-year-old Xavier Morales died from a gunshot wound in 2002. A bullet that had been fired into the air on July Fourth in Buena Park tore through his lungs and severed the aorta.

In Maryland on New Year’s Eve in 2012, a 10-year-old was hit by a bullet while watching midnight fireworks. She died the next day. Last summer in Virginia, a 7-year-old boy died when a handgun was fired in the air at an Independence Day celebration.

Bullets can also find their way inside homes. In Detroit on New Year’s Eve 1997, a slug killed a woman who was sitting in her dining room. This year, a Detroit shooting range will offer free entry from morning until 1 a.m. to try to keep gunfire off the streets.

Filed Under: Crime, Public Safety Tagged With: , , ,
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