Monrovia Weekly monroviaweekly.com
Thursday, December 24 - December 30, 2009 Volume 14, No. 103
Murder Victim Appears to be White Supremacist
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Monrovia’s Trader Joe’s Robbed at Gunpoint
By Susan Motander
Pediatric patient Jayleen rushes to meet Santa after he gets off the chopper atop Huntington Hospital when he visited children at the Pediatric Unit last week as part of Pasadena PD’s Operation Polar Wind. -Photo by Terry Miller Full Story on Page 11
A Mother’s Christmas Wish: Her Daughter Back By Susan Motander
On the afternoon of October 29, this year, Sandra Ortega left her home in Monrovia for the short bus ride to her job in Duarte. She has not been seen since. Sandra had just turned 17 the month before and her family is worried. Sandra’s mother, Cassandra Lopez said that this year the one thing she wants for Christmas is her daughter back, or at least the knowledge that she is all right and safe. Sandra attended Monrovia High School and worked at the Dollar Tree in Duarte as part of the R.O.P. work experience program at the school. On the day she disappeared she never arrived at work. “She had said that she wanted to move out when she turned eighteen,” her mother explained, “but nothing happened that would make her suddenly leave now. “I just need to know she
Missing Monrovia Teenager, Sandra Ortega: Photo Courtesy of Cassandra Lopez
is OK,” the distraught mother said. If you have any information that would make this Christmas wish come true, please contact the Monrovia Police Department at (626) 256-8000.
T he man who died last week in a shooting in Monro via has b e e n identified as Jason Samuel Gent ile, 22 , of Costa Mesa. The shooting occurred on Tuesday, December 15 just after 8:00 p.m. on Colorado Blvd., just west of California. The dead man appears to have been a white supremacist a nd Sher iff’s Department investigators believe the five men who were in t he g roup from which the shots were fired are members of Monrovia
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Relocation of Bank’s Millard Sheets Mural Under Discussion By Sameea Kamal
Catherine Haskett-Hany has been going to what is now Chase Bank on Lake Avenue and Colorado Boulevard since she was a child, and has always looked forward to seeing the mural of the Pasadena Rose parade on the wall. When she walked in one day to see it covered up by a wall, she was alarmed that it was hidden. Haskett-Hany, who is the Communications Director at the Pasadena Library, said the mural is one of the reasons she enjoys going to that bank. “They’ve made it so it’s very bank-like … and before it was a very special place to go to because you had that mural,” she said. “It didn’t matter how long the line was because you could enjoy the mural and there was always something to learn about it.” Haskett-Hany then con-
By Susan Motander
On Tuesday, December 6, 2009, the Trader Joe’s market in the Huntington Oaks Shopping Center was robbed at gun point. The suspects entered the store from the back door and held up the employees. Personal property was taken from the employees along with cash from the market. The suspects are described as three African American males in their mid twenties to mid thirties. They are tall, with medium builds and were wearing dark clothing at that time. The fled the robbery in a new model black Toyato Camry with paper license plates. The direction in which they fled is not known. No one was injured during the robbery. Anyone with information is urged to contact the Monrovia Police Department (626) 256-8000 and ask for the Detective Bureau.
Judge Gives Monrovia Its Anti-Gang Injunction
-Photo by Terry Miller
tacted the Pasadena Cultural Affairs Office, who has been working with Chase Bank to find a suitable relocation. “Having grown up with it, it means a lot to me,” she said. “More people other than (those) who know of it at the bank should be able to see it.” As a part of reconstruct-
ing the branch, the bank placed a wall to create a work area for employees that is out of sight of customers for security reasons, said Gary Kischner, spokesperson for the Pasadena branch. As a result, the mural is partially obscured to the public.
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A Superior Court Judge has issued a preliminary injunction against two Monrovia gangs. Judge David Yaffee of Los Angeles Superior Court granted the injunction Friday, December against 21 specifically-named members of the Du-Roc Crips gang and 17 members of the Monrovia Nuevo Varrio gang. Anti-gang injunctions are orders, issued by judges after hearings,that prohibit specifically identified individuals with proven gang affiliations from engaging in specific gang-related activities in specific geographical areas. Monrovia’s injunction specifies that the identified members of the two gangs cannot congregate in public,
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