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THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 2002
Volume 1, Issue 226
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Santa Monica Daily Press A newspaper with issues
Violence breaks out in Pico neighborhood Stray bullet lands at preschool; no one injured BY CAROLYN SACKARIASON Daily Press Staff Writer
NINETEENTH ST.
EIGHTEENTH ST.
SEVENTEENTH ST.
PICO BLVD .
DELAWARE
BULLET ROUTE
Santa Monica College
Woodland Cemetery
John Adams School
Carolyn Sackariason/Daily Press
It was business as usual at John Adams Child Development Center on Wednesday afternoon. A stray bullet from a shooting at 17th Street and Delaware Avenue traveled a half mile to where it hit an office window on Wednesday morning. The bullet managed to pass over the Santa Monica College campus. No one was injured.
Big Blue Bus kills elderly homeless man BY ANDREW H. FIXMER Daily Press Staff Writer
A Big Blue Bus fatally wounded a 70year-old homeless man Tuesday evening as he attempted to cross Ocean Avenue. According to eyewitnesses, the man had the right of way when the Big Blue Bus tried to make a left turn from Broadway as the traffic light was changing, though Santa Monica police investigators have officially ruled the incident an accident. “There is no indication of any wrongdoing,” said Lt. Frank Fabrega, a SMPD spokesman. “It is being considered an accident.” The route 1 bus, number 4023, struck the man at 7:32 p.m., sending him flying nearly 20 feet. Witnesses said the man was bleeding badly from his nose, ears and head — though the LA County Coroner’s Office has ruled the cause of death as “blunt chest trauma.”
Paramedics with the Santa Monica Fire Department transported the man to UCLA Medical Center where emergency room doctors pronounced him dead, according to an official with the coroner’s office. “It hit him squarely in the chest and a made a big sound that went ‘boom,’” said Andrew Trayhan, a witness who was waiting for a Line 1 bus nearby. “It sounded like a gunshot.” Police are not releasing the name of the deceased while they attempt to contact his next of kin. Big Blue Bus officials say it is against company policy to reveal the names of drivers involved in traffic accidents. Police and coroner officials described the victim as a “transient.” One homeless witness said the man went by the name of “Pops” and stayed predominantly in Venice Beach. “We knew him and he was homeless,” See ACCIDENT, page 5
Gunfire erupted in an east side neighborhood Wednesday morning, but no one was injured despite that one bullet traveled more than seven blocks and hit a pre-school. Santa Monica Police are looking for two Hispanic men driving a brown or rust colored mini-van, who witnesses say may have been involved in the shooting, which occurred at 17th Street and Delaware Avenue. SMPD responded at 8:39 a.m. to a call of shots fired in the alley between 17th Street and 18th Street on Delaware Avenue. Less than a minute later, while officers were en route, a call came from John Adams Child Development Center that a bullet hit an office window there. Officers responded to the pre-school within 35 seconds, said Lt. Frank Fabrega, who noted first priority for the SMPD was the childcare facility because of the presence of children there. Police responded to the shooting scene on Delaware Avenue within three minutes. All of the children were inside of the building when the stray bullet struck the window, which was only a few feet away from the pre-school supervisor’s desk. The supervisor, who declined to give her name
or say whether or not she was sitting at her desk at the time, said the children were told to “stay down low.” She fielded calls from worried parents Wednesday afternoon after they were informed by SMPD that a stray bullet landed at the school.
“It appears the shots came from the vehicle. We did not locate any victims.” — LT. FRANK FABREGA SMPD spokesman
“It was an isolated incident,” she said. “It could happen anywhere, and we are so grateful that no one was hurt.” The bullet traveled at least seven blocks to the south — from Delaware Avenue to Pico Boulevard, over Santa Monica College’s main campus and the pre-school’s outside courtyard before it was stopped by the office window, which did not break but was marked with a bullet hole. “A bullet can travel up to a mile,” Fabrega said. Police recovered one bullet at the preschool and plugged the hole in the window. Officers also discovered several empty shell casings and bullet fragments in the alleyway on Delaware Avenue. See SHOOTING, page 5
Wright pleads not guilty to 1998 Santa Monica murder BY ANDREW H. FIXMER Daily Press Staff Writer
A convicted felon who’s DNA has linked him to a 1998 Santa Monica murder plead not guilty to charges of brutally raping and killing a 20-year-old female victim. David Thomas Wright, 47, was arraigned Wednesday in a downtown Los Angeles Superior Court building. Wright has been charged with the June 14, 1998 rape and murder of Aviva Labbe, who was found sodomized and murdered in a walkway of a vacant Santa Monica home. A preliminary hearing date will be set when Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Ellen Aragon and
Wright’s public defender meet on Sept. 9 at a “scheduling” hearing. Until then, Wright is being held without bail. However, the prosecution believes the preliminary hearing will not take place for many months. “There’s a lot of evidence to go over,” said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office. Wright is already in the California state prison system serving a 6-year sentence for battery of a Santa Monica police officer during an unrelated incident, authorities said. In January, a jury found Wright guilty of battery, resisting arrest and failing to register himself as a See PLEAD, page 5