Downtown Weekly Los Angeles

Page 4

VOL 16 NO 02 - DECEMBER 23RD - DECEMBER 29TH, 2021 DTLAWEEKLY.COM.COM

Murder at Banc of America Stadium by Jackson Roberts

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ast Saturday, West Coast rapper Drakeo the Ruler was fatally wounded in an altercation just before his performance at the Once Upon a Time Festival held at Banc of America Stadium at Exposition Park.

However, police are now hinting that the rapper may have been ambushed. Right before Drakeo was to perform, a huge fight broke out around 8:30 p.m. Video shows Drakeo caught in a scuffle in the roadway behind the staging area while trying to escape a melee of punches. While members of his entourage managed to escape through an opening in the fence, Drakeo is seen being dragged back into the brawl, where he’s jumped by a crowd of men only to sustain a fatal wound to the neck with a sharp object. Officers from the California Highway Patrol (CHP), Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), and Los Angeles Fire Twenty-eight-year-old Drakeo, whose real name was Department responded. Darrell Caldwell, was admired Drakeo wa transported by many for his lyrical talents. to the local hospital, where After years of being in trouble he would later die from his with the law for felony crimes injuries. Live Nation decided to end and recently being released the concert early. Snoop from jail in 2020, he had Dogg stated publicly; he left made public statements about getting his life in order. the premises immediately Focused and now performing following the cancellation. As concertgoers took to in front of thousands of social media, more eyewitness people, he was looking forward to a promising career accounts were made public. Some tweets and posts and a chance to leave his claimed the event, peppered gangster feuds behind him. with rival gang affiliates, was Amongst his peers, with fans awarding him the title of a potential powder keg with long waits in line for food and LAs face of Hip Hop, Drakeo beverage, unscrutinized covid was headed towards major protocols, and areas with fame and stardom. latent gaps in security. On this day, Drakeo would Others claimed they felt share the stage with over safe, were honored by the 50 of West Coast Hip Hop’s biggest legends, including the concept, and the opportunity to witness such legendary show’s co-producer Snoop performers, United by p Dogg, along with 50cent, Ice Cube, Too Short, Bone Thugs three separate stages that, N Harmony, Cypress Hill, and for the most part, from 11am to 8:30pm, went on without Parliament-Funkadelic. incident.

Meet LAPD's First FilipinoAmerican Deputy Chief LAPD Chief Michel Moore has announced the upcoming promotion of Commander Donald Graham to the rank of Deputy Chief.

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ommander Graham will become the first Filipino-American Deputy Chief in the Los Angeles Police Department’s history. Commander Graham was born in Manhattan, New York, and came to California when he was a teenager. His family moved to the San Fernando Valley in the City of Los Angeles. After high school, he attended Los Angeles Valley College. In 1992, he was elected President of the Student Union. He became the president and chief lobbyist for the California Students Association of Community Colleges, representing the nearly quartermillion community college students in the 14 campuses of the Southern California Region. During his final semester at Los Angeles Valley College, he went to work at the Campus Police Office and discovered a new way to serve his community. The experience of working around police officers led Commander Graham to join the Los Angeles Police Department in November 1995. Commander Graham has worked in all four bureaus of the Department and has taken on numerous assignments. He was part of the architect team that revamped the Safer Cities Initiative (SCI) in Skid Row to the Resources

Enhancement Services and Enforcement Team (RESET), creating a template for the CityWide creation of the Homeless Outreach and Proactive Engagement (HOPE) team. At HOPE, Commander Graham worked with numerous government and private agencies to stem the tide of violent crime against people experiencing homelessness. On December 25, 2016, Commander Graham was transferred to North Hollywood Area and promoted to Area Commanding Officer. During his two and a half years at North Hollywood, he worked with a strong leadership and supervisory team, a supportive community, and strong volunteer corps, as well as a staff of hard-working and dedicated officers who presided over two straight years of crime reduction. On July 31, 2019, Commander Graham became the first Filipino-American to be sworn in as a Los Angeles Police Commander. He was appointed by Chief Moore to be the Department’s Homeless Coordinator under the Office of Operations. Commander Graham is currently the Commander of Transit Services Group.


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