Despite Dip in Valley Crime, Tragedies Take Their Toll

Although statistically the San Fernando Valley was a safer place this year, there was no shortage of tragedy.

Adding to fears, the year began and ended with the killings of peace officers, the very professionals on whom residents depend to keep their communities safe.

In February, a rookie officer with the Los Angeles Police Department was gunned down outside a Northridge house by a teen-ager who also killed his father before killing himself. And this month, a fatal gun battle erupted between a robber and a Los Angeles County Safety Police officer in the parking lot of a Canoga Park shoe store.

Yet despite a number of high-profile crimes, 1994 statistics through Nov. 30--the latest available--show that homicides fell 44% from the same period last year, from 129 to 72.

In fact, more people were killed in car accidents in the Valley than were slain. Rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults and all property crimes except auto burglaries also fell.

The Los Angeles Police Department attributes this year’s drop in violent crime to the Northridge earthquake, a gang truce and the impact of community-based policing. It also happens to follow a nationwide trend.

But despite the reductions in overall crime, the public’s perception of violence has grown, in large part due to the random nature of many high-profile crimes and because many feel their middle-class Valley neighborhoods are no longer immune.

For Kenneth Brondell, a retired LAPD detective who has lived in the Valley for nearly four decades, 1994 was the year that random violence struck home.

“It used to be there weren’t as many guns, and people just weren’t as violent,� said Brondell, the father of slain LAPD Officer Christy Lynne Hamilton, who died in the line of duty this year. “But nowadays, if you just happen to be walking down the street, driving your car or shopping at a mall, you become a victim.�

The slaying of Hamilton, a 45-year-old LAPD rookie, was one of the year’s first murders.

A bullet tore through an opening in Hamilton’s bulletproof vest and into her chest as she responded to a report of gunshots at the Northridge home of 17-year-old Christopher Golly.

Hamilton became a victim of Golly’s plans to kill his father, 49-year-old Steven Golly, then ambush police officers responding to the crime, police said.

Christopher Golly carried out his fantasy on Feb. 22, gunning down his father and shooting at three patrol cars with a military-style semiautomatic rifle. The gunfire struck Hamilton, who became only the second female LAPD officer to die in the line of duty.

The troubled youth, whom friends described as a drug user, added a twist to his plan by killing himself.

Compared to last year, robberies fell 17.1%, rapes dropped 14.3%, followed by a slight decrease in aggravated assaults, according to LAPD statistics through November. All property crimes, with the exception of auto burglaries, also dropped this year, including a 16.2% decline in auto thefts and a 9.3% decrease in burglaries.

In April, LAPD officials gave residents a rare glimpse into some of the worst pockets of vice and violence in the Valley, releasing detailed reports on high-crime areas.

Many of the crime zones were close to Sepulveda and Van Nuys boulevards, which have long been known as magnets for prostitution and drug traffic. Much of the violence was blamed on spreading gang activity, increased drug use and a growing pool of new victims--illegal immigrants.

As a result, the LAPD’s five Valley divisions began for the first time to systematically track criminals and crime trends by computer.

The high-tech help comes at an important juncture for the San Fernando Valley, where no neighborhood seemed safe this year:

* In August, three decomposed bodies were discovered sealed inside steamer trunks in a Northridge storage facility. This week, police identified the victims as Eri Tri Darmawan, Gina Sutan Aswar and Surish Michandani, each of whom had been beaten. Police have issued an arrest warrant for 30-year-old Harnoko Dewantono from Indonesia, suspected of committing the murders.

* In October, a gunman fatally shot Reuben Ortiz, 36, at a weekend softball game in Van Nuys. Ortiz and three other people had gone in search of a man who moments earlier had threatened to kill a group of their friends and family members inside a Van Nuys-Sherman Oaks Park restroom. After spotting the man at a bus stop, Ortiz approached him armed with a baseball bat. The man fired a gun, killing Ortiz and wounding Andrew Reyes, 37.

* A house fire led police to the discovery in October of Berneda McMackin, 77, who had been beaten and stabbed inside her Van Nuys home. Her assailant apparently set the house on fire to hide the crime. A few days later and a few miles away, 72-year-old Aliza Levi died in a similar fashion after startling a burglar.

* Earlier this month, Thaddeus Jackson, a popular North Hollywood middle-school teacher, was charged with murder in connection with the beating death of a man who accidentally drove into a parked truck outside Jackson’s Reseda apartment. Jackson was one of six men charged with using pool cues, chunks of wood and their fists and feet to beat Julio Aguilar, 23, to death and injure his brother, Jose Aguilar, 21.

This year, violence also broke out at Universal CityWalk, where eight people were arrested after authorities used pepper spray to break up a melee between rival gang members who fought with fists and chairs.

Celebrities even joined the fray.

Oscar-winning actor Jack Nicholson was charged in February with misdemeanor vandalism and assault for allegedly using a golf club to smash the windshield of a Mercedes-Benz during a traffic dispute in North Hollywood, according to city prosecutors. The charges were later dropped.

Actor James Caan, famous for his role as a hotheaded gangster in “The Godfather,� was released on his own recognizance in March after being arrested because a rap musician accused him of pulling a gun during an argument, police said. No charges were filed.

It was also a year of new crime trends. Thieves sought to get rich by stealing car air bags, cloning cellular telephones and hunting Valley residents with Rolex watches.

During the last two weeks, LAPD officials have reported as many as a dozen follow-home robberies. Thieves have targeted diners and holiday shoppers and followed them to their homes, where they have been robbed at gunpoint of their purses, gifts and jewelry.

Other criminals chose simpler ways to make a quick buck this year.

In October, police arrested Richard Siddons, 33, of Tarzana, on suspicion of rigging his bicycle to fall apart upon impact in a series of staged accidents. Motorists began phoning in complaints to police that they had been involved in traffic accidents with a bicyclist who asked for money following the crashes.

Siddons was convicted and sentenced to a year in jail after pleading no contest to theft charges.

Meanwhile, lawmakers cracked down on criminals with tough new methods.

In August, Robert E. Hardy, a 29-year-old burglar with two prior convictions, became the first person in the San Fernando Valley to be convicted and sentenced to life in prison under the new “three strikes� law.

And just as it began, the year ended with the killing of a peace officer.

Thomas Worley was sitting inside his car parked outside a Canoga Park strip mall waiting for his wife to pick out a pair of shoes. Minutes later, he became the 11th peace officer to be gunned down in Southern California during the last 18 months.

“He gave his life,� said Clifton Williams, president of the 400-member Los Angeles County Safety Police Assn. “Sometimes we don’t know why the world is like it is.�

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Traffic Toll

It was a bloody year on the streets of the San Fernando Valley, where more people died in traffic accidents than were slain .

Traffic accidents in the Valley claimed the lives of 84 people from January through November, a 9% increase over the same period in 1993. Following are additional Valley traffic statistics for the first 11 months of the year:

* Driving under the influence of alcohol arrests: 4,285

* Traffic collisions: 15,555. Of those, 1,113 were alcohol-related

* Moving-traffic citations issued: 108,831

Source: LAPD traffic analysis unit of the Traffic Coordination Section.