Safety
The trial for a 2009 double homicide at Alvarado Bar and Grill continued Thursday in Martinez with testimonies from witnesses who described a common theme of fear of retaliation when cooperating with police.
Two Richmond Police officers took to 23rd Street on Monday to pass out flyers with information about a suspect wanted in multiple cases of abduction and rape.
Contra Costa County officials approved a budget of more than $20 million at a meeting in Martinez today to both continue operations in the jails, probation department and courts, as well as develop community partnerships geared around reentry. More than a year after California transferred responsibility for low-levels felons to county jurisdiction, the Community Corrections Partnership (CCP) unanimously approved $15.4 million of the total budget to continue operations and expand some county departments. The move came just in time before…
More than 12 million men and women were victims of rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner in the United States in 2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and Richmond hasn’t escaped the problem. Richmond Police Lt. Bisa French estimated that the RPD sees 20-30 domestic violence cases a month. STAND! For Families Free of Violence, which works with victims in Contra Costa County, receives more than 15,000 clients a year, said Gloria Sandoval, the group’s…
Mayor Gayle McLaughlin invited the community to the Richmond Public Library Friday night to honor the memory of this year’s homicide victims. More than 30 people attended the event. Chairs formed a circle providing a public forum for the mayor and the attendees who had stories to share about the year’s 18 homicides. “It’s people owning the neighborhood together,” McLaughlin said on ways to decrease crime and violence in the community. She focused on communities taking personal responsibility, being more…
The white-collar crime of identity theft, which has increased dramatically nationwide in the last decade, has not spared Richmond. Richmond Police Detective Jeffrey Whitson calls Richmond one of the identity theft epicenters of the West Coast. With the technological advances that come with smart phones, online banking, and other exploitative tools, Whitson said he’s getting far more cases across his desk. “It’s an epidemic,” Whitson said. Whitson said that from last November to the present he has seen more…
Over the last week and a half Richmond has seen a spike in homicides, adding three more killings to a relatively quiet year. Andre Cross, 34, of Fairfield stepped outside of a home on the 2800 block of McBryde Ave. around 10:30 p.m. to make a phone call and was shot multiple times by someone waiting outside, said Richmond police spokeswoman Lieutenant Bisa French. “It was not random,” said French. “We believe he was an intended target. There was a…
When you think of a jail, what comes to mind? Bars. A cell without windows. Agitated prisoners. Maybe I watch too much TV. But when you go to the West County Detention Facility in Richmond, be prepared for something different. This is a model jail where inmates can get a high school diploma or learn a trade. It’s also overcrowded, and its operations are threatened. “So before you go outside to the main part of the jail, I would like…
The trial for a 2009 double homicide in a Richmond restaurant opened Wednesday in Martinez with District Attorney Aron DeFerrari describing a brutal execution motivated by rivalry between Norteño and Sureño gang members, and attorneys representing the defendants describing their clients as having been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Steven Miranda and Ignacio Ruiz are charged with two counts of murder plus conspiracy to commit murder and gang offenses for their roles in the shooting of Alvaro…