Riding with San Bernardino's Operation Safe Streets! (Press Enterprise July 21, 2007).

BS Ranch Perspective

Operation Safe Streets is a great Idea that seems to be a great movement that is working for San Bernardino, I am glad that the mayor Morris has taken such an Interest in the Crime in San Bernardino, and the long Life and exsistence with the Airport, and his attempt to try new things with the Police Department, and also trying to get businesses such as DHL Delivery, UPS, and FEDex, to come in and use the San Bernardino International Airport as a Hub for their Business and Package Delivery to the Inland Empire and the Moreno Valley..Etc Etc...

Morris has been by far the most progressive mayor that San Bernardino has had in a long time.

BS Ranch

Riding with San Bernardino's Operation Safe Streets

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01:24 AM PDT on Saturday, July 21, 2007

By PAUL LAROCCO
The Press-Enterprise

Survey: Do you think the ATF's presence will cut down on gun crime?

SAN BERNARDINO - Typical city nights, with their steady stream of reports to take, don't often allow Ryan Wicks to slowly roll his patrol car behind one of the Eastside's most notorious apartment complexes in search of misdoing.

But this wasn't a normal night for the San Bernardino police officer.

As one of 10 chosen for the department's Operation Safe Streets launch, he has been freed from speeding from call to call whenever his radio crackles.

Story continues below

Paul Alvarez / The Press-Enterprise

San Bernardino police Officer Ryan Wicks searches a vehicle during a traffic stop as part of Operation Safe Streets, a project that adds extra patrols in at-risk neighborhoods.

"If anyone's hanging out in a parked car right now, when it's 105 degrees," said Wicks, as he crept down the back alley in the graffiti-lined Guthrie projects, "they've got to be doing something."

Wicks will be there thanks to the operation in which San Bernardino officers work with the California Highway Patrol and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives special agents to reduce crime in neighborhoods chosen by statistical mapping.

Those include the Guthries and Waterman Gardens on the eastside, a corridor of old motels on 5th and G streets downtown, and the Westside's California Gardens, Little Zion Manor and Delmann Heights.

"Being there just expands the knowledge of the local officers working with us, and expands the knowledge of our officers working with them," said the CHP's San Bernardino commander, Capt. James Szabo. "It really forms some great networks."

San Bernardino Police Chief Michael Billdt agreed. He also emphasized that Operation Safe Streets officers will have a freedom most on normal patrols don't.

"They're completely proactive," Billdt said. "They're free from taking report calls, and they're in the most at-risk areas."

Operation Safe Streets was launched in 1994, but was suspended for several years until 2006, when it was brought back as the city's homicide rate increased.

The program will run for at least the next 90 days, Billdt said, and will involve the participating federal agency's Violent Crime Impact Team that arrived earlier this month to reduce the proliferation of illegal firearms in town.

For example, if an Operation Safe Streets officer finds weapons, federal agents on the street can immediately respond and begin ballistic checks that could link them to crimes.

"We've just got to get out there and develop leads," Wicks said of working with federal agents. "The more we're out there, the more people we're going to talk to, the more information we're going to get, and the more that's going to lead to."

On this night, Wicks was focusing on the Guthries, where a homicide had occurred three days earlier.

It is something Wicks said he couldn't usually do on normal patrols. Frequently, he'll notice suspicious men on the street as he's racing by with sirens blazing.

"They know if they see two of us zoom by with our lights on, that we're not paying attention to them," Wicks said. "So the second we pass, someone's getting robbed."

On Wednesday, however, Wicks wouldn't be called to any emergencies. That allowed him to hone-in on an East Date Street apartment complex he had been to many, many times.

About a week earlier, Wicks was the first to respond to a homicide there, in which police say a man knocked on his brother's door and promptly shot him three times in the head in front of his family.

On Thursday, after the first night of Operation Safe Streets, police went to the same complex and arrested an 18-year-old gang member suspected of killing a man earlier this month by blindly firing into a crowd at a nearby party.

So the idling Honda, parked oddly far from the curb, caught Wicks' attention.

The shirtless driver, upon noticing Wicks' unmarked patrol car, seemed to make a sudden U-turn.

He wasn't wearing his seatbelt, providing the probable cause for a stop.

"The possibilities are endless," Wicks later said of what was going through his mind at the time. "He could be the getaway driver for a shooting, with his homies inside just over there. He's definitely in position for a quick getaway."

It turns out the driver, 21-year-old Cory Doucet, was simply taking a minute to cool off after leaving work at a nearby pizzeria.

He was driving his mother's car, and explained to Wicks that he was working on taking care of his suspended license.

Doucet wasn't on parole, had no warrants, and had no weapons or drugs in his car. Wicks gave him a fix-it ticket for the license and failing to wear a seat belt.

"I could have easily have taken the car for 30 days, but he was getting off work, and not to be preferential, but there's a lot of people who don't even do that," Wicks said. "I'd hate to impound his car, have him miss work, lose his job, not be able to pay for it and resort to a life of crime to get it back."

The traffic stop was the most excitement Wicks had all shift. But he was sure to note, as the first night of Operation Safe Streets forged on, that the summer is young.

Reach Paul LaRocco at 909-806-3064 or plarocco@PE.com

Good Cop Bad Cop (SB Sun June 10, 2007) In 1949 San Bernardino's First Black Police Officer faced Trial in Shooting of Latino Man...

Good Cop Bad Cop

In 1949, San Bernardino's first black police officer faced a trial in the shooting of a Latino man

Melissa Pinion-Whitt, Staff Writer

Article Launched: 06/10/2007 12:00:00 AM PDT

SAN BERNARDINO - About a dozen young men outside a dance hall closed in on Johnnie Epps after the rookie policeman pushed one of the youths to the ground.

They were unhappy, some had been drinking, and Epps was alone. Within seconds, Epps' revolver fired, striking 20-year-old Ramon Rios in the back of the neck and killing him.

Most of the traces from that night on July 9, 1949, have long since vanished. The downtown Municipal Auditorium, where the dance was held, was torn down to make way for the Norman F. Feldheym Central Library. A black-and-white photo of Epps once on display at the San Bernardino Police Department disappeared when the department moved out of its Arrowhead Avenue station. And the only image his wife, Mariah

Epps

Jane Epps, has of him is a small, framed copy of that same photo.

Like former San Bernardino County Sheriff's Deputy Ivory J. Webb Jr., whose trial in the shooting of an off-duty airman continues next week, Epps was charged by the District Attorney's Office.

There are differences in the cases, to be sure, not least of which is the political and cultural climate of the times.

But there are similarities, too.

Mariah Epps, 81, pauses with a faraway look when asked about about her late husband. After all, it has been nearly sixty years.

"I've lived with this a long time," she said.

Epps, like Webb, was a black man, charged in the shooting of a Latino man. Rios, however, died in the shooting, and Epps was charged with manslaughter. Elio Carrion, the man shot by Webb at the end of a police chase in Chino, survived the shooting. Webb has been charged with attempted voluntary manslaughter.

For Epps' family, it was a traumatic time because, despite friends and family rallying to Epps' side, the incident sparked racial tensions and no one knew how the case would turn out.

"There was always a possibility of him going to jail," his wife said.

More than 100 people jammed into the courtroom for the preliminary hearing, forcing the judge to transfer the case to another department.

A judge dismissed the charge before the case went to trial.

Epps, the first black officer to work for the San Bernardino Police Department, feared for his family's safety after the incident.

"He thought it would affect his kids by him shooting this person of a different race," Epps said. "He thought it might affect his kids growing up in the community."

Thankfully, Epps says, that never became an issue. Three of the children were too young to go to school, and his wife was pregnant with twins. Most people had forgotten the case by the time the children grew older.

Mariah never heard from the family of Ramon Rios.

But Rios' death haunted Johnnie Epps.

Different times

Even in California's ethnic melting pot, tensions existed between racial groups in the 1940s. There were segregated neighborhoods, the occasional confrontation between blacks and Latinos, and 1943's Zoot Suit Riots.

"There's no question that from time to time there were tensions there," said Ralph L. Crowder, ethnic studies professor at UC Riverside. "Sometimes these tensions did flare into confrontations."

Public agencies, meanwhile, were trying to adapt to the changing times after World War II.

Across the country, city police agencies began integrating black officers into their departments. Most of the new officers were assigned to patrol black communities. If they did arrest a white person, the case was immediately turned over to a white officer, sometimes of lower rank, Crowder said.

Some segregation also existed in the Inland Empire. Mariah Epps, however, said she didn't see those issues that were occurring in Los Angeles and other parts of the country.

"The times were different," Mariah Epps said. "I didn't know anything about the gangs, kids killing each other. We didn't have to lock our doors."

She raised her children in the Waterman Gardens region of San Bernardino, an area now plagued with crime.

Before he met his wife, Johnnie Epps had been a military man, sneaking into the U.S. Army at 15 years old. He was "always a big boy" and the recruiters assumed he was 18, his wife says. After serving in World War II, he decided to try police work.

Though she described him as a jolly man who frequently cracked jokes, he also had a silent side. It was that side that masked any challenges he may have faced as the lone black officer at his new job at the San Bernardino Police Department.

"It was truly breaking the ice," Epps said. "I can imagine it was a lonely experience."

But his time in the military must have helped, she added, because many of his fellow officers were also from the military. That feeling of camaraderie followed him.

Two years into his new job, Epps was working off-duty as a peace officer at a Municipal Auditorium dance when he ran into a group of 16 people in front of the building. The men were trying to get into the dance, and Epps had been asked to clear them from the entrance.

During the confrontation, Epps - a broad-shouldered stocky man who stood at 5-feet-9 inches tall and weighed about 239 pounds - pushed a 17-year-old boy to the concrete floor. Articles from The Sun said Rios came to the aid of the boy and then exchanged words with Epps. Witnesses told police when Rios turned to walk down the steps, Epps struck him with his gun. The gun, which had been cocked when the crowd rushed him, went off.

Rios fell to the ground. Epps turned to Rios' brother, Ernest, and asked him if he "wanted the same medicine," Ernest Rios testified during Epps' preliminary hearing.

Epps issued a statement through his attorney after the shooting, saying "I am most sympathetic to the family of the deceased and feel certain that a thorough investigation of the incident will result in my complete exoneration."

Meanwhile, the incident shed light on concerns over police training. A former policeman wrote a letter to the editor of The Sun in response to the shooting, saying as much as 95 percent of San Bernardino's officers lacked firearms proficiency training. The department promised to eventually issue 50 practice rounds per month to each officer, according to the letter.

On July 26, 1949, San Bernardino County Justice of the Peace W.E. Balcom dismissed Epps' case, saying the officer was "acting in self defense in attempting to repel a young mob."

Returning to the army

The Police Department reassigned Epps to work at a correctional facility following the shooting. Despite being cleared of any wrongdoing, he only worked in the jail for several months and then gave up police work.

He rejoined the Army in September 1950 with a company that had just been activated to go fight in the Korean War.

His wife didn't know if his return to the military was because of the shooting. Again, hazy memories and her husband's silent side left gaps.

But Jack Hill, a platoon sergeant in the same company that Epps joined, assumed the officer-involved shooting played a role.

"I have a feeling it was his way of just getting away from all of it," he said.

Hill didn't know Epps prior to him joining the National Guard, but had read about him in the newspaper. Epps never spoke to him about his experiences as a policeman.

Though Epps was likely anxious to join his fellow soldiers in Korea, he never made it back into battle.

Four days after his 25th birthday, Johnnie Epps was in a car about nine miles east of Palmdale when the driver lost control and overturned. The vehicle rolled twice, throwing Epps out of the vehicle. Four other people, including three from San Bernardino, were injured.

Epps died at the scene.

The last time Mariah Epps saw her husband, he was heading out the door, but stopped to kiss one of his daughters before he left.

Mariah Epps leaned on her parents for support after her husband died. Eventually, she took a job at the San Bernardino County Library.

She never remarried.

"I was too busy raising my kids and I didn't have time to get married," she said.

But even though her children were too young to know their father, they've heard many stories about him through relatives.

The Epps family attended the 100-year celebration of the San Bernardino Police Department in 2005, where Johnnie Epps was recognized as the department's first black officer.

They place flowers on his grave at Pioneer Cemetery in San Bernardino every Memorial Day.

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BS Ranch Perspective

I love history, I know that I didn't leave much of a bump in history, I really don't care at this point in my life, I figure what the heck, who would miss me. I Think that it was great that the San Bernardino Police Department Gave the Oppertunty to Epps to work for a Police Department at a time when the Police was more Respected, before the Sixties made the turn. I am sorry that he was involved in that shooting and it ended up changing his life the way that it did. It was back in a time when there was no such thing as counciling. and it had to have been hard.

God Bless the Epps, Family for allowing his story to be told, Thank you.

BS Ranch

Suspects in Gun Thefts Fatally Shot (Whittier Daily News )

Suspects in gun thefts fatally shot

Stacia Glenn Staff Writer Whittier Daily News

Two of the four men suspected of stealing an arsenal of handguns from a San Bernardino gun shop were shot dead by police Friday during a shootout that followed a high-speed chase. Tobari Barnes, 26, of West Covina died at the scene. The other three suspects were arrested and taken to Loma Linda University Medical Center, where 20-year-old Isaiah Henderson of Diamond Bar died after surgery. Police refused to identify the other two suspects. No officers were wounded during the gunfight. Four men burst into Turner's Outdoorsman on West Orange Show Road at 8:40 p.m. Friday - just before quitting time - and held at least two clerks at gunpoint while stuffing 75 rifles, shotguns and handguns into black duffel bags. A San Bernardino police cruiser drove by as the suspects squealed away in their getaway car, a black Acura Legend, starting an eight-minute car chase that surpassed 90 mph. The cars careened through the streets of San Bernardino until the suspects trapped themselves in a cul-de-sac on Third Street in Highland. One police car T-boned the Acura as it rounded the cul-de-sac. The suspects bailed out of the car, pointing guns at the officers while one tried to hide in a large bin. An officer yelled "Shots fired!" before San Bernardino police fired their weapons, striking three of the men and shattering all four side windows of the Acura. The incident happened less than 10 hours after Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is sending a team of federal agents to San Bernardino to combat violent crime and take illegal firearms off the streets. Susan Raichel, ATF spokeswoman, said it is crimes like these that highlight the importance of the Violent Crime Impact Team initiative. "It keeps guns out of the hands of the wrong types of people that commit violent crime resulting in an unnecessary loss of life," she said. "We're taking away their tools of terrors." Police said they do not know why the men wanted the weapons. San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies were still investigating the scene at 1 p.m. Saturday. They customarily handle officer-involved shootings and also provide police service to Highland. The suspects might be responsible for several other Inland Empire robberies, said Lt. Rick Moyer. Officials suspect the men who robbed Turner's in San Bernardino might also be responsible for the robbery of Turner's in Riverside last month. ATF is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the Riverside case. Three masked men stormed into the store just before closing time May 10 and stole 20 handguns in a minute and a half. Those guns have yet to be recovered. Police believe they recovered all of the stolen weapons in San Bernardino, but an ATF agent will inventory all guns at Turner's to ensure none were lost in the chase. "We recovered 75 guns and you think, `Holy moley, did we just prevent 75 homicides?"' Raichel said. stacia.glenn@sbsun.com. (909) 386-3887 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- BS Ranch Perspective The Rialto Police Department had a Theft of the Guns and Ammo Store in Rialto in the Mid 90's During that Burglary that was interrupted, a shootout started, and in that shoot out luckily none of the Suspects were killed, and Rialto PD was able to apprehended all the suspects. It was a Very Successful Case for the New SCAT (Street Crime Attack Team) They got the tip called in early by a couple that had got wind of the burglary from two of the people that were planing the event. Once they got the time and the Date they passed it on to the Police Department. Then they went to work set up a surveillance and caught the crooks in action. Once the alarms were activated they were in trouble, but they had access to many of the guns in the store and they were not going to give themselves up. The gunfight was not long but it was remember able. Exciting that night, the shift went by fast and wow, we only worked an eight hour shift then and it went quickly. I am glad that no one at SBPD was hurt in that Shoot out, and justice was served on the crooks.  BS Ranch