More than half of San Bernardino homicide victims in May associated with gangs

More than half of San Bernardino homicide victims in May associated with gangs
By Ryan Hagen, The (San Bernardino County) Sun
Posted: 06/04/2012 05:29:29 PM PDT

Of the 21 people who were killed in May in San Bernardino, 13 were associated with street gangs and seven were violating their parole, according to San Bernardino police.

Assistant Police Chief Ernie Lemos briefed the San Bernardino City Council this afternoon about the May homicides, as a follow-up on conversations Chief Robert Handy has had with the council.

Lemos told the council that 21 people were killed in 17 individual events in May. Nineteen of the 21 victims were Latino or African American, he said.

Only one of the homicides has been east of Waterman Avenue.

"Immediately after every homicide we evaluate the potential for retaliation," Lemos said. The Department's Narcotics and Gang units are heavily involved and trying to keep potential victims off street during high-crime times.

Police have made nine arrests out of the 17 events, Lemos told Mayor Patrick Morris when he inquired about successes.

Ward 1 Councilwoman Virginia Marquez asked Lemos if there had been any female victims. There have been two, Lemos said.

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Looks like Lemos spilled the beans.....Kind of ironic from someone like him.

And it has always been a well-known fact that most of the homicides in the city occur in the west and east sides, nothing surprising about that. From the CG's west to the Waterman Gardens east marks the boundaries of where the bulk of it happens.

I remember not too long ago the West was the murder side. You could get yo hustle on EastIE wit it but the West was no no land if u wasn't from there, and sumtimes even if u were. Niggaz was gettin killed daily for the longest and if not daily atleast every weekand fa sho.

dstrm300 wrote:I remember not too long ago the West was the murder side. You could get yo hustle on EastIE wit it but the West was no no land if u wasn't from there, and sumtimes even if u were. Niggaz was gettin killed daily for the longest and if not daily atleast every weekand fa sho.

The westside, statistically speaking, is still the area of the city that experiences more overall crime, especially in terms of violent crime. But that seems to be largely due to the fact of how it's neighborhoods are orientated - every area is gang turf so naturally, more turmoil results from that.

East of the 215 is different in that regard in that most of it is largely unoccupied, but can still get heated depending on what's going on in the streets. Lots of things that happen east of the 215 to Waterman, all in that little section, is spill over from the west side. But right now those streets are jumping.

In that little area between Arrowhead to Waterman, probably no more than an 8 - 10 block area, there's been like 12 or 13 homicides, the west side has had 7 by comparison. But again, these things fluctuate and change with the circumstances in the streets.

From the 1980's until around the early 2000's, the westside was the undisputed killings field of the city. One year, in the early 90's, there were over 50 murders on the westside. In an area that is only like 3 or 4 square miles max and has a population of only 20 - 25,000 people.

But I would say that San Bernardino, at least before last month, has been relatively calm in the past 4 - 5 years. Crime has gone down A LOT. It looks like nationwide crime may be picking up though.

i'd even go as far to say 1980 to around 05/06.