Police Chief: Drive-By Shooting Was Gang Related

A shooting that wounded a Monrovia woman Saturday night was carried out by three gang members, two of whom the city has served notice of its gang injunction, Monrovia Police Chief Jim Hunt told the City Council Tuesday.

The three men were arrested shortly after the shooting after police in the area heard the gun shots and tracked down their vehicle using witness desctiptions. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office filed formal attempted murder charges against all three Tuesday morning, Hunt said.

"Hopefully all three of these individuals will get long felony sentences," Hunt said.

Hunt said the gang members fired in the area because it was "a rival gang location." The victim is expected to recover, he said.

Hunt was addressing the council to present a bi-annual report on the progress of the city's anti-gang injuntion, which the city first obtained in December 2009. Hunt said the city had seen a slight increase in gang crimes so far in 2012 compared to last year, an uptick he attributed to the state's realignment of prisons, which allowed for the release of about 10,000 inmates back into southern California to relieve prison overcrowding.

"There’s been some increase in crime city-wide, I would say primarily due to realignment and the fact that we've had a number of criminals released in the last 10 months," Hunt said.

Monrovia Police officers have already served 40 gang members with the gang injunction this year after serving 31 in all of 2011. Hunt said the increase was attributable to the department's coordinated effort with the Sheriff's Department to serve members of the Duroc Crips, a local gang involved in the spike of gang violence in the area in late 2007 and early 2008, in unincorporated areas around the city.

Police have recorded 12 gang crimes so far this year committed by Monrovia's two primary gangs, Duroc and Monrovia Nuevo Varrio. The city had a total of 18 gang related crimes last year, according to Hunt's report.

Hunt noted that the total number of gang related crimes over the last two years fell dramatically compared to 2010 and 2009, when there were 78 and 40 gang crimes recorded, respectively.