Officers involved in shooting near 30th and Figueroa streets
A DPS-involved shooting occurred on West 30th Street near the intersection of Shrine Place after officers confronted a robbery suspect on Wednesday at 12:40 a.m., according to Dept. of Public Safety Capt. David Carlisle.
Kristy Pyke | Daily Trojan
[Update 3:11 a.m.] Two male and two female students were walking westbound on 28th Street from Figueroa Street when a black male suspect approached them and demanded their property, according to the security officer standing outside Pi Beta Phi sorority house on The Row. The females gave their property to the suspect, who ran through a parking lot to 30th Street, where he was confronted by DPS officers. The two male students ran after the suspect and helped direct nearby LAPD officers to the scene. Another suspect was waiting in a nearby car.
According to Carlisle, DPS confronted the suspect after the suspect demanded students’ property and displayed a handgun near 28th and Figueroa streets. The suspect sustained a non-life-threatening gunshot wound during the confrontation. No students or DPS officers were harmed.
[Update: 9:40 a.m.] The suspect was a black male described as 5-foot-8 and 160 pounds, according to the DPS incident resolution. After a DPS officer became aware of the situation, he chased the suspect on foot and cornered him on 30th Street with the assistance of LAPD officers. The DPS officer fired one shot at the suspect’s leg. The suspect’s handgun and the student’s property were recovered.
The Los Angeles Police Department took the suspect into custody and is investigating the incident. The LAPD also set up a command post near the scene of the altercation.
DPS declared the area safe at 2 a.m.
David Lowenstein and Giovanni Osorio contributed to this report.
It is incredible to me that this thug tried to rob these 4 students today. Doesn’t he realize that cops and campus police will be extra vigilant after the killings here last week? Are the criminals here that brazen, stupid, or desperate? I guess he’s all of the above!
Did I miss something? What happened to … “Another suspect was waiting in a nearby car” It is not clear if they caught that person as well????
I heard the guys that chased the armed robber were Pikes.
No dude, that was Teague and his bros chasing that chump!
Wow Parent of Freshman, if you are going to base your entire perception and the reputation of an institution on two isolated incidents without taking into account all of the good that this school has to offer, than maybe it’s best if your kid doesn’t attend SC.
Praise God for DPS
Who else thinks the violence around campus has gotten out of control? Anyone want to help start an initiative or some sort of campaign to call for increased security near campus? Countless cases of burglaries, harassment, theft, public indecency, machete-weilding attacks on students on the row, sexual assaults, and now even the deaths of 2 innocent students and NOTHING has changed. The fact of the matter is nothing will ever change until students, and our tuition-paying parents demand it.
Actually crime is down per the FBI stats. It’s just when something happens near us we perceive it to be more.
My kid is admitted, we visited the campus at April 10, 2012, the day right before the 2 Chinese kids got killed. we spent a few hours walking around in campus and outsie the campus and left LA back to SF bay area. I was shocked when I started google USC and tried to do some deep resarch on USC in the early morning, April 11. my kid refused to talk about the USC acceptance. one of my kid’s high school classmates visited the campus earlier and stayed in the boy’s dorm for one night. he said that there was a party going on all night long right next to dorm and people drunk and vomitted everywhere in the shared dorm area.
now what can we do? turn down the admit offer, that’s it.
Hey Max,
If USC is so safe, why don’t you live down here in this terrifc neighborhood in this terrific off-campus housing, you don’t provide, surrounded by thugs?
Hey Max, are you there? Anything at all to say about any of this? Max?
Great job DPS!
I am waiting for Al Sharpton to be outraged that a law enforcement officer shot a black man. Retarded, politically correct stances are going to be why crime is never taken seriously in LA – and that is why students will have to be the victims of that retarded policy. The only reason many people with means do not live in this area is because it is a ghetto war zone
After reading this thread, I say if Pepperdine was able to move its campus to Malibu to get away from the crimes, let’s start a donation drive to move USC to Rancho Palos Verdes so that the students could be safe and Nikias could have a really nice short commute as well! :-)
Shoot to kill period.
South Central is a war zone full of thugs. The only real solution is to militarize the area surrounding USC. Security cameras at every street corner, DPS/LAPD patrols with semi-automatic weapons, clear and enforced boundaries between USC and the jungle around it. Keep the animals out, keep USC students safe.
This guy was from Compton. Leave the local residents out of it.
Great job DPS!
Sounds like DPS needs a little time on the practice range. LAPD never shoots someone in the leg or below the waist for that matter. Nevertheless, I’d buy that guy a yaeger shot at the 90.
In the last month, I was assaulted by a crackhead at a Mobil on figueroa, recently had to call police because a man was beating his girlfriend right past the 9-0 (non-USC), and then the callous murders of Ming and Ying, and now this Compton gang member coming and brazenly robbing these students… a lot of people don’t realize the amount of crime that happens around here because DPS only sends out certain alerts… (if any!!!)- I sure didn’t get a Trojan alert about this… just the incident resolution…if they sent an email for all the crimes that happened around campus…. our emails would be overloaded…
The Mobil on Fig and Adams? What time of day was that?
I go to Popeyes across the street a lot, and there are always LAPD officers or Sherff’s deputies hanging out there. Cops love their Popeyes too, I guess.
There’s an Expo Line stop near there also. We can’t have crackheads assaulting folks once the Expo Line is up and running.
I am deeply saddened by the tragic deaths and that you were assaulted, but how ignorant can you be to assume that the guy was a crackhead and that the other guy is a Compton Gang member? I’m sorry, but being a student at USC you should be smarter than that. Things happen…how bad the area surrounding USC is is no secret! It’s people like you who give us a bad name.
alright PC police!! cant wait till a crackhead assaults you so you can fight him off with social awareness!
“how had the area surrounding USC is is no secret!”
Unfortunately for students from out of the LA area, USC has done a great job of hiding that secret.
Go here for more info – name of the suspect is Jeremy Hendricks, a well known Compton gang member out on parole.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/04/usc-robbery-.html
(1) It’s pretty easy to tell when someone is a crackhead.
(2) The LA Times determined that the individual shot last night was from a Compton gang.
I’m a student at USC, and I’m pretty smart. You, on the other hand, are not.
Won’t somebody please think of the crackheads?!
What are these kids doing walking the streets of LA so late at night??? People need to remember….”USC is in the middle of the ‘hood”….use common sense people.
It’s common for USC students to still be out late at night – sometimes it’s because we are studying and sometimes it’s because we’re partying.
According to the news report, Wu and Gu were returning home from studying in the library when they were killed.
It’s just not reasonable to expect students to always stay in the DPS patrolled area and go home by 9.
Its dumb to enter the DPS patrolled areas to commit a crime. Your chances of success drop considerably.
Unfortunately criminals are not generally known to be smart people!
Would you also blame the victim and ask a girl why she was wearing a short skirt when she was raped?
Go here for more info – name of the suspect is Jeremy Hendricks, a well known Compton gang member out on parole.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/04/usc-robbery-.html
See what I mean? In Los Angeles, our politicians are so afraid of being called a racist if they are hard on crime that they have to pretend gangbangers are good people with bad PR. Slepp well parents – your children are living in a neighborhood infested with criminals and the City of LA is in no hurry to act on it – since if they act on it they have to admit there is a real problem in the first place. Also – just go to the Megan’s Law website and see how many registered sex offenders live in walking distance to the campus. I guess this area is home to a high concentration of sex offenders as well as violent criminals.
There are numerous registered sex offenders who live within walking distance of any campus, landmark, or building. There are several in Beverly Hills and Hollywood as well.
Have you seen the disparity in the number of sex offenders by USC as opposed to say UCLA? How about Pepperdine or UC Santa Barbara?
Once again, some guy who’s not actually from the neighborhood.
These knuckleheads must view USC students as ATM machines. Just drive north several miles and make a withdrawal.
LAPD/USC need to figure out how to make CRIMINALS feel unsafe in the area.
“The suspect was a black male described as 5-foot-8 and 160 pounds”
Well I guess that narrows things down a bit…
Fight on DPS
Wow, if you guys think the area around USC is unsafe I would hate to see you in a part of Los Angeles that is actually bad. Take a look at a crime map before you run your mouth all over the place.
Crime map shows 99 murders in the USC neighborhood during the last 5 years:
http://projects.latimes.com/homicide/search/?address=2700%20Raymond%20Ave,%20Los%20Angeles,%20CA%2090007,%20USA&lat=34.0309102&lng=-118.2980541&g=Geocodify
Crime map shows 3 murders during the same time frame in Rancho Palos Verdes where Nikias has his house:
http://projects.latimes.com/homicide/neighborhood/rancho-palos-verdes/
The USC neighborhood has even more killings than other trouble prone L.A. neighborhoods such as Gardena and Compton!
The crime statistics shows USC neighborhood is dangerous!
That map extends as far North as Olympic and Normandie.
I’d like to see the crime rates within USC’s patrol area, which I think is roughly the area USC folks are referring to when they think of USC’s neighborhood.
Here’s a map of the neighborhood that USC is actually located in: http://projects.latimes.com/homicide/neighborhood/university-park/
4 murders in the past 5 years; 1 more than Palos Verdes.
USC’s neighborhood:
http://projects.latimes.com/mapping-la/neighborhoods/neighborhood/university-park/crime/
Over the last three months, University Park averaged 1.8 violent crimes and 20.5 property crimes per week.
Compare to Rancho Dominguez:
Over the last six months, the rate of 467.2 crimes per 10,000 people is higher than in nearby Carson and Compton.
Compare to Compton:
Over the last six months, the rate of 180.3 crimes per 10,000 people is higher than in nearby Paramount, Carson, Willowbrook, Lynwood and East Compton and lower than Rancho Dominguez and West Compton.
So before you throw around the word “ghetto” like you know what you’re talking about, dig a little bit deeper. Also, I don’t understand how Nikias’s home has anything to do with it. If I had a choice, I wouldn’t live on campus either. Housing costs are exorbitant, unless you like paying $1500 per month to live in a closet, and the noise levels are ridiculous. Most people who live near campus could easily afford to live further away but choose to live within walking distance.
Your USC map and it’s crime statistics are the PR garbage that USC like to throw out to the outside world.
Guess what, many students like me live and have to walk outside that little DSP patrolled area!!!
I think Wu and Gu was killed at 2717 Raymond Ave where she lived, outside of your little map!
So I guess their murders shouldn’t be counted according to you!
Disgusting PR!
Furthermore:
http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2006Oct30/0,4670,CityCrimeListGlance,00.html
Los Angeles is #250, a decent spot for a city of its size. Compton is #368.
My map was a response to the Palos Verdes map. USC students have chosen to live west of Vermont for the cheaper rents, and USC has followed by bringing more security resources to those areas.
But the fact remains that those areas are not as safe as the areas patrolled by USC.
I live west of campus and I feel much safer walking there at night than north of campus. I feel safer walking around USC at night than I do anywhere else in Los Angeles. There are security guards on just about every street corner and DPS patrols a fairly large area.
If USC students had been attacked in any way in Beverly Hills or Downtown, would people still blame DPS/USC for not patrolling a large enough area?
Anonymous – Your map and it’s statistics also conveniently left out area where many USC students live and walk.
Again Wu and Gu killings would not be counted in your statistics because it occurred outside of your little DPS patrolled area!
Again PR whitewash!
Also just because people choose to live around the USC neighborhood for convenience, are you saying they deserve to be robbed and murdered?
Where administrators live is a sign whether they themselves believe the PR garbage they throw out to the students and their parents.
No one deserves to be robbed and/or killed. But some areas are safer (and more expensive) than others.
Believing that the USC area is safe and wanting to live in a giant house overlooking the Pacific aren’t mutually exclusive.
However, it would be interesting to know whether Max Nikias’s daughters lived in the neighborhood while they were students at USC.
I like how “Anonymous” has mastered the art of sophistry. Nice job comparing DTLA and Beverly Hills to Raymond & 27th (which is only 1 mi from Gate 5 or 6).
I wonder where the suspect is from? Seems that prior crimes involved people not from the neighborhood, but from places like Signal Hill (Long Beach) and Inglewood.
The neighborhood is unsafe because criminals think they can target USC students without much repercussion.
This isn’t the first time people got robbed on the row. But it’s the first time I’ve ever heard of the perp getting shot. Hopefully it sends a message; too bad criminals aren’t apt to listen.
10 years ago the most a strong arm robber would get is a backpack full of books and maybe a phone. Now they know most SC students are carrying around a few hundreds if not thousands of dollars of electronic equipment. We are going to see more and more of these strong arm robberies unless USC and the City of Los Angeles are not afraid to stop being so politically correct and deal with this issue head on. USC is so afraid to call out the truth that we are living in the middle of the ghetto. I do not care how many frozen yogurt shops you have – we are in the ghetto.
I swear, LA and USC treats crime like a Brinks/Broadview Home Security commercial. Of course they pretend all dangerous criminals look like young, white good looking out of work actors…
The fact a Trojan alert did not go out last night is ridiculous. How many students might have avoided the area entirely if they received an alert. USC is obviously afraid to issue such an alert because they do not want to contribute to more PR about this area being a dangerous location.
Excellent point, Ras. Downtown has seen a recent spike in cellphone-related crimes.
http://blogdowntown.com/2012/04/6693-cellphone-thefts-up-32-in-downtown-compared
To clarify, I think your first 2 sentences are excellent. Not sure what to make of the rest of your psot.
I’m really frightened by all the crimes around the USC neighborhood.
I guess I should’ve paid more attention to the surrounding area when I visited the campus after I was accepted by USC.
Though some of these neighborhood houses look historic, many of the houses have metal bars on the windows and doors! Now I realize that they are there for good reasons!
When Nikias was promoted, USC gave him a place in San Marino so he didn’t have to commute from his home in Rancho Palos Verdes.
I think USC should make Nikias live in the neighborhood where all of us poor graduate students are forced to live.
Maybe then Nikias will be more motivated to provide more housing and better security for the students!
I came here to study but I am scared and distracted by the constant Trojan alerts and crimes.
This is not why my parents sent me here to USC!
I think we students deserve a safer environment to pursue our study.
You make an excellent point – I wish USC would publish stats on how many of the Faculty and Admin actually lives in the North University Park neighborhood.
Yea I think USC administrators are a bunch of hypocrites!
They tell us that the USC neighborhood is safe for students!
Well if it’s so safe why doesn’t Nikias live here too!
After all, his commute would be even shorter!
Stuck at USC, I completely agree with you. Graduate students have had a huge role in making many of the discoveries fueled USC’s rapid rise in the ratings. Many of them are brilliant students from outside the US that Nikias and other USC administrators recruit to come here. USC needs to accept some responsibility for the safety of these graduate students. If USC encouraged a developer to build a very nice high rise apartment building across the street from USC and then partially subsidized the rent for those graduate students who are not wealthy, would grad students live there? This could be a highrise for grad students only and it would be very nice. USC grad students need attractive and safe housing very near the labs and libraries where they often work late into the night. I can’t think of a better use for a small part of USC’s massive $3.23 billion endowment that taking care of its graduate students.
The two shootings couldn’t come at a worse time for the university- just before the May 1 acceptance deadline . There goes the yield.
Are you kidding me?
This is a war zone!
you have never actually been to a real war zone, have you…
DPS should get a medal.
The message went out loud and clear.
Even the dumbest of the dumb can understand the message of a gunshot hitting a street thug.
Unless the university puts a fence around the area this kind of thing will happen on ocassion. The school is in the ‘hood. You can pretend its not but it is. Now that some white kids from the Row were threatened the school will take more serious preventive action.
Touche
We have come a long way to improve the conditions at USC and the surrounding area. We are not going to stop now! What are we going to do? pack our bags and leave to Malibu, just like Peperdine did? The time is right now to dismantle gang and criminals in the area. I would get a court order to bring the National Guard to search every home for weapons in all of south central simultaneously, a raid. Install cameras in every intersection, we have to fight fire with fire, If our students are going to be unsafe we rather pack our bags and leave to Malibu.
HAHAHAHAHAH YEAH CHARLIE! Please, just pick up the Galen Center and your recently renovated campus to the beach….what a joke of a Trojan you are fersure.
Perhaps USC could buy up a couple of centrally located blocks in the ghetto and pay for the building of a huge LAPD substation and well-equipped police academy?
well they ran after him?? what a bunch of idiots.. Must have been some poor little kid, he didn’t have a weapon on him and they shot him?
According to the article…
“According to Carlisle, DPS confronted the suspect after the suspect demanded students’ property and displayed a handgun near 28th and Figueroa streets.”
So he did have a weapon on him.
Are you serious? It clearly states that he displayed a handgun.
This proves how great the DPS is? What world are u living in Mr. Human? All this proves is that we live a in a little island of denial in one of the poorest parts of the city and most people would rather do keg stands on the row than think about the more depressing reality outside our doors. Two killings and an attempted armed robbery in one week? Yeah, nothing to see here, just move along. Sheesh!
well considering i was at the 90 tonight and walk along these streets quite often, safe is the last thing i feel right now. come on usc. two kids were shot last week, none of us knew for six hours, and you still haven’t stepped up your notification system? what a joooke
if anything this proves how well DPS is able to respond and the presence they have that it was shut down and contained so quickly. Other criminals will hear about this and be discouraged from making such an attempt that will end poorly for them.
The unfortunate thing is that this is only going to add fuel to the claims that USC is unsafe.
serio
No trojan alert? how can student live with no fear? that is so close to school!
And there is STILL yet to be a Trojan Alert? This is absolutely ridiculous, this is the entire reason we have that system.
i think they probably haven’t sent one because the incident was contained and the shots were fired by DPS officers…once the suspect was detained, the threat was over and there would be no reason to notify students to avoid the area or whatever. i am sure they will send out an update/alert about it later, but they don’t usually issue the immediate warnings unless there is a current threat (like if there was an ongoing gas leak or an earthquake with possible building damage or an incident where the shooter had gotten away/was still on the streets).
although i am sure the people living on 30th would have liked an update/explanation about what was happening outside…
28th and Figeuroa = The 90. This just got real.