Torrance forensics lab finally joins 21st century with upgrades

The Torrance Police Department unveiled a new forensics laboratory last week, filled with state-of-the-art equipment that officials said would expedite their analysis of evidence and better assist with investigations.

Dozens of civic leaders, community members and law enforcement officials gathered at the Police Department to tour the new $1.5-million facility — a bright, gleaming space filled with cameras, computer screens and "CSI"-reminiscent machines with names such as the "fingerprint chamber."

"This will allow us to be more efficient in what we're doing," said Donna Brandelli, the supervisor of the forensics unit. "It will allow us to process more cases than we've ever been able to process before, using some of the highest technology that's available."

The lab is a far cry from the department's old equipment, Brandelli said. After she came to the unit in 2010 from the L.A. County sheriff's forensics division, she recalled, she used items such as a steam iron and a fish tank to examine evidence.

"We were working kind of in the dinosaur age before," she said.

"It took hours to process a gun when it should have taken minutes," Brandelli said after the tour. "We could process it, but it was going to take us all day — literally, all day."

Now, Brandelli heads an all-female staff of six — self-nicknamed the "Fabulous Forensic Females" — who collect and process evidence for crimes ranging from slayings to break-ins. They also assist other agencies — often limited by a lack of personnel or equipment — with analysis, Brandelli said.

The Torrance forensic unit is made up of civilians rather than sworn officers, a shift the Police Department made in 2010.

In those three years, the unit has collected thousands of fingerprints and DNA samples, and helped identify more than 500 suspects, Police Chief John Neu told the crowd Wednesday. He called those numbers "a glimpse of the immediate success that we've had and why we needed to expand the lab."

Funding for the facility came from asset forfeiture money, Sgt. Robert Watt said: "The criminals ended up paying."

Though DNA will continue to be processed at the county's lab, the Torrance facility gives its own analysts the ability to examine fingerprints and blood samples on site. That, officials said, will help expedite investigations.

"We're able to process evidence quicker and take people to jail faster, and that's huge," Watt said. "And the work that they've done with a smaller facility ... now it's even going to get better."

Kate.mather@latimes.com

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Pigs OK in Sierra Madre, not in Seal Beach

Lucky for Neil he lives up by the foothills, and not down by the seashore.

The corpulent Sierra Madre resident recently escaped eviction when the tiny town's police chief decided that Neil was actually a potbellied pig, not a hog.

Which was a good thing for Neil, because hogs are illegal in town.

Any of Neil's relatives enjoying the good life down in Seal Beach, however, may be in for a different fate.

The Orange County beach city this week adopted an anti-pig law, adding it to the list of animals that are illegal to keep. Hogs — along with goats, horses, cows and mules — were already banned in the city limits, "regardless of size, kind or sex."

Neil, a Vietnamese potbellied pig, had apparently been in hog heaven rooting around in the backyard of Katherine Emerson's Sierra Madre home until an animal control officer peeked over the fence one day. The officer was in the neighborhood to check out reports that another resident had a rooster, also illegal in town.

The pig, incorrectly labeled a hog in the officer's report, was marked for certain eviction until residents and fans started up a social media campaign. Whether he knew it or not, Neil suddenly had his own Facebook page and Twitter account.

Eventually, the city's police chief intervened, ruling — after much study, he said — that Neil wasn't a hog at all. Just a perfectly legal pig, albeit a hefty one.

"He gets to stay the iconic symbol of Sierra Madre," Police Chief Larry Giannone declared.

The good news rippled through town and a planned "Save Neil" protest quickly morphed into a celebration instead. One person suggested the now semifamous pig be named the grand marshal at the city's Fourth of July parade next year.

In the meantime, Seal Beach has definitely been scratched off Neil's vacation itinerary.

Steve.marble@latimes.com

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Charter school on Westside creates extra traffic, ruffling neighbors

When a privately run charter school opened in August on the campus of a traditional elementary school, a quiet Westside neighborhood suddenly found itself inundated with traffic during morning drop-off and afternoon pickup, one resident recalled.

"People parked in front of driveways, didn't use crosswalks and moved trash bins without permission," said Jose Benitez, a longtime resident whose house is a block from the school in Los Angeles' Del Rey neighborhood.

After he and others complained, Citizens of the World Charter School distributed packets of "karma tickets" that listed violations such as wasting curb space and double parking. An accompanying letter suggested that residents put the faux citations on offenders' windshields and thereby encourage more thoughtful, neighborly behavior.

In Benitez's view, that heaped indignity upon injury. "It was as insulting as having a dog poop on your lawn and having the owner hand you a plastic bag to clean it up," he said. "They brought on the problem and want us to take care of it."

Chalk up another education-related dispute as Los Angeles neighborhoods and school communities adjust to "co-location," the practice of housing a traditional public school and a charter school on the same campus.

Under Proposition 39, a school-funding ballot initiative that California voters passed in 2000, charter schools have the right to use empty classrooms and share in underused public school facilities. The Los Angeles Unified School District has nearly 50 charters sharing district campuses.

Charter schools are tuition-free, public schools that are open to all students. Unlike traditional public school teachers, charter school teachers typically do not belong to a union. According to the California Charter Schools Assn., 248 charter schools, serving more than 100,000 students, operate within the boundaries of L.A. Unified.

Citizens of the World, which has four other locations in New York and Hollywood, opened its fifth school in late August; 158 students plus teachers and administrators are housed in three portable classroom buildings on the campus of Stoner Avenue Elementary School in Del Rey. Stoner, part of L.A. Unified, has an enrollment of 365 students but a capacity of 602.

Proponents of Proposition 39 — including the charter schools association, an advocacy group — contend that it ensures that all public school students, including those in charter schools, share equally in school district facilities. Critics counter that charters poach traditional school students and want disproportionate access to computer and science labs and other facilities.

Co-location disputes have occurred across L.A. Unified. In Del Rey, the front-and-center issues are parking and traffic. Other battles have ended up in court, with district school communities contending that charters take resources from underfunded traditional schools, depriving students of playground and library time. L.A. Unified is in a legal fight with the California Charter Schools Assn. over the formula used to allocate space for charters.

Citizens of the World initially aroused neighborhood concern when the district provided it space at Micheltorena Elementary School in Silver Lake. Micheltorena's principal feared that sharing the campus with a charter would leave little room for a planned dual-language program, campus amphitheater and other initiatives. The two schools worked out their differences. Citizens of the World later moved to another site.

In the west San Gabriel Valley, school staff and families fought off an effort to install a performing arts charter at Taft High. Tensions persist in Echo Park between Gabriella Charter and Logan Elementary, which is trying to rebuild enrollment.

Goethe Charter, a charter focused on the German language, had to fend off accusations that it serves an elitist clientele in its space at Marina del Rey Middle School.

Del Rey residents say their immediate concern is that the location of the charter school's entry and exit gate on Lindblade Street — which was designated by L.A. Unified and is secured with a heavy chain, padlock and combination lock — has led to traffic and parking problems. They have suggested that charter school students be dropped off and picked up at Stoner's main entrance on the opposite side of campus, on Braddock Drive.

Lorena Padilla-Melendez, L.A. Unified's director of community relations, said district officials determined that the Braddock option was not safe for the charter school students, whose classrooms are at the corner of Lindblade and Stoner Avenue. She added that the district plans to install a new entrance on Stoner, with parking spots designated for drop-off and pickup, in an effort to satisfy residents' concerns.

Residents say that location would not address charter school teacher parking or overflow parking for parents who must walk in their youngsters. Nor, they contend, does it address the charter school's expansion plans. Amy Dresser Held, Citizens of the World's executive director, said the Del Rey school now offers only kindergarten and first and second grades but is chartered for kindergarten through fifth.

More than 100 families have shown interest in kindergarten for fall 2014, she said.

Davin Palmer, whose 5-year-old twins attend Citizens of the World, said his children have picked up on the tension with neighbors, who recently held a protest when prospective families toured the charter school. "They seemed a little sad, quite frankly," he said.

In September, the Los Angeles Board of Education adopted a resolution by member Steve Zimmer to persuade state lawmakers to create guidelines for applying Proposition 39 and to direct the Los Angeles schools superintendent to report on policies regarding efforts by charter schools to enlist students from district schools.

Zimmer said complaints about parking and traffic often mask deeper philosophical conflicts between advocates of charter schools and educators from traditional public schools who resent the growth of charters. Benitez, a leader of the neighborhood push-back, is a coordinator at Charnock Elementary School, an L.A. Unified campus. He was previously an assistant principal.

"The larger issues run the whole gamut from the orthodox view on the sanctity of choice to the profit motive fueling the expansion of charters," Zimmer said. "Without a cohesive and comprehensive strategy [for handling co-location], we're on an irreversible collision course. The conflicts in Del Rey will in the end appear to be very minor relative to the incredibly painful issues that we're going to have to deal with."

martha.groves@latimes.com

Times staff writer Howard Blume contributed to this report.

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San Diego city attorney maneuvered to force Filner from office

SAN DIEGO — In Bob Filner's final days as mayor, the city attorney was prepared to do something never before done here: plead with a judge that the mayor posed a threat to women and should be barred from City Hall.

A psychologist retained by City Atty. Jan Goldsmith was set to testify that, in her opinion, Filner fit the characteristics of a sociopath, was "without shame, empathy or compassion," and believed no rules applied to him.

A court hearing was set for Aug. 21.

It was not necessary.

The night before the hearing, after two days of intense negotiations, Filner agreed to resign in exchange for the city paying most of his legal bills in a sexual harassment suit filed by Los Angeles attorney Gloria Allred on behalf of a former mayoral staffer.

For six weeks, Goldsmith had maneuvered to force Filner out of office — by squeezing him financially, bluffing him about state law, embarrassing him by releasing documents showing the anger and dismay of his staff and threatening to force a trial on his alleged misuse of public funds, including for a junket to Paris.

Goldsmith, 62, a former judge and state legislator, said he believes the threat of a restraining order — and the national media storm certain to follow — finally persuaded the normally combative mayor to step down.

Filner's attorneys declined comment for this story. So did Filner, now awaiting a Dec. 9 sentencing for his guilty plea on charges brought by the state attorney general.

In early July, as one woman after another went public with accusations of sexual harassment against Filner, Goldsmith and his staff concluded that Filner was an unrepentant felon and that women at City Hall needed to be protected from him.

But the City Charter contains no provision for removing a mayor except through the difficult, expensive, politically unpredictable process of a recall election.

"We strategized as lawyers: How were we going to remove the mayor?" Goldsmith said in a recent interview. "It was a de facto impeachment."

Filner and Goldsmith had a rocky relationship from the beginning.

Filner, 71, was the first Democratic mayor elected in San Diego in two decades. Goldsmith, a Republican serving his second term as city attorney, had endorsed Filner's GOP opponent.

Filner arrived at City Hall with a long reputation — earned on the school board, City Council and then 10 terms in Congress — as a hardball political player.

At their first meeting, Goldsmith said, Filner announced that he did not plan to take legal advice from the city attorney's office. He threw a sheaf of legal papers in the air.

"Your blow-up yesterday concerns me," Goldsmith wrote in a Jan. 3 memo. "Our office is a law office, and we expected to be treated as professionals. Yesterday's meeting was the first and only meeting in which we (any of my lawyers) will tolerate being yelled at, called names or having things thrown at us.... Now it is zero tolerance."

But the friction continued unabated. By February, months before any sexual harassment allegations appeared, "I understood he needed therapy," Goldsmith said.

On Feb. 15, Goldsmith sent another memo to Filner citing his "abusive conduct" during a meeting with lawyers from Goldsmith's office.

"It did not take you very long to violate the zero tolerance standard," Goldsmith wrote.

Still, Goldsmith suggested the two meet privately and agree to a peace treaty. "I still think we should get together for coffee," Goldsmith wrote Filner on Feb. 26.

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Operations return to normal at LAX

As operations at Los Angeles International Airport returned to normal Sunday, a Calabasas High School teacher wounded in a shooting rampage at the airport last week remained in fair condition.

Brian Ludmer, 29, sustained a bullet wound and will need surgery for a fractured leg as well as extensive physical therapy, officials at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center said in a statement Sunday.

The suspected shooter, identified by police as Paul Anthony Ciancia, 23, remained in critical condition. He was wounded by LAX police as he shot his way through Terminal 3 shortly after 9 a.m. Friday, authorities said. Ciancia was shot in the head and a leg.

Transportation Security Administration agent Gerardo Hernandez, 39, was killed and at least two other agency employees and a civilian were wounded. A TSA official Sunday night identified the wounded officers as James Speer, 54, and Tony Grigsby, 36. Both officers were at home recovering from their wounds, the official said.

Authorities have filed a murder charge against Ciancia and suggested that he specifically targeted TSA agents. Ciancia was carrying a handwritten note in his duffel bag that said he wanted to "instill fear into their traitorous minds," according to one federal official.

"His intent was very clear in his note," the official said.

If convicted, Ciancia faces life in prison without parole, or possibly the death penalty.

The rampage temporarily halted traffic at the nation's third-busiest airport, stranding thousands of passengers and causing dozens of flights to be diverted to other airports. The shooting caused chaos at LAX and affected more than 1,500 flights and 167,000 passengers.

On Sunday, flights at the airport were back on schedule and regular operations had resumed, officials said.

"There were no delays this morning, and everything's back to normal," said LAX spokesman Marshall Lowe.

Besides the gunman, Ludmer is the only shooting victim who remains hospitalized, officials said.

Ludmer was on his way to celebrate a friend's wedding over the weekend when he heard gunshots inside Terminal 3 and "people were running everywhere," Las Virgenes schools Supt. Dan Stepenosky said in an interview.

As the gunman took aim, Ludmer turned to run and dived away, but he was struck at least once in the leg, Stepenosky said. He dragged himself into a closet, closed the door and hunkered down, fearing the worst.

"He really assumed he was not going to make it," Stepenosky said.

The performing arts teacher managed to create a makeshift tourniquet to slow the bleeding, using "his old Boy Scouts training," Stepenosky told KNBC-TV Channel 4.

Ludmer waited until he heard what he believed was a police officer outside the closet. He cracked open the door, peeked out and was rushed by the officer to an ambulance.

Word of Ludmer's wounds somehow reached his parents in Chicago. They in turn called Calabasas High, alerting two of Ludmer's colleagues in the performing arts department.

"They said he was involved in a shooting," Stepenosky said. "So the teachers and the principal went to the hospital right away."

Calabasas Principal C.J. Foss and two teachers held vigil at the hospital while Ludmer's mother made her way to Los Angeles to be at her son's side, Stepenosky said.

lisa.girion@latimes.com

samantha.schaefer@latimes.com

Times staff writer Kate Linthicum contributed to this story.

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California probe of campaign donations sheds light on 'dark money'

SACRAMENTO — Tony Russo had a multimillion-dollar problem.

The Republican consultant and his team had raised piles of cash to use in California politics as last November's election approached. But a wrinkle in state law meant he couldn't spend it in the final two months of the campaign without jeopardizing the anonymity he had promised his rich donors.

So Russo turned to what he called "the Koch network." He asked a political consultant who has worked with billionaire Republican contributors Charles and David Koch to shuttle the money through an Arizona nonprofit. That group, which is not required to reveal its donors, could send cash to California causes without names attached.

But things went from bad to worse. Although Russo handed over $25 million, only about $15 million ended up back in California. And when the money surfaced, it sparked an investigation by state authorities, who last month[ levied $16 million in penalties against the Arizona group and three others.

The case offers a rare glimpse into the shadowy world of politically active nonprofits, which have played an increasing role in elections nationwide since the U.S. Supreme Court eased campaign rules in 2010. They provide donors a way to influence elections by piping major money around the country until it resurfaces — without their fingerprints — in a campaign.

Advocates of transparency in government call it "dark money."

Russo declined to be interviewed by The Times. But he and his colleagues detailed their experience for California investigators, conversations that were recorded in hundreds of pages of transcripts.

Those records and other documents released by authorities show a convoluted money trail. They also show the risks of operating in a political world so intricate that even Russo didn't fully understand how it worked when he threw in his donors' money.

"There's all kinds of groups all over the country that I wouldn't even know," Russo said.

::

California Republicans faced two major battles last year: a fight against Gov. Jerry Brown's tax hike and a push to pass a measure that would limit unions' political fundraising.

Russo did not think the state party was up to the task. He envisioned an independent advertising pitch to voters that would tout economic destruction wrought by tax increases and political havoc caused by powerful California labor unions.

To bring in the big money needed for a statewide television campaign, Russo worked with GOP consultant Jeff Miller, lead fundraiser for former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and for Texas Gov. Rick Perry's 2012 presidential campaign. Miller declined to be interviewed by The Times.

The Fisher family, of the clothing firm Gap Inc., contributed more than $9 million. San Francisco investor Charles Schwab gave $6.4 million, and Los Angeles philanthropist Eli Broad sent $1 million.

The money went to a Virginia nonprofit that would use it to pay for the ad blitz and be allowed to keep the contributors secret. Nonprofits, unlike political action committees, are not required to identify their donors under federal law.

Many donors did not want to "put their name on … this fight because they didn't want to face the retribution of the unions," Miller told state investigators. Deep-pocketed labor groups were planning major campaign efforts in 2012, and some conservatives were wary of crossing them.

But by the time the money was pouring in, summer was turning into fall. If the donations were spent after early September, there was a risk that the veil would have to be lifted on those who wrote the checks, in accordance with California's complex campaign laws.

That's when Russo turned to Republican strategist Sean Noble, who has worked as a consultant for the Koch brothers and whom he had met on a trip to Las Vegas the year before.

Noble heads the Center to Protect Patient Rights, an Arizona nonprofit known as a clearinghouse for conservative causes. In 2010, the organization had distributed more than $55 million to 26 groups allied with Republicans to help them in the midterm elections.

Robert Tappan, a spokesman for Koch Industries, confirmed that Noble has worked for the Koch brothers as a political consultant. Charles and David Koch did not play any role in California campaigns last year, Tappan said.

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LAUSD issuing far fewer truancy tickets, report says

Los Angeles school police have sharply curtailed the number of tickets issued for truancy to L.A. Unified students by 93.7% over the last four years, reflecting a step back from punitive disciplinary practices, according to a new report.

The report, by the Community Rights Campaign — an organizing effort to shift student disciplinary actions from police to schools and communities — also found that tickets for all offenses plunged by 54.8% from 2011-12 to 2012-13.

But African Americans and Latinos still receive a disproportionate number of tickets: Blacks were almost six times and Latinos were twice as likely to be ticketed than whites, according to the report released last week.

The sharp drop in police action against students reflects the growing success of a years-long effort by student and community activists to change practices in L.A. Unified, said the campaign's Manuel Criollo.

Earlier this year, the Board of Education voted to ban defiance as grounds for suspensions — the first district in California to do so — and restrict the role of police on campus. School board members also directed district officials to launch programs to use positive incentives and conflict mediation rather than punitive measures to help students change their behavior.

Under a groundbreaking partnership launched last year among district, city and school police officials, truant students are no longer ticketed, but instead sent to city youth centers for educational counseling and other services to help address their academic struggles.

"The report shows a mutual victory for the community and LAUSD," Criollo said. "But there's still work to be done."

On Wednesday, scores of students, parents, teachers and community members rallied in South Los Angeles to press for even more changes. The campaign is urging the district and school police to end all ticketing and arrests for offenses that pose no immediate and serious threat to others, such as fighting, profanity, petty theft, possession of tobacco and less serious drugs, vandalism and graffiti.

Instead, activists are urging officials to treat student misbehavior with alternatives shown to be more effective — as school districts elsewhere have done. Texas, for instance, completely eliminated in September school police tickets for student misbehavior.

Other recommendations include ending all ticketing for elementary and middle school students — 47.4% of those ticketed in 2012-13 were 14 years old and younger. The campaign is also calling for clear limits on police roles on campus, and more spending on counselors and other school officials rather than law enforcement officers.

"Positive discipline is not trying to let you off the hook, but supporting you to change your behavior," Criollo said.

L.A. Unified Police Chief Steven Zipperman could not be reached for comment, but the district took issue with the report's focus on continued racial disparities, saying tickets to African Americans dropped by 22% and to Latinos by 44% in 2012.

"Each year, we continue to reduce crime, reduce arrests, reduce suspensions and increase positive relationships with students," the district said in a statement. "For that, we deserve an A, not an F."

Criollo said his organization never flunked the district — but he declined to give a grade.

Teresa.watanabe@latimes.com

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Fight over waterfront condo height goes to San Francisco voters

SAN FRANCISCO — On its face it doesn't look menacing: a proposed waterfront development of upscale condominiums that step down from 12 stories to five near San Francisco's towering financial district.

Cafes and stores on the ground floor. Public pathways and a small park with stunning views of San Francisco Bay and the Ferry Building.

But against the backdrop of a loved-and-loathed technology boom, the project known as 8 Washington has become nothing short of a referendum on the kind of city San Francisco is and shall become.

Nearly $3 million has been pumped into campaigns on dual ballot measures that on Tuesday will determine the fate of the development, which secured an exemption from waterfront height limits.

Critics say it would lead to more high-rise waterfront projects, Miami-style, and further cede to the wealthy a city already rated the nation's least affordable.

"What we're really talking about with this project is a kind of economic segregation in the city," said former Mayor Art Agnos, who in 1990 oversaw demolition of the earthquake-damaged Embarcadero Freeway and helped transform the waterfront from a "slum where 'Dirty Harry' movies were made" into a civic gem.

"We'll have a billionaires' row and middle-class housing to be built somewhere else, some other time," said Agnos, who has campaigned for the "No Wall on the Waterfront" referendum along with environmental, affordable housing and neighborhood groups.

Those backing a developer-sponsored initiative to green-light construction call the 134-unit project modest and say the only way San Francisco can solve its severe housing crisis is to build more housing.

"Every neighborhood on a hill in San Francisco has been hyper-gentrified and it's not because of new development, it's because of a lack of new development," said Gabriel Metcalf, executive director of SPUR, a nonprofit regional planning organization. "If you keep the housing stock constrained, then people just buy up the existing housing stock."

The developer plans no on-site subsidized housing but would contribute $11 million to a city affordable housing fund; deliver $14 million to the Port of San Francisco in exchange for a public parking lot, enabling repairs to crumbling piers; and generate millions in annual city tax revenue.

The project also would replace a private tennis and swim club with another private club — along with landscaped public walkways, sidewalk seating, a rooftop cafe and a small park.

Critics have decried the public benefits as inadequate, but Mayor Ed Lee, a booster of the city's tech and development boom, hailed them as a win for a waterfront undergoing a renaissance.

"I've seen over the years where we've tripped over our own success," said Lee, who recently joked that the crane should be designated the official city bird. "When you stop development, you stop people from getting jobs, you stop people from paying their mortgages."

San Francisco has a long history of waterfront development battles.

Former City Atty. Louise Renne recalled the outcry over the twin 17-story Fontana Towers near Fisherman's Wharf, which in 1964 prompted a 40-foot height limit on the northern waterfront. The site of the current controversy abuts a residential tower more than double 8 Washington's maximum proposed height of 136 feet.

More towers were planned there too, Renne said, but when residents took a look at the completed one, an 84-foot height limit was put in place. It is that limit that developers have managed to skirt.

While U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein has remained silent on 8 Washington, she opposed previous efforts at condo development on the site in 1984 while she was mayor and again in 2003, noting that the area's redevelopment plan had set it aside "for open space and recreation." A tower, she wrote to planning officials, would create shade and traffic and "drastically change the picturesque panorama of the bay."

Other proposed waterfront projects are already waiting on height exemptions, Renne said, and approval of this one "is going to set a precedent."

Developer Simon Snellgrove's vision has been seven years in the making. The subject of countless community meetings, the project passed muster with the city Planning Commission, the Board of Supervisors and state agencies with waterfront jurisdiction.

But opponents contend that the public land involved and the civic mandate of an accessible waterfront call for a project that serves a broader cross-section of San Franciscans and preserves views of the hills.

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Suspected gang members charged with murdering man who answered Craigslist ad

Two suspected gang members were charged Monday with murder in connection with the slaying of a father who was responding to a Craigslist ad for a cellphone for his son, Los Angeles law enforcement authorities said.

Ryan Roth, 17, and Markell Thomas, 18, were arrested late last week after detectives connected the killing with similar robberies in the area, Police Det. Chris Barling said.

In addition to the murder charges, they were both charged with attempted murder, along with two counts each of second-degree robbery with gang enhancements, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office. Roth, a minor, was charged as an adult.

Police said Thomas and Roth communicated with Rene Balbuena, 41, and his 15-year-old son via text message Oct. 19 about buying a $300 Samsung Galaxy cellphone. When Balbuena arrived in the 9200 block of South Gramercy Place about 7:30 p.m. with his son to buy the phone, the father and son were ambushed, Barling said.

Thomas and Roth demanded money from Balbuena, police said, and Thomas jumped into the back seat of the car and pointed a gun at the teenager. Balbuena then got out of the car and was shot by Roth, Barling said. Balbuena's son was hit by gunfire.

Roth and Thomas then fled on foot without any property, leaving the father and son wounded. Balbuena was taken to a hospital, where he died. His son was treated and released.

Initially, detectives said they didn't have much to go on.

"In a case like this, it's stranger-on-stranger, so it makes it more difficult, as opposed to cases where the victim knows the suspect," Barling said.

But investigators discovered similarities to other robberies in the area. The robberies — in which no one was shot — involved Craigslist ads and the same type of cellphone.

"The basic descriptions of the suspects were all the same," Barling said.

Now investigators believe Thomas could be involved in as many as seven robberies in the Baldwin Hills area from Aug. 2 to Oct. 7.

At a news conference Monday afternoon, Balbuena's 19-year-old daughter, Sandra Balbuena, thanked police for their efforts. She said she and her family were still in shock over the loss of her father, who was an avid runner.

"I'm very proud to live in a city that I know that I'm safe, and that no one else is going to get harmed," she said. "I know nothing's going to bring back my dad, but I know that they worked real hard, I know they didn't sleep, I know they didn't eat."

"I have no words to thank them," she said. "My dad was my best friend. He was everything to me."

Sandra Balbuena said her main priority now is her brother, who is recovering from the shooting.

"He'll be stable for a second and then he'll be really upset," she said. "My brother's been through a lot too. I'm just very thankful that I still have him."

Thomas is due in court for an arraignment Nov. 13. Roth is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday.

— Nicole Santa Cruz

Photo: At a news conference to announce two arrests in the shooting death of Rene Balbuena, his wife, Sandra Balbuena, left, holds their 19-year-old daughter, also named Sandra. Credit: Christina House / For The Times

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Increasing pedestrian safety will take more than tougher laws

They consider running a family thing. Jeri Dye Lynch and her three sons ran every chance they got — right up until the day her oldest boy, Conor, was struck and killed by a car as he crossed the street outside his high school on his way to cross country practice.

It's only fitting that since he died in 2010, Lynch has used running as a way to memorialize her child. On Sunday, the Conor Lynch Foundation held its third annual 5K race to raise money for efforts to promote safety for pedestrians, runners, cyclists and young drivers.

Almost 2,000 people turned out; most of them teenagers from San Fernando Valley schools. There were wristbands, T-shirts and a giant bus sponsored by Text Kills, with a simulator that puts kids behind the wheel while they try to read a cellphone text. They quickly inevitably wreck.

Conor Lynch was 16 when he died, a junior at Notre Dame High in Sherman Oaks. The car that hit him was driven by an 18-year-old who didn't have a license. She didn't stop, but drove on for several blocks, until she spotted a police officer, pulled over and said, "I think I hit somebody."

Some witnesses said it looked like driver Moran Biton sped up to make it through an intersection just before she hit Conor, who was dashing across busy Woodman Avenue, trying to catch up with his cross country teammates.

Biton pleaded guilty to driving without a license and hit-and-run, both misdemeanors. She was placed on probation and ordered to perform community service.

Jeri Dye Lynch was sentenced to grief, then anger, then resolve. She wanted practical measures: Digital signs that broadcast how fast a driver is traveling. The return of drivers' education classes for every high school student.

But she knows that isn't enough. She wants to change the conversation, so that dead pedestrians aren't just tragic victims, but proof of something gone wrong.

The banners on display at the memorial run Sunday brought that home: "Accidents don't just happen. They are caused."

::

A pedestrian is struck and killed, on average, almost every few days in Los Angeles.

More than one-third of motor vehicle deaths in this city involve pedestrians. That's one of the highest rates in the country, and it just keeps growing.

Many of those are hit-and-run cases — difficult for police to solve and impossible for grief-stricken families to comprehend.

"You wonder what kind of person could run somebody down and not even pull over to render aid," said Eve Bonanomi, whose son Michael was killed in August by a hit-and-run driver.

Michael Bonanomi, 35, lived in Santa Monica but was house-sitting for his parents in Studio City. He was crossing Ventura Boulevard, coming back from dinner, when a late-model white Mercedes flew by, knocking him onto its hood, then flinging him onto the street.

Police have been trying to find the car, but it didn't have a license plate. Michael's friends have been papering the neighborhood with fliers in case someone knows something. The city is offering a $50,000 reward for information on the driver.

His parents still know nothing.

They came to Conor's memorial on Sunday because the families share a bond. They didn't run, just walked around the crowded park — with pictures pinned to their chests of their smiling, handsome son.

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Last month, the City Council moved to tighten tracking of hit-and-run deaths and enact tougher penalties for drivers who flee the scene of collisions.

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