Los Angeles area cops were busy this weekend with at least 11 shootings and seven homicides that included a teenager slain near Skid Row and a 70-something man who allegedly used an ax to kill his wife.
Lily Belle Burk, the 17-year-old daughter of a music critic father and law professor mother, was found slain in the passenger seat of her black Volvo about 6:30 a.m. Saturday near Alameda and Fourth streets in downtown Los Angeles.
The would-be senior at North Hollywood's Oakwood School left her home in Los Feliz about 2 p.m. to pick up some papers for her mother at Southwestern University School of Law in the Westlake area, Los Angeles police said.
Burk called each of her parents later Friday afternoon, asking how to get cash using her credit cards at an ATM, but was never heard from again. Detectives believe she was killed later that day.
Signs of a struggle were found in the Volvo, and detectives said the girl showed signs of head trauma and apparently was beaten up. No cause of death was given. An autopsy is pending.
In unincorporated East Pasadena, a man described as in his 70s called sheriff's deputies about 1:30 a.m. to report that he had killed his 55-year-old wife with an ax. She was identified as Michelle Lu.
Sheriff's deputies have said little about the alleged crime, but a video crew that went to the home in the 100 block Rosemead Boulevard said the couple's son took the weapon away from his father.
A rash of other shootings left at least seven people dead and 11 people wounded -- at least five of them teenagers shot at party in Long Beach.
Two of the shootings involved law enforcement officers.
A Baldwin Park police officer shot and killed a 16-year-old gang member in El Monte when the teen allegedly reached for a gun in his pants pocket.
Officers had been following a vehicle that had been reported stolen when the vehicle stopped about 4:30 a.m. Friday, and the teen and another person ran off.
A two-year officer apparently fired four shots when he saw Jose Ramon Jimenez reach for a gun, sheriff's Lt. David Dolson said. Jimenez, who was unable to get off any shots, died on the spot, deputies said. The suspect's handgun was booked into evidence.
In Long Beach Saturday night, sheriff's deputies chased a man from the 6500 block of Long Beach Boulevard to the westbound Artesia (91) Freeway, where he pointed a gun at them, prompting deputies to open fire, Deputy Aura Sierra of the Sheriff's Headquarters Bureau said. The 29-year-old man, whose name was unavailable, was taken to a hospital in critical condition. A handgun was found at the scene, Sierra said.
Also in Long Beach, five teens, ranging from 14-16 years old, were wounded in a shooting outside of 269 E. Plymouth St. about 9:15 p.m. Friday. All were expected to survive.
