The Los Angeles Police Department has launched an internal investigation into officer responses at two San Fernando Valley homes.
In both cases, the callers reported hearing or witnessing violent and aggressive attacks against 911 dispatchers, and bodies were later found at each location.
LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell worked on two cases on Tuesday during a meeting of the Department’s Oversight Committee, the city’s private police commission. McDonnell admitted that officers would not enter either house immediately and said they had launched an administrative investigation in relation to their own responses.
Menache Hydra’s body was found on April 26th, inside an apartment in the valley village on the fifth floor, after the attackers infiltrated an adjacent unit and leapt on him from the balcony to attack him.
Three days ago, the neighbor called authorities and said he heard the screams before yelling, “I’m going to die. I’ll die,” according to law enforcement sources. The officer answered those calls, knocked on the door, and left without finding anything.
The same day Hydra’s body was found, the body of Alexandre Maud Baze, who had been beaten and died in a home on the forest hill. In that case, a woman inside the house called 911 and reported the assault, but the officer who arrived knocked and left. Only when they returned later they found the fatally wounded ModeBadze.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Commissioner Rasha Gerges Shields asked how the department would decide whether Cheim was a false call that could often be called as a “swatting” call.
That’s difficult, the chief said. When officers arrive and no one answers them, the 911 operator tries to call the original caller again to get more information and look into the previous incident at the same address and help the officers decide. Officers will also try to talk to neighbors before entering the venue, McDonnell said.
“It’s sensitive to getting into a place without kicking the door,” he said. “So we’re doing a pretty deep dive about it.”
The two murders don’t seem to be linked at the moment, the chief added.
The suspect in Woodland Hills murder has been arrested, but the man seen in ring door camera footage stalking the hall of the Valley Village Apartment Complex where Hydra was killed remains unsolved. The chief said investigators believe they have identified perpetrators who have a history of violent crimes.
Hydra’s body was discovered around 2:30pm in an apartment on the top floor of the Ashton Sherman Village Complex, after a friend was worried about him. He was declared dead at the scene. Sources familiar with the police report said he had a punctured wound to his head and blood was on the floor next to him.
A bloody wall between Menache Hydra’s apartment and the vacant next door.
(Richard Winton/Los Angeles Times)
The officer had been called to the apartment by a neighbor three days ago.
A recording of the police dispatch call until 4am on April 23rd will hear dispatchers reporting calls to field officials. [assault with a deadly weapon] Ongoing… Callers hear two men fight, wrestling, slap and scream. “Several law enforcement agencies say officers responded to the scene but never entered the apartment.
The day before Hydra’s body was discovered, LAPD officials investigated the robbery in an empty apartment next door. According to two sources not authorized to discuss the investigation, officers found crushed skylights and dried blood.
Investigators suspect that the murderer had passed through the skylight and entered Hydra’s vacant apartment next door. We then moved to him from the unit’s balcony.
After a reporter visited with residents last week, bloody bills and marks were visible on the wall between Hydra’s balcony and the vacant apartment. Blood was also visible on the door handle at the stairs exit where assailants were seen fleeing to the building in a video released by police.
Blood was left in the door handle of the stairs at Valley Village Arpumment Complex, where Menashe Hidra was killed.
(Richard Winton/Los Angeles Times)
The suspect was seen wearing a dark hooded jacket, a white shirt and blue jeans on the day of the murder.
The same day, Hydra’s body was found across the valley of Woodland Hills in Maudbadeze, 47, and suffered fatal head injuries. Los Angeles police said three attackers broke into the area early Saturday.
Law enforcement sources said they were called LAPD around 12:30am and reported that three people had defeated their partner before breaking into their homes and defeating them. The 911 operator tried to make multiple calls without success. Shortly before 1am, officers arrived at the house, but no one answered the door. There was no noise inside the house and the blinds were dropping, sources told The Times.
ModeBadze was later found by an officer who was severely beaten with a traumatic head injury and eventually died from his injury.
According to law enforcement sources, the woman filed a complaint with LAPD against the officer for their response.
With the support of the FBI, LAPD Marshall’s task force officers found suspects in ModeBadze’s murder and took them into custody within hours.
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