5th Homicide Reported in Rampart Division in November

Details are still preliminary, but the LAPD's Rampart Division Facebook page is reporting a fifth homicide in November.

According to the posting, a man was killed at 6:15 in the morning at 434 N. Benton Way on Wednesday.

The location is at the intersection of Benton and London Street, near the 101 Freeway South onramp and offramps.  It is also a block north of Temple Street.

The victim is said not to be from the immediate area. No details about the suspect have been released.

Other homicides in Rampart this month include the Nov. 4 shooting of Andres Ordonez, a 25-year-old Guatemalan immigrant.

He was shot on after trying to stop a woman tagging his church wall.

The shooter and one other possible suspect remains at large. The woman thought to be the tagger is in custody.

Rampart's Facebook page also reports another homicide on Nov. 4, a stabbing death near MacArthur Park, at Seventh and Alvarado streets.

The page also lists a fourth shooting, on Nov. 16  just after 9 p.m., near the 10 Freeway at 17th and Union Street, near the Rampart Division's southern border at Washington Boulevard.

Finally, on Sunday, Nov. 18 at 324 Witmer Street near Downtown Los Angeles a man was shot several times and died from the gun shot wounds.

Witmer Street, especially the 300 block, has long been a troubled stretch. Two buildings at 311 and 325 are thought to be gang-controlled, generating a lot of gang-related crime along the stretch.

Witmer is also where an innocent father was killed in the 400 block last December as he sat on his stoop.  Many suspected he was mistaken for another man at the time.

Two men, known to each other, became involved in an argument. One man stabbed the other resulting in his death. The suspect was taken into custody when Rampart officers arrived at scene.

A Rampart homicide detective told us recently that violence was in the Rampart area was at a level he had not seen since the mid-1990s.

He mentioned the divison's population density (perhaps the highest in the country) as one factor, along with the economy.

Anyone with information about any above is asked to contact Rampart homicide detectives at 213-484-3650.