Arraignment Postponed in Shooting Death

  

LONG BEACH, January 8, 2007 (KABC) -- Arraignment has been postponed for two suspected Latino gang members suspected in the shooting death of a 14-year-old black girl in the Harbor Gateway area of Los Angeles.

Ernesto Alcarez, 20, and Jonathan Fajardo, 18, are each charged with one count of murder and six counts of attempted murder for the Dec. 15 slaying of Cheryl Green.

Green was standing with a group of friends on Harvard Boulevard near 206th Street when she was shot. Three of her friends -- two girls and a boy -- were wounded.

The charges allege Green's death was a hate crime and that the shooting was committed for the benefit of a criminal street gang.

Fajardo, the alleged triggerman, was arrested Thursday at his home in Carson, where police also found a gun that will be tested to determine if it was the murder weapon, said LAPD Deputy Chief Charlie Beck.

Alcarez, an alleged accomplice, was arrested Dec. 21. Charges were filed on both men on Dec. 26, while Fajardo was still at large.

The suspects could face the death penalty if convicted.

"Over the course of the last two weeks, we committed every resource to solving this crime," said Beck, who heads up the LAPD's Operations-South Bureau. "I hope the community will feel safer now with two persons charged in the shooting, and seven other gang associates under arrest."

He said the gang the two suspects belong to is "notorious for their strong stance in support of racism, and there were numerous instances of graffiti and statements that make us believe that this is racially motivated."

Beck said police will post more officers in the area until racial tensions settle down.

The past two Saturdays, community activists and religious leaders walked to a makeshift memorial where Green, an eighth-grader at Stephen M. White Middle School, died. They called for peace and unity among blacks and Latinos in the racially divided neighborhood.

Latino gang members have warned blacks not to cross south of 206th Street, the so-called "forbidden line," under threat of violence, they said.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, issued a challenge to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and city officials to beef up LAPD patrols in the neighborhood and reiterated his call for an emergency summit to address the issue of hate crimes in the city.

Villaraigosa and police Chief William Bratton have vowed that gang enforcement will be a high priority in 2007. Gang homicides accounted for 56 percent of all murders in the city last year.

"It should be no surprise to anyone that gang members have racist tendencies," Bratton said.

"Both street and prison gang crime is motivated by greed and territory. Nevertheless, it is right that penalties are enhanced for hate crimes. All Angelenos should be able to walk down the street without the fear of being attacked because of their race, creed, religion or sexual orientation."

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