Saturday, May 19, 2012
Flowers honor young mother killed in solo collision at California Street and Allston Way Friday.
Daytha Holmes was sleeping when a car slammed into a tree outside her house at the corner of California Street and Allston Way early Friday. Today, Holmes walked across to the street to place flowers at the site in a growing memorial to a Milanca Alicia Lopez, a young mother who lost her life in the collision. "We heard a big crash, and then we heard moaning," she said. The neighborhood was quiet today as friends and neighbors stopped off with bouquets. One card read simply, "Milanca Alicia Lopez." The roundabout does little to slow traffic, she said, and did nothing to prevent the accident. The Cadillac in which Lopez and her son Xavier were riding slammed into a tree around 1:10 a.m., killing the Cal grad and dealing serious injuries to …
A statement about Milanca Alicia Lopez was released on Facebook after her death. Her son, Xavier, remained in critical condition as of Friday morning.
Controversial visit to reporter's home leads to closer look at rapidly changing news media.
The Berkeley Police Department will revamp its media policies, spurred by a controversial March incident in which Chief Michael Meehan dispatched an officer to a reporter's home in the middle of the night to request changes to an article. The city will pay the Irvine-based Cornerstone Communications to audit the department’s policies beginning this month and continuing till October, the Daily Californian is reporting. Costs could run as high as $24,000. The department could choose to extend the review after October. The department was widely criticized when Meehan sent department spokesperson Sgt. Mary Kusmiss to Oakland Tribune reporter Doug Oakley’s home at 12:45 a.m. on March 9. Oakley had written a story about a March 8 town hall …
Friday, May 18, 2012
Woman pronounced dead at the scene. Car struck tree at Allston and California in second fatal solo crash of the year.
A solo crash took the life of a young woman and sent the male driver and a child to the hospital when the car they were traveling slammed into a tree at California Street and Allston Way early this morning. Berkeley police say the Cadillac was barreling north on California at a high rate of speed 1:13 a.m. when the driver lost control and struck a tree on Allston Way. Police believe it may have first hit a roundabout in the intersection. The driver, a female passenger and a child who had been sitting in the back seat all had to be extricated by police and firefighters. The woman died at the scene. Police pegged the ages of the man and woman as in their 20s. The man was taken to Highland Hospital in Oakland and the child was taken to …
Two arrested, charged with possession of controlled substances.
Police arrested two men in the early morning hours Wednesday as they prepared to snort cocaine in a car parked on the 2600 block of Shattuck Avenue. At about 1:20 a.m., a Berkeley patrol officer saw a car pull into the empty parking lot of an abandoned business and turn off its lights. When he investigated, the office could smell marijuana through the open windows and saw a plate between the two rear occupants bearing a razor, straw and white lines consistent with the cutting up and snorting of cocaine. During a probable cause search for additional narcotics, the officer, who had called for a backup, searched the occupants and found cocaine and hydrocodone, a prescription painkiller, in the possession of the rear passenger, a 25-year old-…
Woman was walking on Prince Street near California.
A Berkeley woman lost an iPod, cell phone and other valuables when an assailant snatched her purse and fled in the late afternoon Wednesday. The woman was walking westbound on Prince Street near California Street when she felt someone yank the bag off her shoulder from behind, police said. She turned to see a man holding her black and white purse. An extensive search of the area failed to turn up the assailant, whom she described to police as white or Hispanic, 5 feet, 10 inches tall, about 180 pounds with a brown ponytail to his mid-back and wearing a red hoodie and baggy blue jeans.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
In the first part of the week, officers made 66 traffic-related stops and responded to 37 burglar alarms, 20 trespass calls, and 16 reported auto burglaries.
Berkeley police responded to 37 residential and commercial burglary and panic alarms. In each case, humor error prompted the alarm to sound, such as hitting a button by mistake, punching in an incorrect code or failing to punch in a code, or housecleaners, nannies, gardeners or home health care workers setting off an alarm by mistake, says a report by Sgt. Mary Kusmiss, information office for the department. By Thursday morning, officers had been dispatched to handle 20 reports of individuals trespassing on private property. Several proved to be active probationers or parolees, and officers arrested three on outstanding warrants. From Sunday to Wednesday, officers investigated and documented 16 auto burglaries throughout the city. In …
Daniel Jordan DeWitt, 23, was being held at the John George Psychiatric Pavilion on suspicion of murder.
- POLICE & FIRE
-
Thursday, May 17
An Alameda County Sheriff's Department deputy has been hospitalized and will have his jaw wired shut for weeks after he was sucker-punched Wednesday by the Oakland man who is accused of a recent murder in the Berkeley hills, the Oakland Tribune reports. Daniel Jordan DeWitt, 23, has been charged with murdering 67-year-old Peter Cukor but a judge had ruled him mentally incompetent to stand trial. When the attack occurred, DeWitt was being moved from the John George Psychiatric Pavilion in San Leandro to a psychiatric hospital in Napa where he will be held until he is considered competent to stand trial, the Tribune reported.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Neighbors say crime, drug dealing, abuse runs rampant; owner, at 77, says he has tried to evict trouble-makers but needs help.
For 30 years, neighbors have pleaded with the city for intervention. Finally, last night, the Berkeley City Council declared a home at 1722 Ninth St. a public nuisance. In February, the city zoning adjustments board issued a public nuisance order and urged the council to boot its residents. The council declined the advice, instead demanding that within the month, property owner Roberto Alcala, 77, must rid the residence of unregistered firearms and contraband, pull the plug on loud noise, and tear out illegal additions. Rose bushes fill the neat front garden; the pink home appears clean and quiet. But police say WSB gang members and others call it “The Waterfront,” and that the extended family has used it for years to fence stolen property…
Activists march down Marin Avenue, decking the Gill Tract fence with sunflowers.
Lou Judson
7:08 am on Sunday, May 20, 2012
So who was the male driver and will he go up for vehucular manslaughter? more ›