Other Major News On Tuesday: SM Orders Probe Into Riot Non-Response; Spike In COVID Cases In SM, Woman Killed On Highway 1
Written by 991KBU on June 9, 2020
Santa Monica’s city council will launch an independent review of their Police Department’s response to the protests and looting of May 31.
Residents and business owners have criticized the police department’s approach to the disaster.
More than 55 thousand people have signed an online petition demanding that SMPD Chief of Police Cynthia Renaud be fired.
They accuse officers of diverting their resources to peaceful protesters at the pier for eight hours … rather than confronting and stopping the looters east of Third Street.
Renaud said at a town hall last week that SMPD had “no intelligence” that people would come to Santa Monica during the protest to loot hundreds of businesses.
SMPD Chief of Police Cynthia Renaud called in the National Guard shortly after noon that day, but personnel did not arrive in the city until 9 p.m. because they were guarding City Hall and keeping the peaceful protesters penned up near the pier.
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Malibu now has 39 cases confirmed of coronavirus-caused COVID-19.
26 in the Santa Monica Mountains.
Santa Monica saw its biggest increase in reported new coronavirus cases last week — with 52 new confirmed cases.
The week before … there are only eight cases reported all week.
306 cases are confirmed now in Santa Monica …according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
A total of 20 Santa Monicans who were infected with the COVID-19 have died, the data shows.
Because there is generally is a two-week lag in testing results … the large protests of eight or nine days ago are not yet showing up in the official tally of diseased people.
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A woman was killed on Highway 1 Saturday morning … in the strawberry fields near Oxnard.
An SUV coming up from behind slammed into the car she was in … as it was stopped for the first red light after the freeway heading out of Malbu ends.
It was Saturday morning on Rice Avenue at Channel Islands Boulevard.
The vicitm was identified as Maria Perez Ortiz, 41, of Oxnard.
The crash was reported at 7:55 a.m. on northbound Rice, east of Oxnard city limits, according to the California Highway Patrol. The corridor also serves as Highway 1 along the stretch.
A 2000 Lexus SUV driven by a 33-year-old woman from Orange County – traveling north on Rice after leaving PCH – crashed into the back of the second vehicle.
The C H P said “reasons still under investigation.”
