Written by AARON CASTREJON
CityWatch Editor

PASADENA - The suspect accused of murdering a man at a Pasadena Park November 18 was arrested and charged with murder and was charged with crimes stemming from other incidents in town.

Aaron Miguel Conell, 24, was officially charged with one count each of murder, attempted murder and assault with a semiautomatic firearm, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

Conell allegedly shot and wounded another victim October 29 at Washington Park, 700 E. Washington Blvd., the same park where 64-year-old Mickey Cooper was found shot dead last week.

Conell is also accused of walking up to a driver at a Pasadena gas station and aiming a handgun at the driver’s head, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

Mickey Cooper is the brother of former NBA basketball player Michael Cooper. Michael told ABC7 Eyewitness News that the brothers would often play basketball at the same park where Mickey was slain.

Mickey led a somewhat troubled, but otherwise quiet life in his adult years.

If convicted as charged, Conell will face 50 years to life in prison.

Written by AARON CASTREJON
CityWatch Editor

PASADENA - A man was found dead from apparent gunshot wounds in a public park early Saturday morning.

A ShotSpotter alert was received and officers were dispatched to Washington Park, 700 E.. Washington Blvd., at 4:10 a.m. An unresponsive man was found suffering gunshot from apparent gunshot wounds. He was declared dead at the scene, according to the Pasadena Police Department.

A motive for the shooting is apparently not known.

The Pasadena Police Robbery Homicide Unit is investigating. Anyone with information on this shooting is urged to call the Pasadena Police Department at 626-744-4241. Remain anonymous by calling LA Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), through the P3Tips mobile app, or lacrimestoppers.org.

Written by AARON CASTREJON
CityWatch Editor

PASADENA - Firefighters are evacuating residents while they investigate a hazmat call Monday morning.

The incident is unfolding in the 900 block of East Del Mar Avenue. People are asked to avoid Del Mar between Mentor Avenue and Wilson Avenue, according to the Pasadena Fire Department.

There is apparently no threat to the public, according to the Pasadena Fire Department.

Written by AARON CASTREJON
CityWatch Editor

PASADENA - A vehicle and a light rail train collided Thursday morning the driver of the vehicle to the hospital, authorities said.

The collision between the vehicle and a metro A Line train occurred at East California Boulevard and South Raymond Avenue around 9:18 a.m.

The driver of the vehicle, the only occupant inside, had to be extricated by Pasadena Firefighters. She was hospitalized with significant injuries, according to Lisa Derderian, public information officer for the city of Pasadena.

Active Incident: Pasadena Fire and Pasadena Police are on scene at Raymond Avenue and California Boulevard for a Metro A-line train and vehicle collision. There is one patient requiring extrication.

Traffic will be impacted in that area. Please avoid the area.

The area where the collision occurred is normally heavily impacted with traffic on a normal day. Traffic in the surrounding area will continue to be very heavily impacted as an investigation continues, Derderian told SGV CityWatch.

Right now, there is no metro train service between the Delmar station and South Pasadena station due to the collision. Bus bridges are being requested, according to the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Written by AARON CASTREJON
CityWatch Editor

PASADENA - Authorities named the accused gunman who shot and killed a woman at an apartment complex Monday.

Guary Lonnie Shuford III, 32, Was led away from the building by several swat officers after barricading himself inside of an apartment complex for roughly eight hours.

Shuford, on parole for robbery, was booked on suspicion of murder, according to Pasadena Public Information Officer Lisa Derderian.

The Pasadena Police Department named the shooting victim, 34-year-old Jamila Elysse Moss, a Pasadena resident. She was found deceased on what investigators described as the exterior portion of the apartment complex in the 200 block of South Raymond Avenue.

The incident was likely domestic violence.

Resident Angelicque McQueen claimed that the shooting occurred next her apartment unit. She heard the gunfire ring out. Soon, officers with weapons drawn descended upon the complex. She and her son Devon De La Hoya fled the complex after officers ordered McQueen to lock her dogs in the bathroom

“Around 9:30 this morning we heard gunshots. We heard two, then heard six after that,” McQueen told SGV CityWatch. “I went down to walk the dogs. Everything was normal. I get greeted with a SWAT team at the exit door.”

An officer screamed at McQueen to get back upstairs. Once back upstairs, McQueen said she saw officers with weapons trained on her neighbor’s unit.

Three sworn officers with shields escorted McQueen and her son to an elevator to evacuate the complex.

McQueen claims the shooting victim may have fallen, or was thrown from a window and down below to near the Metro A Line Del Mar Station.

Glendale police officers and crisis negotiators aided in the operation.

Bus shuttles replaced Metro trains throughout much of the day as the Del Mar station remained closed with only several police officers to secure the station.

The apartment complex faces Central Park, which was oddly populated with park goers and apartment residents not only eager to get back in, but anxious to retrieve their pets left locked in their units. Some residents still inside the complex casually exited during the ordeal.

Around 5:30 p.m., this reporter was led by residents through a neighboring business’s parking lot to the north side of the apartment complex, and got close enough to the apartments to hear a man yelling and screaming from a window overlooking the Del Mar Station.

Several powerful flash bang grenades were used. The powerful blasts echoed throughout the area.

Once Shuford was place in a white patrol vehicle, the vehicle peeled out south on Raymond Avenue.

Robbery-Homicide detectives with the Pasadena Police Department arrived to take over the investigation.

Train service to the Del Mar Station was reestablished Tuesday morning.

Written by AARON CASTREJON
CityWatch Editor

PASADENA - Officers have an apartment complex surrounded and believe a suspect is barricaded inside after finding a shooting victim Monday morning.

Authorities are asking people to avoid a quarter-mile radius around Raymond Avenue and Del Mar Boulevard as police continue to work the scene.

Police responded to the apartment complex, which is adjacent to the A Line Del Mar Station, on a reported shooting. A female victim was found unresponsive at the scene. Information on her current condition is not readily available, according to Lisa Derderian, Pasadena public information officer.

There was no train service running to the Delmar station. Shuttle buses replace train service between Fillmore and Memorial Park, according to do you Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Written by AARON CASTREJON
CityWatch Editor

PASADENA - A driver is dead, his female passenger uninjured after he was found with gunshot wounds behind the wheel of a vehicle on Angeles Crest Highway early Saturday morning.

Officers responding to a solo traffic collision on Angeles Crest at mile marker 28.36 found a crashed sedan around 3:21 a.m. The driver, identified as 32-year-old Los Angeles resident Jessie Munoz, died after attempts to revive him. He was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Pasadena Police Department.

Robbery/Homicide units from the Pasadena Police Department believe robbery was the motive for the shooting.

Anyone with information on this shooting is urged to call the Pasadena Police Department at 626-744-4241. Remain anonymous by calling LA Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), through the P3Tips mobile app, or lacrimestoppers.org.

Written by AARON CASTREJON
CityWatch Editor

PASADENA - An assault that occurred on the A Line train June 24 over a dropped cell phone certainly brings the adage “no good deed goes unpunished” to mind.

The incident occurred around 9:21 p.m. on an A Line train at the Memorial Park station. The victim, a 30-year-old man, told deputies a female suspect assaulted him with 15-inch deer antlers after he handed back a dropped cellphone to the sleeping passenger who owned it, according to Kari Mercer, public information officer with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Transit Services Bureau.

The man sustained several contusions, a 1-inch laceration to his head, a 1-inch laceration to his left hand and a puncture wound on his right forearm.

The suspect armed with deer antlers, a 38-year-old Asian woman, apparently was looking in earnest at the dropped cellphone. The victim worried she was going to steal it, Mercer told SGV CityWatch.

“Fearing the female was going to steal the phone, the victim picked up the phone, woke the sleeping passenger and gave it to him. The suspect became irate, pulled deer antlers from her bag, and struck the victim multiple times on his head and arms,” Mercer said in a written statement.

The homeless suspect was located, arrested and booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.

Written by AARON CASTREJON
CityWatch Editor

PASADENA - The threat of lightning, strong winds and hail forced the evacuation of the Cruel World Music Festival Saturday night, leaving many fans irate since the storm never hit Pasadena.

Just after 9 p.m., a strong thunderstorm was detected near Mt. Wilson moving southwest to between Pasadena and Monrovia. Forecasters predicted the storm would produce wind gusts up to 50 miles per hour, brief heavy downpours, frequent lightning and pea-sized hail, according to the National Weather Service.

Cruel World was taking place at Brookside near the Pasadena Bowl.

“At the direction of Pasadena Fire Department, the venue was evacuated due to unsafe weather conditions and lightning strikes in the area, verified by the National Weather Service,” in a statement posted to the Cruel World website.

Famed rocker Iggy Pop was in the middle of a music set when the audio was cut to the fans’ dismay. An announcer stated severe weather was approaching the festival site and attendees needed to evacuate.

“If I don’t get a refund I’m about to file a chargeback because the event “was not as described or defective.” Tickets clearly state “RAIN OR SHINE” which in turn only resulted in one lightning bolt so far in the distance that cancelled especially when there was NO RAIN!!!” wrote one attendee.

“I’m not buying it. There was more shelter IN the event than there was in the wide open golf course where we all got aimlessly herded to for nearly an hour. Something is fishy, because there was no storm in the additional hour it took to even leave the parking lot,” wrote another attendee.

“I can’t believe a few distant lightning strikes shut this whole thing down. Between the Adam Ant no show and abruptly cutting Iggy Pop mid performance and killing the headliner Siouxsie’s performance (the reason many of us were there) this show was a shit show,” another attendee wrote.

Others were more understanding.

“From noon until 9 PM Cruel World was a fabulous show. We missed a band and a half for lightning people saw. Safety first. I will return for Cruel World 2024,” one attendee wrote.

British New Wave singer and musician Gary Numan issued a statement on the day’s events

“This morning our bus broke down on the way to the Cruel World festival so we were about 4 hours late arriving. Our set went incredibly well though, amazing crowd, got to see some great bands and more than a few old friends. But, the festival was cut short (due to lightning apparently) and everyone evacuated. Sadly Siouxsie was not allowed to play. It was a somewhat bizarre and disappointing end to what had been a really good day. Not sure what the end result will be. Thank you to everyone that came to watch us play today. We had the best time.”

The predicted storm briefly hit the Arcadia and Monrovia areas before quickly dissipating.

Festival organizers promised that Siouxsie Sioux of Siouxsie and the Banshees and that Iggy Pop will perform Sunday, May 21, with Siouxsie slated to perform an extended set for her only North American performance for 2023.

The National Weather Service predicts a 20 percent chance of thunderstorms before 11 a.m. and before 11 p.m. Sunday, May 21. Much of the day is expected to be partly cloudy with a high near 79 degrees.

Written by AARON CASTREJON
CityWatch Editor

PASADENA - Pasadena City College Police and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies searched and found no credible threats regarding the community college Monday.

An anonymous tip was sent Sunday through the campus’s website that there was a threat involving the library. The library remained closed Monday morning for several hours during the search, according to Alex Boekelheide, executive director of Office of Strategic Communications & Marketing at PCC.

Boekelheide declined to specify what the threat may have been and referred to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

The library was clear to re-open by 11 a.m. Monday, Boekelheide told SGV CityWatch.

Anyone can send in an anonymous tip to provide suspected crime information through the Lancer Anonymous Tip Reporting feature that can be accessed through the PCC website.

The campus notes that the anonymous tip feature is not intended for in progress crimes. For emergencies, or crimes in progress, call campus police at 626-585-7484.