Written by AARON CASTREJON
CityWatch Editor

EAST LOS ANGELES - A known gang member who reportedly frequents the West Covina area is being sought for an April 18 shooting in East Los Angeles the left three people wounded, investigators said.

Investigators are searching for Edward Figueroa, who is a member of the Harpys 13 gang. An argument inside a bar located in the 5200 block of Pomona Boulevard in East Los Angeles led to Figueroa reportedly revealing a handgun and opening fire, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Figueroa is known to carry a weapon and should be considered armed and dangerous.

Anyone with information on Figueroa’s whereabouts is urged to call the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Operation Safe Streets bureau at 323-264-4151. Information can be provided anonymously 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

LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department will formally announce The arrest of the suspect accused of robbing and assaulting a rideshare driver in South El Monte.

Deputies will announce the arrest and provide the name of the suspect and a press conference scheduled for 2 p.m. Thursday, May 20 at the Sheriff’s Temple Station, 8838 E. Las Tunas Dr., in Temple City.

The brutal assault and armed robbery of a rideshare driver in South El Monte May 10 was caught on the driver’s dash camera and shared far and wide.

The assault and robbery occurred near Rosemead Boulevard and Rush Street around 9:20 p.m. The driver, an older Asian man, was left multiple facial trauma, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Written by AARON CASTREJON
CityWatch Editor

LOS ANGELES - Investigators are searching for a woman missing since November 2018.

Lindsey Kathleen Sprague, 36, was last seen in San Bernardino County. She was identified as a San Dimas resident, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Information Bureau.

Sprague stands 5 feet 2 inches tall, weighs 160 pounds, has blond or brown hair and hazel eyes. She also has a tattoo of a shooting star on her right shoulder blade and a tattoo of the Roman numeral 12 on her left forearm.

Anyone with the information on the whereabouts of Sprague is urged to call the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Missing Persons Unit at 323-890-5500. Information can be provided anonymously 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

LOS ANGELES – A San Marino man who was recorded while accelerating towards a crowd of protestors in Old Town Pasadena May 31 last year pleaded guilty to 11 felony weapons charges, prosecutors said Thursday.

Benjamin Jong Ren Hung, 28, entered into a plea agreement filed April 29 and pleaded guilty to conspiracy, transporting and receiving firearms across state lines, making false statements during purchases of firearms, possession of unregistered firearms and illegally transporting firearms across state lines to California, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Hung admitted to making false statements to gun dealers in the state of Washington when purchasing four rifles and a shotgun in March 2020, falsely claiming he was a Washington resident.

“The firearms dealers were not legally permitted to sell firearms to California residents,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Hung also admitted to taking part in a multi-year conspiracy in making false statements to arms dealers in Oregon to illegally transport weapons to California. He paid a co-conspirator to purchase handguns for him and had the co-conspirator claim he was Hung. The weapons were then delivered by the co-conspirator to Hung.

This elaborate scheme was concocted to elude California’s strict gun laws, Hung stated in the plea agreement, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Hung also admitted to illegally possessing three unregistered short-barreled semiautomatic rifles, which were seized from his Lodi home in September 2020, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

In his plea agreement, Hung admitted to taking a Glock 26 9mm handgun to a George Floyd protest May 31, 2020, where he used his customized Dodge pickup truck to antagonize protesters. Hung accelerated towards the intersection, sounded the truck’s train horn he had installed, briefly stopped, then continued through the intersection, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

As Hung fled, his truck left a large cloud of exhaust, an act sometimes referred to as “coal rolling,”

Hung was found and arrested by Pasadena Police.

A date for Hung to appear in court to formally enter the guilty pleas has not yet been set. This matter was investigated by the FBI’s Los Angeles Joint Terrorism Task Force, FBI civil rights squads and the Pasadena Police Department, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.