POMONA >> Children in shiny, clean shoes and bright backpacks cheerfully come bustling out of their apartments on a sunny morning ready to be walked to school. Mothers and some fathers, holding tiny hands, escort their tots. The smiling children seem oblivious to the gang graffiti scrawled on the walls of apartment buildings, on fences and even on sidewalks along the way.
“We see it and we’re aware of it, but what can you do,” said one mother after she returned from dropping off her daughters at a nearby school. “It’s where we live right now and you don’t want to bring too much attention to yourself because, you know, we have families we have to worry about.”
The woman, who asked not to be identified, lives in a cluster of apartment buildings south of Olive Street and north of County Road, which she acknowledged has been known as a tough area where violence could erupt at any moment.
“Right now it’s calmed down, but I know of about five people who have died here,” she said shuffling her feet as she stood behind the gate of her complex. “But no one wants to get involved.”
It’s that fear that often hampers homicide investigations and can contribute to a case going cold, said Pomona police Sgt. Lena Becker.
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In cases like these, time may not heal all wounds, but it can help solve cases.
“All of the technological advances, like DNA, of course, help solve cold cases but one of the main ways we solve these homicides is someone stepping forward after some time,” she said.
According to Becker and other Pomona police officials, witnesses tend to come forward when the threat has dissipated.
“Sometimes (witnesses) move away, sometimes the suspect moves away and (witnesses) feel safe enough to come forward,” she said.
In the summer of 2011, investigators were able to make two arrests connected to two cold case homicides after someone stepped forward with additional information.
In 2010, a witness provided investigators with fresh leads allowing detectives to reopen an 11-year-old cold case.
Darryl Anthony Colbert and Curtis John Elmore, both 34, were arrested on suspicion of killing 22-year-old Douglas Bailey during a violent Pomona home invasion robbery. During the investigation, detectives learned Colbert was already facing murder charges in an additional cold case from 2001 where 29-year-old Eugene Vasquez was killed during a drive-by shooting in the 1000 block of West Third Street in Pomona. Again, a witness stepped forward in the Vasquez shooting resulting in Colbert’s arrest.
The cases against Colbert were consolidated and then dismissed in October of last year after prosecutors announced they were not ready to move forward with the case, according to Sarah Ardalani, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
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Colbert’s alleged gang ties may have been one of the main reasons people were afraid to come forward.
“People are scared,” said Sgt. Marcus Perez. “Especially in gang cases.”
That appears to be the case in the Chanslor Street neighborhood, where according to data from 2000 to 2010, gathered by the Los Angeles News Group, at least 14 homicides have taken place in the tiny community where gang graffiti is commonplace. Nine of those cases have gone unsolved.
During that same span, a total of 224 people were killed in Pomona. Nearly half of those — 105 cases, or 47 percent — remain unsolved.
Across Los Angeles County 11,244 homicides were recorded during the same 11-year period. A total of 4,862 of those homicides — 46 percent — remain unsolved, according to data from Los Angeles County law enforcement agencies collected and analyzed by the Los Angeles News Group, which includes this newspaper.
In spring 2013, as friends mourned the loss of two boys, 13-year-old Justin Perez of Pomona, and his best friend, Andy Chavez, 17, of Upland, gunned down in an alley off of Angela Street, some recalled the similar circumstances surrounding a teen girl’s slaying only three years earlier. Casandra Jacobo, 17, was walking home with a friend on the night of March 16, 2010, when someone approached the two and asked them what gang they belonged to.
Despite both Casandra and her friend’s protest that night that they were not affiliated with any gang, police said the unidentified male took out a gun and shot Casandra at close range.
The boy she was walking with managed to run off and was not hurt. No arrests have been made in Casandra’s slaying and a motive has not been released.
Just six months later, Janet Perez, 18, was killed in a nearby alley within the same small neighborhood.
“We understand people are scared but we just need for someone to come forward so we can work on these cases,” said Perez.
