Armando Escobar served as a sergeant in the U.S. army and spent a 9-month tour of duty in Iraq without ever experiencing a gun shot wound. But all that changed on May 11, 2007 in Orange County when Escobar was shot in the face while playing volleyball with his sister in his own front yard. He was rushed to UCI Medical Center, where he was sutured internally and externally to close up his wounds. Two members of the Darkside street gang—Arroyo and Torres, were later arrested in connection with the shooting. Both men had driven into Escobar’s neighborhood around 6 p.m. on the date of incident seeking to retaliate against rivals from the 18th Street gang for an incident earlier in the day. However, Arroyo’s aim was not accurate and he hit Escobar instead.

Arroyo was later found guilty of two counts of attempted murder, street terrorism, and a weapons charge, which could result in a 50-year prison sentence. Torres was also initially charged with attempted murder, however, charges were dismissed after authorities learned he had been shot and paralyzed in a previous gang shooting in which he was sentenced to prison for more than a decade for his involvement. See Penal Code Sections 186.22; 664-187; 245(a) (1).

A Medicare fraud case involving Santa Ana gang members and a Long Beach man, Michael Martinez resulted in a 10 year prison sentence for the latter. Martinez pled guilty to a felony as part of a plea deal according to the Orange County Register. Of the 20 co-defendants in the case, six of them were Santa Ana gang members that acted as owners of a supposed medical supply company. Each of them was paid $5,000 for participating in the scheme. Claims were then filed to Medicare for hoax orders of wheelchairs and hospital beds totaling $11.2 million. Sentencing for Martinez is on July 17th of this year.

An ordinance, adopted January 2009, in the city of Lancaster in Los Angeles County is seeing positive results after imposing stiff penalties on dog owners. Owners of “potentially dangerous” and “vicious” dogs such as pit bulls and Rottweilers are prevented from using their dogs to bully people or cause physical harm to others.

Since the passage of the law, the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control impounded 1,138 pit bulls and Rottweilers and of those, 362 were voluntarily surrendered by owners.

Lancaster’s Mayor, R. Rex Parris, said that a year ago “these individuals delighted in the danger these animals posed to our residents, often walking them without leashes and allowing them to run rampant through our neighborhoods and parks.” According to Parris, Lancaster is a lot safer now since the ordinance was passed. Parris said there was a 45% drop in Lancaster’s violent gang crime, which includes homicide (Penal Code Section 187), rape(Penal Code Section 220), robbery (Penal Code Section 211) and aggravated assault (Penal Code Section 245(a) (1).