AZUSA : FBI Investigating Alleged Harassment of 2 Families
The FBI has opened an investigation into the alleged racially motivated harassment of two black families in Azusa by Latino gang members.
Police Chief Byron Nelson requested a federal investigation last week after former Azusa residents Laurie Martin and Debra Judge said they were driven from their homes Sept. 21 when two youths on bicycles fired eight shots at the houses on Pasadena Avenue. No one was injured, but the shooting capped nine months of threats, racial slurs, graffiti-writing and rock-throwing by neighborhood Latino youths, the women said.
FBI investigators from the West Covina office are expected to send a report to the Justice Department in January, supervising Special Agent Steve Steinhauser said Monday.
Although no suspects have been arrested in the shooting, or in past harassment incidents, those responsible could be prosecuted for violating federal civil rights laws that forbid discrimination in housing, Steinhauser said.
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