Police Mobile Unit a Refuge for Victims’ Families, Friends

Brent Josephson calls them “the forgotten many”--family and friends faced with the aftermath of violence who watch their wounded or dead loved ones from behind yellow police tape.

A Los Angeles Police Department homicide detective, Josephson worked for three years to find a way to soothe their sorrow.

And last week, the LAPD’s South Bureau rolled out its new $60,000 community response vehicle, which Josephson says will improve relations between the Police Department and the community as an on-site haven for family members and friends of homicide victims.

“We don’t have time to deal with them, usually,” he said. “The whole homicide investigation doesn’t avail itself to those who are absolutely forgotten--the victim’s family.”

In an attempt to reconcile his detective duties with his sense of compassion, Josephson, a 16-year veteran, campaigned for something that would combine mobile investigative equipment with a few of the comforts commonly associated with modern recreational vehicles. He installed much of the RV’s cabinetry, computer technology and furniture.

“This vehicle will show some semblance of humanity,” he said.

The 32-foot motor home, along with five used cars that detectives can use, were acquired through a $125,000 federal grant from the Department of Justice’s Community Projects for Restoration, Josephson said. The program incorporates the wishes of about 70 detectives who were surveyed by Josephson.

“I asked them what would they like to see at a crime scene, what they need but don’t have, and how we could improve investigations,” Josephson said.

The result: a vehicle equipped with one-way tinted glass, floodlights, a microwave oven, a refrigerator, a bathroom, a television, a metal detector and comfortable couches as well as a computer, a fax, other evidence-gathering materials--and a dual shotgun rack. Josephson installed much of the RV’s cabinetry, computer equipment and furniture himself.

The new unit, which replaces a smaller van that has been in use since 1989, has also been customized to include a retractable tarpaulin and a power generator.

The vehicle serves many purposes, from helping to quickly produce composite drawings of suspects to protecting the crime scene, said the South Bureau homicide squad’s commanding officer, Lt. John Dunkin. “It’s equipped with everything you’d want to conduct an investigation in the field.”

But more important, Dunkin said, “This vehicle will go a long way to show the community we really do care about them.”

The Hollenbeck and Central divisions have mobile crime units in operation, but only the South Bureau homicide squad has broadened its focus to create a comfort zone for friends and relatives of victims.

Josephson said it will also be used to help protect witnesses against reprisals from assailants who might return to the crime scene.

Last year, there were 229 homicides in the South Bureau, which encompasses South Los Angeles from the Santa Monica Freeway to San Pedro.

The motor home was first used Monday, when it was sent to a South-Central site where the remains of a Compton father and son were found in a burning van.

*

Though no family members were at the scene, counselors from the city attorney’s victim assistance program were present. The program, which refers immediate family members to city support services and pays for funeral costs, works jointly with South Bureau homicide detectives.

Norma Johnson, a victim assistance coordinator for 14 years, said she was glad the vehicle was finally available because it showed that police care for the people they serve.

“What we have a lot of times are barriers between the police and the community,” Johnson said. “We can’t remove all the history between the two but we can take down some of the walls.

“It’s the family who’s going to get the benefits.”

The vehicle will allow loved ones to be near the crime scene, yet not disturb it, said Gail Love-Shallowhorn, another program counselor.

“Most family members want to go to the scene, move things, see things [up close],” she said. “We try to explain to them the procedures that police are going through. We answer all their questions.”

The questions come from people like Danilo Medrano. He says he wishes the vehicle had been around to help him.

Ambushed by gang members on a South Los Angeles street last spring, Medrano watched his longtime friend, Uriel Perez, die in his arms of gunshot wounds.

Perez was 17.

“It was terrible,” said Medrano, now 19, and formerly of East Los Angeles. “We had been friends since second grade.”

Medrano, devastated by the unexpected assault, said he remembers fearing for his life but being offered limited options for safety as detectives cordoned off the crime scene.

“Everybody was looking at us,” he said. “[In that situation] you don’t want to give your face to no one.”

*

Medrano said the only assistance he received at the scene was the transitory shelter of unoccupied police cars.

“It was so cold that night,” he said. “I was out there from about 8 till midnight, going from one car to another.”

The two pals and another friend had circled a block in South Los Angeles two times, looking for the homes of several children they were going to chaperon as they sold candy to raise funds for a youth center trip to Magic Mountain.

But a truck with a 24-foot bed pulled out of a driveway, cutting off Medrano’s van. Two young men got out of the truck and opened fire on the three boys, assuming the slow-moving van was from a rival gang. Perez, the van’s driver, was killed.

Josephson said Medrano’s situation and several similar incidents in which witnesses, friends or family members were not adequately sequestered from the public made the need for the new motor home that much more urgent.

“This vehicle is long overdue,” Josephson said.