L.A. County records fewer January homicides than last year

Los Angeles County began 2010 with significantly fewer homicides in January than in recent years, including a nearly 40% drop in Los Angeles, according to a Times analysis of crime data.

With homicides already at their lowest levels in decades, countywide there were 51 killings in the first month of 2010, compared with 78 in January 2009, according to data gathered for the Homicide Report. There were 79 homicides in January 2008 and 81 in January 2007.

LAPD officials said there were 20 killings last month compared with 33 in January 2009. Gang homicides are down by more than half compared with the same month last year, authorities said.

Officials noted that killings are always somewhat cyclical, but said they were pleased with the results.

“Some people will say it is the weather or the weak economy,” said LAPD Assistant Chief Earl Paysinger. “But we have been very focused like a laser on gang crime and we’ve seen a significant drop in gang homicides compared to this time last year.” The LAPD also has seen steep drops in the number of shots fired and shooting victims.

Paysinger said January 2009 -- which overall had numbers comparable to previous years -- was a particularly tough month in Los Angeles because Ervin Antonio Lupoe, a 40-year-old X-ray technician, killed his wife and five children at their Wilmington home before taking his own life.

There were no such mass murders in LAPD territory in January 2010.

In South Los Angeles, traditionally the deadliest part of the city, gang intervention work in 2010 was better organized and helped officers prevent an escalation of violence after a confrontation or shooting, LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith said.

“One thing it is not is the weather,” Smith said. “The declines occurred before the most recent rains. This is one of the biggest declines I can recall. This would be 240 homicides for a year if it held up.”

In 2009 there were 315 homicides citywide.

Los Angeles isn’t alone in recording a decline in killings. Long Beach had three homicides in January, compared with seven in the same month each of the three previous years.

Inglewood had four killings in January 2009 and has yet to record any this year, according to L.A. County coroner’s records.

L.A. County sheriff’s homicide detectives, however, saw a slight increase.

Sheriff’s investigators have seen 22 homicides in January 2010 compared with 20 in January 2009. Among the killings is the unsolved triple slaying of Brittany Howard, her brother Brandon Wright and boyfriend Ivison Washington inside a Lawndale town house.

LAPD’s Paysinger said he was cautiously optimistic about the downward trend, even as the department grapples with an ever-tightening budget. He cautioned that the trend could change.

For instance, Paysinger said that in February 2009 there were 18 homicides in Los Angeles, a very low total for a month that averages 24. He said that the summer months are traditionally the ones that decide overall crime trends for a year.

He said he believed the low homicide number in January showed that the transition from Chief William J. Bratton to Chief Charlie Beck had been made without missing a step.

“Bratton jump-started the organization,” Paysinger said. “But as the numbers show, we continue to make gains.”

richard.winton@latimes.com