The Death of Susie Lopez

Despite what the Daily News is calling community outrage, Mayor Villaraigosa will wait out the LAPD investigation of the Sunday evening shootout before making a comment about the conduct of the police. He and Chief Bratton both agree that it was Raul Peña who was most responsible for the tragic outcome to Sunday's standoff. Its very interesting to see what our local papers and a paper up north find important. While the Los Angeles Times focused on the press conferences yesterday and recreating the crime with fancy graphics (which we found very helpful), the Daily News talked with family and friends of Susie Lopez and Raul Peña and found out that he was commended by then Mayor Hahn in 2002 for saving a life. The San Francisco Chronicle notes that this is only the 2nd time in 4000 cases that a hostage lost their life in a SWAT operation. Most jarring detail of the case? That the child was shot in the head.