Live, local, late breaking. You're watching News 15 at 10.
Good evening. Police make arrests in a crime so despicable it's hard to believe.
Phoenix police say that as many as 30 gang members raped a 15-year-old South Phoenix
girl. Today they went door to door, arresting six of the suspects. News 15's Paul Johnson
is live outside Phoenix Police headquarters with the latest details on this chilling story.
Paul?
Yes, there were several weeks after the reported rape, nine of the suspects, a total of nine
of the suspects are in custody. Now even though they're all teenagers, 16 and 17 years old
mostly, they're all being held as adults. And police say this could be just the beginning
that there may be more than 30 young men involved.
This morning police went looking for more than two dozen suspected rapists. All are
members of a South Phoenix street gang and all are thought to have participated in the
gang rape of a 15-year-old girl. That girl told police she was taken into this vacant
home and raped repeatedly over a period of 18 hours.
You know I'm deeply troubled that it would happen on my street.
Arrested this morning are 16-year-old Daniel Robinson, 17-year-old Tyron Auzyne, Donald
Love and Jermaine Johnson. At least two of them have criminal records. Last year Auzyne
was caught carrying a concealed weapon. He was sentenced to home detention and probation,
which he later violated. Love has previous convictions for burglary and trespassing and
court records show he also violated his probation.
Late this afternoon police arrested two more suspects. They say Michael Connor on the left
and Dennis Watson on the right are members of the same street gang. Detectives say this
gang may also be responsible for an assortment of other crimes.
In the last two or three months we've had a series of us, serious assaults, aggravated
assaults and some homicides in that particular area that we believe that this gang was involved
in. Maybe the most disturbing of all, police theorize that gang members raped the girl
as some kind of initiation or reaffirmation ritual.
It's almost like saying I still am part of the gang and this is the way I'm going to
prove it.
Okay I want to repeat that the six suspects arrested today, three were being held. They
were arrested last week. Now since Phoenix police say that all the suspects are members
of a very active south side gang, they could also face charges under the state's organized
crime syndicate law which would carry even stiffer penalties. Mark and Jennifer, police
say aren't saying when or how but they do expect to make more arrests soon.
Good Paul, it's nice to see police getting a handle on this one.
Thanks Paul. Paul Johnson's reporting live.
A botched bank robbery turns into what Los Angeles police call their most intense shootout
ever.
Six suspects are dead, nine officers injured and five bystanders hurt. But before we show
you what happened, we really need to warn you. Some of the pictures you're about to
see include the suspects being shot and killed.
It started when LA police interrupted a bank robbery.
Reports of gunfire and with automatic weapons. Use caution.
Heavily armed suspects dressed like commandos started firing with automatic weapons. Officers
fired back.
All this flying, sounds, shots, cars screaming, people running.
One suspect jumped in a getaway car, the other used it as a shield as he fired at virtually
everything in sight.
We're over manned, over gunned.
Police shot and killed one of the suspects when he moved out into the open.
Later officers cornered the suspect in the getaway car and killed him.
While on the lookout for other suspects, police rammed a storage shed but didn't find anyone.
Police say the suspects were wanted by the FBI for a series of robberies. Tonight they're
still not sure if any other suspects are on the loose.
Listen to this, early on in this gunfire, the officers apparently were outgunned so
they resorted to nearby gun stores to go in there and find more powerful weapons.
They actually borrowed weapons from a gun store. Well, police in the valley say it's
a growing problem across the country. Criminals better armed than officers who must stop them.
I have to tell you we've got a little problem with the lighting in the studio right now,
it's not your television set.
As News 15's Mark LaDotta reports, Phoenix police hope they have the people and weapons
in place to handle a problem similar to the one in Los Angeles.
83 Frank, Channel 3.
Phoenix Police Sergeant Frank Milstead knows with every call he may be facing a high powered
weapon.
Those type of things, I mean they're out there all the time and you never know, but it could
just be a traffic stop where you run across something. It's just, the officers have always
got to be on their toes and always paying attention to what they're doing or they'll
get hurt.
Armed with semi-automatic pistols and shotguns, patrol officers can quickly find themselves
outgunned, like this Los Angeles officer did today.
You're out there with a 9mm with 17 rounds in it, shooting with a guy who's got a fully
automatic weapon, I don't think it could be any worse. We've got quite a bit of armament
and hopefully that's whatever happened in California doesn't happen here.
Phoenix Police Sergeant Mike Torres watched Los Angeles officers try and initially failed
to contain the suspects armed with fully automatic machine guns.
You saw what happened there with the officers with the handguns, they're spraying bullets
all around the suspect on the ground and they're not hitting him.
But this former SWAT team leader believes Phoenix Police could quickly respond to a
similar situation armed with powerful weapons of their own.
Throughout the city are neighborhood response teams. You see them most often on bicycles.
But close by in their cars, these officers have semi-automatic rifles.
They are the quick fix. They're not tied to a beat. They respond to hot spots throughout
the city.
You know, those weapons are good for specific situations, but you know, for really what
the beat cop does, shotguns and handguns are really our best weapons.
And of course, also on duty 24 hours a day are SWAT teams with both semi-automatic and
fully automatic weapons. But even if they had the option, you heard Sergeant Milstead
say many Raylor patrol officers say they wouldn't want a semi-automatic rifle. That's because
those weapons are very powerful and unlike criminals, cops have to worry about where
that round goes if they miss or if the bullet doesn't stop with the primary target. Something
that the criminals just don't have to think about.
Right.
Mark, did the Phoenix police officers give you any kind of insight as to whether or not
they can learn from a situation like this?
They say they look at situations like this and they try to learn from them. They're going
to look at this tape much as they did after the Rodney King incited riots several years
ago in Los Angeles also.
Well, thanks to all those TV helicopters up there. They've got a lot of tape to look at.
That's true.
Okay, thanks, Mark.
Thanks a lot.
It's now the violent week at South Mountain High School. Extra police officers and parents
checked IDs as students made their way into school today. Police had to step in twice
this week when small fights broke out of control. Parents, teachers and administrators are now
looking for ways to make things safer.
We have some good kids. We have some fine athletes, some great performers in the different
areas and we need to show that. We need to bring that stuff out. These kids are here
to learn.
Twenty-seven students have been suspended. School officials say that there will be more
suspensions. Parents and extra security will be at South Mountain indefinitely.
A prisoner transfer between New Mexico and Arizona is underway. The first busload carrying
about 40 inmates arrived this morning in this private facility in Florence. They are the
first of nearly 300 medium security inmates heading to Arizona. New Mexico officials decided
to move the prisoners after discovering a tunnel and plans for a riot at an overcrowded
facility near Santa Fe.
Watch as hundreds of bags of cocaine turn to ash at this copper smelter in Hayden, Arizona.
That's about 30 miles southeast of Superior. Narcotics officers found six tons of cocaine
in a Tucson warehouse last December. The folks at the copper smelter agreed to burn it as
a public service. It took about an hour and a half to vaporize all of the coke.
New information tonight on a store clerk in Guadalupe who fought back against an alleged
thief. The clerk from this store, Maria Jimenez Hernandez, has been charged with one count
of aggravated assault. Last December she shot Johnny Gonzalez because she says he tried
to steal beer.
All a happy ending to a story News 15 has been following for several months. Find out
why this is the day one Valley family has been waiting for. It is a life changing program.
See how a statewide charity is helping women get a new look so they can get a new life.
The winter storm is finally exiting our state. I'll have the latest for our all important
weekend coming up. A new breathing treatment is saving the lives of critically ill infants.
Mark Bailey and Jennifer Ryan with these stories and much more.
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dealers. Timothy McVeigh's attorney say reports that
his client confessed to the Oklahoma city bombings are nonsense.
That tops our look at news across America. The Dallas morning news claims it has defense
notes of jailhouse interviews in which McVeigh admits to the bombing. The paper claims McVeigh
also implicates Terry Nichols, the other man charged in the bombing. But McVeigh's attorney
says the Dallas morning news is the victim of a hoax and is irresponsible for running
the story, but he doesn't think it will have a lasting effect.
Now these people in the Denver jury wheel are not going to be impressed by some Texas
newspaper trying to build their circulation at the expense of reporters and journalists
such as yourselves who've worked this case in the honest and industrious way.
McVeigh's case is scheduled to go to trial March 31st.
The Texas mother who tried to hire a hit man to kill the mother of one of her daughter's
cheerleading rivals gets out of jail early. Wanda Hollowell was sentenced to 10 years
in prison. She walked out today after serving only six months behind bars. The judge placed
her on nine and a half years probation and sentenced her to 1,000 hours of community
service.
Authorities in Georgia find 16 bombs in the home of a man they arrested for shooting at
two sheriff's deputies. The man lives in a small town 50 miles southwest of Atlanta.
Police say there's no indication he is in any way connected to any of the recent bombings
in Atlanta. A nightclub bombed last Friday reopened tonight. Police still don't know
who's responsible for that bombing. FBI agents say the blast is similar, however, to the
Olympic Park bombing and another blast at an Atlanta area abortion clinic.
Fire burned them out of their house four months ago, but today a Phoenix family has a new
home. You might remember 12-year-old Mariano Olivares. He ran into the burning home to
save his eight-year-old brother Francisco. Today they moved into this new home near 48th
Street in McDowell. Two local home companies donated the house to the family, and the family
says they are very grateful.
I'm happy, very happy for my family, very happy. The boy's mother reminded her two
little boys that they need to be extra cautious in their new home. An overheating electrical
cord actually caused their last house fire.
But they were so happy this morning. You know, all they wanted to do was play hide and go
seek in their new house.
I know, it was wonderful.
Good kids. All right, the storm that hit the valley is gone, but what will the weekend
be like? Meteorologist Ed Phillips up next to let us know.
And a fresh start for women who are trying to make ends meet but just can't do it on
their own.
Buyer beware. Some things aren't always what they appear to be. But not with Toyota's
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Wake up, Arizona. Roost Kirk starts your day. Detour Dan joins Ned and Ed. Paul Harvey has
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