{"id":467388,"date":"2010-03-24T09:56:25","date_gmt":"2010-03-24T13:56:25","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c630a53ef01310fd69f6d970c"},"modified":"2010-03-24T12:24:36","modified_gmt":"2010-03-24T16:24:36","slug":"truck-torchings-may-be-latest-attack-on-hemet-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/467388","title":{"rendered":"Truck torchings may be latest attack on Hemet police"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Hemet\"<\/img>
<\/br> Several Hemet city trucks were torched late Tuesday night, and authorities are investigating whether the incidents are connected to a string of attacks <\/a>on the area’s police.<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

Officials have put up a $200,000 reward for
\ninformation leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible. <\/p>\n

The attacks have involved booby traps at the
\nheadquarters of the Hemet-San Jacinto Gang Task Force and the targeting of officers
\nassigned to the unit, officials said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\t<\/a><\/p>\n

In December, a gas utility
\nline was redirected to fill the offices with gas; any spark could have
\ntriggered an explosion. In February, a modified handgun was hidden by
\nthe
\ngate to the office and rigged to fire. When a gang officer opened the
\ngate, the weapon went off, narrowly missing him. And two weeks ago,
\npolice said, a "dangerous" device was found near the unmarked car of a
\ntask-force member.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

On Friday afternoon, someone called 911
\nsaying a police car would be blown up in the next two days as revenge
\nfor a law-enforcement sweep earlier this week of a local motorcycle
\ngang.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The gang task force, formed in 2006, is made up of local, state and federal law-enforcement agencies.<\/p>\n

\nSo far, there are no official suspects in the threats or potentially deadly incidents. But last week, authorities
\nled raids on the Vagos outlaw motorcycle gang. The group has a significant
\npresence in Hemet. Thirty people were arrested on charges that included
\npossession of drugs and weapons.<\/p>\n

The latest torching incident did not target police directly, but police say they are looking for links between the burned trucks and the police attacks.<\/p>\n

Investigators were also looking at surveillance video to see if the
\nsuspect or suspects were recorded, Lt. Duane Wisehart told KTLA News.<\/a>
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\n"We are going under the assumption that it is related to the same
\nattacks previously," Wisehart said, referring to the three booby trap
\nincidents against Hemet police in recent months.<\/p>\n

–Shelby Grad<\/p>\n

Photo: Investigators at the scene where several Hemet city trucks were set ablaze late Tuesday night. Credit: Irfan Khan \/ Los Angeles Times<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several Hemet city trucks were torched late Tuesday night, and authorities are investigating whether the incidents are connected to a string of attacks on the area’s police. Officials have put up a $200,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible. The attacks have involved booby traps at the headquarters of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4131,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-467388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467388\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}