Hawthorne Press Tribune The Weekly Newspaper of Hawthorne Herald Publications - Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale, El Segundo, Torrance & Manhattan Beach Community Newspapers Since 1911 - Circulation 30,000 - Readership 60,000 (310) 322-1830 - June 9, 2016 Inside This Issue Certified & Licensed Professionals.......................5 Classifieds............................3 Legals....................... 2, 4, 6-7 Looking Up...........................3 Pets........................................8 Police Reports.....................3 Sports....................................5 Weekend Forecast Friday Mostly Sunny 73˚/61˚ Saturday Mostly Sunny 72˚/61˚ Sunday Mostly Sunny 70˚/59˚ Woodcraft Rangers Receives Community Impact Arts Grant The Los Angeles County Arts Commission has awarded The Community Impact Arts Grant to Woodcraft Rangers. The grant will provide funding for Woodcraft’s mariachi and folklorico programs and their performing arts competition, Spirit Jam. This grant will allow the 94-year-old organization to expand its already amazing mariachi and folklorico programs into other schools. Woodcraft Rangers is a nonprofit organization serving the youth and communities of Southern California. Photo by David Perez City Honors Airship Pilots as Officers of the Month By Derrick Deane Hawthorne Police Chief Robert Fager presented two airship pilots with Police Officers of the Month honors and also introduced the newest captain to the force at the Hawthorne City Council Meeting on May 24. Pilots Matthew Manley and Athanasios Megas were honored by the department for their part in helping lead to the capture of three robbery suspects. On Jan. 13, detectives from the Hawthorne Police Department’s Narcotics Unit worked a joint narcotics investigation with members of the Asuza Police Department, the DEA, and other members in the city of Corona. Also assisting in the operation were Manley and Megas who piloted Airship 55. During the evening hours of the investigation, detectives were led to a shopping center at the intersection on Citrus Avenue and Foothill Boulevard in the city of Fontana. While undercover detectives were monitoring the shopping center as part of the narcotics investigation, an Asuza police department detective notified officers that he was witnessing three people running through an adjacent parking lot. The three subjects were wearing masks and one of them was carrying a large bag. The detective also said that he believed one of them was carrying a handgun. Airship 55 which was overhead monitoring the narcotics investigation, also witnessed the three subjects running and diverted their attention to them. “Air 55 monitored the subjects as they ran through an adjacent neighborhood and into an awaiting getaway car,” Fager said. “It was soon learned from arriving Fontana police that a takeover robbery of a pharmacy had just occurred and the three were responsible.” After tracking the vehicle for several miles, Megas was able to make contact with another law enforcement helicopter in the area and relay the circumstances. As Megas was communicating with that air unit, Manley was broadcasting the direction of travel and road conditions to arriving police units on the ground. Eventually, the tracking responsibilities were handed off to a Fontana airship that arrived on scene. “The accuracy of both Megas’ and Manely’s radio transmissions of where the suspect vehicle was located allowed the Fontana PD to locate and stop the vehicle,” Fager said. The suspects failed to stop and led Fontana police officers on a high speed chase ultimately ending in the city of San Bernardino with the suspect vehicle ramming a Fontana police car. While the three suspects attempted to flee on foot, two of them were arrested immediately and one remained outstanding inside a containment area. A search of the crash that night netted a handgun as well as miscellaneous items from the business that was robbed. “Fontana officers that were at the scene as well as the detectives following up the investigation praised the work that Air 55 did in this investigation and acknowledged that it would have been unlikely to capture any of the suspects had it not been for their quick response and work,” Fager said. “This incident showcases the professionalism of the Air 55 flight crew and highlights the value of the eyes in the sky.” Fager stated that he wanted to emphasize that, “crime knows no borders. So to some of the community members hearing this, some first reaction might be, ‘Why were they so far away?’ and ‘Why were they in Fontana?’ and that’s kind of the reality that from time to time gets lost in television shows. There is no perimeter to criminal nature, so a lot of the narcotics trafficking and street level abuses in criminalities that occur in our region have roots to multiple counties as well as different national borders.” Manley has been with the police department for 19 years. He started out in 1996 in the Traffic Bureau as a parking enforcement officer. In 1999, he was hired on as a police officer and worked on patrol for five years. He is a recipient of the South Bay Distinguished Service Award in 2004 for his performance during an incident involving an armed suspect who was firing upon him and fellow officers. After five years on patrol, Manley took a position as a Field Training Officer where he trained numerous Hawthorne police recruits. In 2007, he took a job in the air unit as a tactical flight officer and a year later was honored as Officer of the Month. In 2014, Manley became Hawthorne’s first, full-time, sworn pilot and has also been a member of the city’s SWAT team for the past four years. “During his time in air support he has been a part of a team that has built a successful, safe, and efficient unit,” Fager said. Megas has been a helicopter pilot for the Hawthorne Police Department for 11 years however he was a full-time police officer for the Long Beach Police Department for 24 years and retired from there last year. During his time at Long Beach, Megas was a tactical flight officer and pilot in their air support for more than 18 years. Prior to his police career, Megas served in the U.S. Marine Corps where he was a graduate from Army Ranger School. Fager also introduced the newest captain to the Hawthorne Police Department, Julian Catano. Catano has been with the Hawthorne Police Department since 1993. “I’ve had the honor, privilege, and fun of working with Julian over the years in many capacities,” Fager said. “His experience ranges from patrol services and investigations with a high degree of competency in narcotics investigations. He has experience running task force operations for us and was a K-9 handler at one point for narcotic detection.” Catano has also run various units with the department on his rise to his new rank. “Our focus in the police department is to always put a high degree of what I call, ‘civic value.’ It’s really getting a police department that is not just going to be an expected public safety component but it’s going to give something to our community that makes them want to rally around the men and women who do a very, very difficult.” •
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