WHAT:
Press Conference

WHO:
Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton
James M. Sheehan, Assistant Director in Charge of FBI, Los Angeles

WHEN:
Wednesday, January 21, 2004
11:00 a.m.

WHERE:
Federal Building
11000 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles

Los Angeles: The Los Angeles Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation will announce the arrests of individuals with ties to the "Bounty Hunter Bloods," a vicious Los Angeles based street gang.

In 1993, two Compton Police Officers, James Wayne MacDonald and Kevin Michael Burrell, were killed execution style by a Bounty Hunter Blood Gang member. In 1996, Viola McCain, an 82 year-old grandmother and an occupant at the Nickerson Gardens Project, was shot and killed by a Bounty Hunter Blood gang member after returning from church. In December 2003, Los Angeles Police Department patrol officers were fired upon in two separate ambush-style shooting incidents which took place within the Nickerson Gardens Project. In December 2000, the FBI convicted 30 Bounty Hunter Blood Gang members on federal drug violations for the distribution and conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine.

Photographs of the arrestees will be made available during the press conference.

This news advisory was prepared by Public Information Officer Jason Lee, Media Relations Section, at 213-485-3586.