murder warrant for Ricardo Hernandez, 23, of Los Angeles

Los Angeles Police Department has issued a murder warrant for Ricardo Hernandez, 23, of Los Angeles as the suspected killer. Hernandez, Police say, pulled the trigger in the Van Nuys shooting that killed baby Andrew and wounded his pregnant babysitter and another young man.He's still at large and considered armed and dangerous. The Los Angeles City Council has offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction.Getting the investigation to this point involved an intensive effort by the LAPD.The Van Nuys division borrowed homicide detectives fromWest Valley, Mission, Foothill and North Hollywood to help with the investigation as well as personnel from Robbery Homicide. In an exclusive inter view with The San Fernando Valley Sun/El Sol, Homicide Coordinator for Van Nuys Homicide Division Detective Robert Bub, outlined the scope of the investigation."The first thing we did was examine our eyewitness accounts and determine which had the most information to offer us and follow those leads. Simultaneous to that we process and recover whatever evidence we are able to locate. So we have a bifurcated investigation going between the scientific and old fashioned footwork type of police investigation. Fortunately with this case, the nature of our victim gave us quite a number of outside tips, a lot of public support and a lot of public help. That, coupled with our investigation and physical evidence identified our first suspect and led to identification of our adult suspect, Mr. Hernandez," Detective Bub said.
The Baby Garcia case is typical, Detective Bub says, of gang violence. "It's a senseless violence that fortunately, over the last few years, we've been able to reduce through the use of extra patrols, gang officers who are familiar with the neighborhoods."The ultimate solution to gang violence, however, lies beyond law enforcement and beyond the criminal justice system, says Assistant Professor of Sociology at Cal State University, Northridge Kay Kei-ho Kih, "We really have to think about the root causes and the general socioeconomic conditions of these neighborhoods and how to improve lives in general to try to prevent violence and gangs." Professor Kih contends that early intervention when these individuals are still young, could give potential gang members a chance for a normal life. "They should receive some intervention or job training, an education so they can get away from gang life," Professor Kih said.These solutions are for politicians to ponder and implement. For the cops on the ground, it is the gritty reality of gang violence that's their concern. The death of Baby Andrew hit the detectives hard. "We're all family men, we all have kids and it effected everybody very deeply. (Detectives) Jim Nuttal, Mark Martinez, Pete Barba worked long hours, gave up days off, moved days off, they put a lot of time and effort into this. I'm very proud of how the investigation came out and the work that they did," Detective Bub said.The most beneficial information, according to Detective Bub. came from the actual eyewitness accounts that the investigators were able to dredge up through door knocks in the neighborhood and from the people who came forward. "It's nice that we got the sympathy and empathy of the public in regards to our victim, but I would ask in all cases where there are witnesses, if they would come forward, the more of these guys we can put in jail, the safer our streets are.We can't do this by ourselves. The community is a big part of solving these crimes," he said. Due to the tragic circumstances, the family continues to refuse requests for interviews.