MAN ARRESTED FOR KILLING SON, 9, WITH HATCHET: SACRAMENTO (AP) — A Sacramento-area man has been arrested for allegedly killing his 9-year-old son in a hatchet attack.
Sacramento police say 36-year-old Phillip Raymond Hernandez was arrested on suspicion of homicide around noon Tuesday.
The Sacramento Bee reports officers arrived at the suspect's Natomas home after receiving two emergency calls. They found the boy was unresponsive and had suffered from blunt force trauma to the head. He was declared dead at the scene.
Officials say police set a perimeter around the neighborhood and soon found Hernandez, who was detained without trouble.
Police say Hernandez's 12-year-old son was also home but was not harmed. The victim's mother was out of California when he was killed.
In a press release, police said, "There is no explanation for Hernandez' unimaginable actions."
LA LOOKS AT COMPUTERIZING AMMO SALES RECORDS: LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles city councilman has proposed an electronic system to record ammunition sales to make it easier to track illegal purchases.
Councilman Paul Krekorian introduced a motion Tuesday to amend city law to require automatic, time-of-sale electronic reporting of all ammunition sales.
City ammunition dealers are required to log all purchases. These logs are usually hand-written and kept at each store.
Dealers must keep records for two years and are not required to report them to the Police Department. Dealers are required to make sale logs available for inspection upon request.
Police officers must physically visit each of the city's 16 ammunition dealers to inspect their logs to determine if purchasers are felons or otherwise prohibited from possessing firearms.
The motion now goes to the council's Public Safety Committee.
SUIT SAYS FRESNO POLICE CHIEF IS A RACIST: FRESNO (AP) — A black police captain is suing a California city, saying Fresno's police chief racially discriminated against him.
Capt. Al Maroney's lawsuit filed last week says police Chief Jerry Dyer reassigned him for lodging complaints beginning in 2007.
Maroney objected to being reassigned because of his son's medical needs and the time required for his new assignment. The suit says reassignment resulted in a loss of status and esteem among his peers.
The Fresno Bee says the chief sent Maroney to the predominantly black southwest Fresno area because, in the chief's words, he would be a "great blend."
Dyer says he's confident the city of Fresno will prevail.
FRESNO POLICE LOOKING FOR 7 MISSING CHILDREN: FRESNO (AP) — Fresno police are asking for the public's help in finding seven children missing since Saturday in what investigators are terming a possible family abduction.
Fresno police Sgt. Jaime Rios says the children — ages 5 to 12 — were taken from their Fresno home when their mother and stepfather left to go to a grocery store Saturday evening.
The mother and stepfather told police when they returned from the store the children — along with their clothes in the home — were gone.
Investigators suspect the children were taken by their biological father, Xa Yang. He's been estranged from the family for three years.
It's believed Yang lives in Sacramento or nearby, but police have been unable contact him.
2 ARRESTED IN KIDNAPPING TO GET TO STRIP CLUB: LOS ANGELES (AP) — Authorities say two men were so desperate to catch a performance at a suburban LA strip club, they kidnapped a man and forced him to drive them there.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Miguel Ortiz and Sergio Maldonado were arrested as they sat in the audience of the gentlemen's club in Hawthorne early Wednesday.
Los Angeles Sheriff's Capt. Eli Vera says the incident unfolded when two men on foot approached a man standing in front of a house around midnight and demanded he give them a ride.
Fearing they were gang members, he agreed. Vera says the suspects made him stop at several locations before ending up at the strip club, where they allegedly robbed and released him before entering.
Vera says the men are suspected gang members.
