Christopher Weber

LA police arrest 2 in killings of Chinese students

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LA police arrest 2 in killings of Chinese studentsThis combo made from undated file photos released by the Los Angeles Police Department on Friday, April 13, 2012 shows shooting victims Ming Qu, left, and Ying Wu. Los Angeles police on Friday, May 18, 2012 arrested two young men in the killings of the Chinese graduate students who were shot to death near the University of Southern California campus last month. (AP Photo/Los Angeles Police Department, File)(Credit: AP)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Anson Cheung says the shooting deaths of two international graduate students near the University of Southern California made headlines back home in Hong Kong, unnerving his parents.

“When I talk to them now, they remind me to be careful, and I know they’re thinking about the shooting,” said Cheung, a 20-year-old business major, adding that he’s never felt unsafe on or around campus.

A day after a pair of arrests were announced in the April killings of two students from China, those on campus for summer programs said Saturday that they’re relieved the crime was solved, but it hasn’t changed their day-to-day behavior.

“If you live around here, you just have to be aware of your surroundings,” said 19-year-old Eduardo Millinedo-Pinon, who grew up in Los Angeles and went to high school just a few blocks from USC. “I knew it as a kid too, the neighborhood can be dangerous. But I’ve seen it get much better over the years, much safer.”

A week after graduation, the usually-bustling campus was relatively calm Saturday, with some students arriving for summer sessions and others packing up for break.

Millinedo-Pinon, sitting on a bench in a sun-drenched campus courtyard, said students know to avoid certain areas, to walk in groups after dark and to keep valuables hidden. Others said students are told on day one to exercise caution in the neighborhoods around the school, located a few miles south of downtown Los Angeles in an area that has faced high crime and gang activity.

On April 11, grad students Ming Qu, of Jilin, and Ying Wu, of Hunan, were shot while sitting in a BMW about a mile away from the school. Both victims were 23 years old.

Javier Bolden, 19, and Bryan Barnes, 20, were arrested Friday on suspicion of killing the students during an apparent robbery attempt, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said.

The victims’ parents filed a lawsuit this week accusing USC of misrepresenting security at the campus, where nearly one-fifth of the 38,000 students are from overseas, including 2,500 from China. The school has more international students than any other U.S. university, USC says.

The motive for the shootings was still under investigation, Beck said, but the “evidence points to a street robbery.”

Ballistics tests on shell casings recovered at the scene show they were fired from the same gun used in two other shootings in LA, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing law enforcement sources.

One of the suspects took a cellphone from one of the victims and detectives were able to locate him by tracking signals sent by the device, the Times said.

Authorities also identified a signal from a second cellphone in proximity to the victim’s phone. The second phone was identified as belonging to the suspect.

Beck said neither suspect had a long criminal history or is a documented gang member, though police suspect they may have a gang affiliation.

Barnes was arrested at a home about five miles from campus Friday afternoon, and Bolden was arrested a few hours later in Palmdale, about 60 miles north of downtown Los Angeles, police said. Both men were being held without bail and are set to be arraigned Tuesday.

USC has more international students than any other U.S. university, according to the school.

In their lawsuit, the victims’ parents alleged that the school made false claims about safety in the “frequently asked questions” section of its online application.

The 15-page lawsuit accuses USC of hiding behind the word “urban” and not saying that the school is in a high-crime residential area. It also notes that Chinese students would interpret urban to mean USC is in a safe area.

“The ‘urban’ representation misled Chinese students, including Ming Qu, into believing the area is safe since in China, the more urban the area, the safer the area,” the lawsuit states.

USC lawyer Debra Wong Yang said the university was deeply saddened by the deaths but found the lawsuit to be baseless.

The school and city police announced new security measures after the slayings and promised more video cameras, escorts and patrols.

Students mostly shrugged at the news of a larger police presence.

Christopher Avilez, 20, arrived Saturday at USC from Orange County to interview for a summer program. He’s not concerned for his safety.

“It’s the big city, you know, so you have to be careful,” Avilez said. “But that’s any big city. I’m not worried at all.”

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Associated Press writer Shaya Tayefe Mohajer in Los Angeles and researcher Henry Hou in Beijing also contributed to this report.

Dennis Hopper dies at 74

The "Easy Rider" star passes away in his California residence, finally losing a long battle with prostate cancer

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Dennis Hopper, the high-flying Hollywood actor-director whose memorable career included the 1969 smash “Easy Rider,” has died. He was 74.

Family friend Alex Hitz says Hopper died Saturday at his Venice home, surrounded by family and friends. The actor had been battling prostate cancer.

Hopper’s roller coaster career also included “Rebel Without a Cause,” “Blue Velvet,” “Apocalypse Now” and “Hoosiers” as well as flops such as “The Last Movie.”

But the improbable success of the 1969 hippie-biker epic “Easy Rider” remained his biggest triumph. He not only co-starred but directed and co-wrote the film, which also starred Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson.

Hopper, Fonda and Terry Southern were nominated for Oscars for best screenplay.

Magnitude-7.2 quake strikes Baja California

The largest quake in the region in nearly 18 years was felt from Los Angeles to Arizona

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Damage reports from the U.S.-Mexico border region are growing after a magnitude-7.2 earthquake in Baja California that was felt from Tijuana and Los Angeles to Las Vegas and Phoenix.

The quake struck south of Mexicali, Mexico, at 3:40 p.m. Sunday, but damage also was being reported north of the border.

Calexico Fire Chief Peter Mercado tells KABC-TV in Los Angeles that there is substantial damage in the older section of the southeastern California city. Mercado says there is structural damage and broken windows, leaking gas lines and damage to the water system. But he says no injuries have been reported.

Across the border, a parking structure at the Mexicali city hall has collapsed. Mexicali is a bustling commerce center where trucks carrying goods cross into California.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A powerful earthquake in Baja California rocked the U.S.-Mexico border region Sunday, collapsing a parking structure south of the border and causing power outages in both countries as it sent out seismic waves felt from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and Arizona.

The 7.2-magnitude quake struck at 3:40 p.m. about 19 miles southeast of Mexicali, a bustling commerce center on the Mexican side of the border where trucks carrying goods cross into California. More than 900,000 people live in the greater Mexicali area.

It was the largest earthquake in the region in nearly 18 years and was followed by aftershocks or distant “triggered” earthquakes on both sides of the border, said U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Lucy Jones.

A multistory parking structure collapsed at the Mexicali city hall but no one was injured, said Baja California state Civil Protection Director Alfredo Escobedo.

Other early reports indicated only minor damage, but communication in the region more than 100 miles southeast of Los Angeles is often slow.

“I grabbed my children and said, ‘Let’s go outside, hurry, hurry!’” said Elizabeth Alvarez, 54, who said the quake hit as she was getting ready to leave her house with her children in an eastern Tijuana neighborhood, across the border from San Diego.

Hundreds of people fled Tijuana’s beach fearing a tsunami, said Capt. Juan Manuel Hernandez, chief of aquatic rescue at the Tijuana fire department. Tsunami experts quickly reported that no tsunami was expected along the West Coast, and Hernandez said the beach filled back up with people within an hour.

Tijuana Fire Chief Rafael Carillo said firefighters were rescuing people trapped in an elevator at the Ticuan Hotel in downtown Tijuana, but mostly were responding to reports of fallen cables and minor damage to buildings.

The Crowne Plaza hotel in Mexicali had minor damage — burst pipes and broken windows — but no on was hurt, said receptionist Juan Carlos Fernandez.

“There was a little bit of panic,” Fernandez said. “Wait, it’s trembling again.”

Guests fled their rooms at the Hotel Playa Club in San Felipe, on the Gulf of California, but there was no damage, said receptionist Araceli Marquez.

Seismologists said there have been many earthquakes in the region including many in the magnitude-3.0 range before Sunday’s big shock.

“The last time we had an earthquake this large in either Baja or California was in 1992 with the Landers Earthquake, which was 7.3,” Jones said.

The USGS reported three strong aftershocks within the hour, including a magnitude-5.1 jolt in the Imperial County desert east of San Diego. Magnitude-4.5 and magnitude-4.3 aftershocks were also reported. Another occurred off Malibu.

The 7.2-magnitude quake was felt as far north as Santa Barbara, USGS seismologist Susan Potter said. It was one of the strongest to hit California in recent history. Only one has been stronger — a 7.3 quake that hit Landers, Calif., and left three dead in 1992 — and there were at least two other 7.2-magnitude quakes in the last 20 years.

Seismologists also said a number of small quakes were triggered in a geothermal area in Northern California.

More than 5,000 Southern California Edison customers were affected, mostly with about 30 seconds of flickering lights. Several hundred had longer outages.

In Arizona, 3,369 customers in the Yuma area had a “relatively momentary outage” from the quake, Arizona Public Service Company spokesman Don Wool said.

Only about 70 people were still without service in the rural Gadsden and Summerton areas. But Wool said he expected electricity to be restored there in about two hours.

Clint Norred, a spokesman for the Yuma, Ariz., Police Department, said the quake was very strong there but he’d heard no reports of injuries or major damage.

In the Phoenix area, Jacqueline Land said her king-sized bed in her second-floor apartment felt like a boat gently swaying on the ocean.

“I thought to myself, ‘That can’t be an earthquake. I’m in Arizona,’” the Northern California native said.

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Associated Press Writers Mariana Jimenez in Tijuana, Mexico, Andrew Dalton and John Antczak in Los Angeles, John S. Marshall in San Francisco, and Matt Reed and Katie Oyan in Phoenix contributed to this report.

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