Homicide at Local Wal-Mart

Please excuse the text post; this post is too urgent to take the time out and film.

News like this doesn't normally pertain to this blog, especially not as depressing as it is. But in general Long Beach-related news for our local readers, I'd like to share what's going on in the city today. Unfortunately, there's been a homicide at the local Wal-Mart located at the Carson/Paramount intersection. (Over by CalBowl and Denny's if you aren't familiar with cross-streets)

Wal-Mart off Paramount and Carson

Reportedly, there was an incident between two customers in the sporting section around 4 p.m., where one allegedly beat another with a baseball bat to death. After seeing the commotion in the parking lot with cop cars, fire trucks, hundreds of shoppers and all on-the-clock Wal-Mart employees, one shopper informed me (WARNING, GRAPHIC DETAILS) that the victim's brains had been splattered all over the sporting section department.

At this moment it's not quite understood why this has happened, and witnesses and employees are still being questioned. The suspect has been taken into custody, and the only information available is that the suspect is a homeless* male, and the victim is male as well. Even in the Press Telegram's Report it states that this particular Wal-Mart has had a vivid history of violence. Other employees at the Wal-Mart located at the Long Beach Towne Center stated that this store had a robbery just yesterday. Good to know. I won't be going there anymore.

More details of the incident can be viewed at tonight's 8 o'clock broadcasting of Channel 9 news, whose helicopters were seen hovering over the scene shortly after the incident. And any further details that I can obtain will also be updated onto the blog in this post under edits.

Also, residents who may live close to this Wal-Mart, please be safe. There's been reported criminal acts in the area, even as far up as Studebaker, where cars and homes are being broken into. So the drama doesn't stop here.

You can also follow the story at the above-posted link to Long Beach's Press Telegram website.

*I only add "homeless" as a minor detail, for you politically correct people out there.


Edits
Edit 7:51 p.m.: A friend of mine was actually walking in as this happened, where the suspect himself ran past him as employees were chasing him. A customer who had witnessed the ordeal says that the incident was unprovoked. The suspect allegedly attacked the victim out of nowhere, and for no reason. Shame.

Edit 7:43 a.m.: After seeing the news clip last night, it's been discovered that the victim was 74 years old and the suspect was 47 years old. Security cameras show that the suspect just grabbed the bat and hit the victim in the back of the head out of nowhere. The victim had been unconscious, but the suspect kept hitting him until he was sure he was dead, where he then after put the bat down and proceeded to walk away as if nothing happened. It wasn't until witnesses alerted the employees that the man was chased down.

Back In the Day.

Caution.
This is a bit of a history lesson. If history causes you to rip the skin off your own face, don't attempt to read this post. You've been warned.

To be honest, I haven't had anything to write about lately. Not that my social life hasn't been on fire (which it has) but I haven't found the need to blog about parties & minor social gatherings. Plus they all end up the same way; me, drunk, talking to anyone who isn't too sober to listen, & my friends dancing to any audible beat they hear nearby. All of those party updates are usually on my Facebook wall, anyway, so there's no real need to blog about that. Am I right or am I right?

My blog's been collecting dust, and I've been anxious to find a good topic. So, sadly enough, I've decided to go from the super-interesting subject of Lamar Jay to the history of Long Beach and Lakewood (my neighboring hometowns).

*watches people hurry up and click out of the blog*

Lol, I'm actually the last person interested in history. But when it comes to a place that I've grown up at and still walk the streets of today, I'm very intrigued by it. One thing I've always imagined is that if a time machine were ever invented, I'd go back to the first day my city got started, just to see how much has changed. Thanks to the internet, I was able to do that in a sense. My life is fulfilled; I can die now.

But for anyone who's grown up in Long Beach or Lakewood, I think the discovery of what used to cover these streets eons ago would be a shock to them too, right? RIGHT?! I mean, can you imagine Native Americans walking the streets of Signal Hill? And who thought that Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo was actually the first person to discover Long Beach*? The only thing really remembered in his name is that high school that looks like a state penitentiary. He wasn't feeling Long Beach, though, because he wasn't able to grow his crops due to the inconsistency of the climate (look at my attempt to sound smart).**

*side note: It may say on some sites that the Spanish discovered Signal Hill, but it was occupied by the native american Indians before Juan Cabrillo and his crew crashed his little boat onto the coast. Don't believe the hype.

**another historic fact: You know Shell gas station? The name comes from Shell Oil Company, founded when oil was discovered in Signal Hill. Not to mention, that oil field was one of the most productive in the world.

Okay, enough nerdy talk.

"May Co" is now Macy's. The vents on the corners are still there.
Courtesy of Malls of America (blog)

The next time you take a stroll through the Lakewood Mall, try to imagine all of that area being used for a lima bean farm. And miles continued down south of nothing but... lima beans. I mean, not even corn, or something necessary like wheat or cotton. But lima beans.


Before the schools, busy streets, and executive buildings that now crowd Bixby Knolls, it used to be occupied by sheep galore. Sheep?! Wow. I guess you can already imagine that black people weren't seen for miles in the Bixby Knolls area. (That's actually fact)

The only school that would accept black students for a while was Polytechnic High School. Surprise, surprise. According to a family friend, Poly's been around for over 200 years, it's first teacher only being 16 years old. It was the first high school that even existed in this area.

Is that a lima bean in the corner?
Courtesy of Mall of America (blog)

I can't even try to think back to how this wasn't even a city at one point. Whenever do you see closed-off construction that says, "Do Not Enter, We're Building A City"? Never. Does Pan American sound familiar? It's the park that's between Mark Twain Elementary and Bancroft Middle school. Back in the day, there used to be the annual Pan American Fiesta, held in the parking lot of the Lakewood Shopping Center. I can't say which came first; the park or the fiesta. But either way, that explains the goofy name.

Another thing that I found interesting is that Denny's first found it's home in Lakewood. Denny's is a favorite of mine and my friends, & you can almost always find us there in the ho-stroll hours on the weekends. It's original name was Danny's Donuts. Go figure.

But yeah, that's just what I wanted to share since I couldn't find a decent topic to save my life. Hope I didn't bore anyone to tears!