Ten days after seven stores were vandalized, three more were hit in Long Beach's East Village neighborhood this weekend.
In at least one incident, it took Long Beach police nearly four hours to respond.
“During the time of this call, there were multiple arson incidents in the North Division neighborhood, a shooting, and an assault in the Downtown Entertainment District,” Long Beach Public Information Officer Hannah Ortiz wrote. “Officers responded when they were able to, which was 3 hours and 51 minutes after the initial dispatch.”
“I didn't see the police here so I thought, 'Oh no!'” said Kimberly Latham, a store owner who ran into a friend's store after security was called. “I felt sick to my stomach and helpless.”
Latham arrived at the scene at 4.41am on Sunday after a security guard called police to report a break-in at Make Collectives. She had been keeping an eye on a shop next door to her own while the owner was out of the country.
“I packed up my things, jumped in the car, got here around 4:41 a.m. and found out I was ahead of the police, they hadn't even gotten here yet,” Latham said.
Fellow business owners helped her secure her store and clean up the mess.
This was the last of three stores to be vandalized and robbed over the weekend.
Surveillance camera footage showed a window in the door of Wabi Sabi Market, at 146 Linden Street, being smashed.. “Officers arrived on scene within two minutes of the robbery being reported,” Long Beach Police said in a statement.
Crews were working Monday to repair broken windows at the Culture Shrooms store, which was also robbed. Long Beach police said they had “no confirmed calls for service at 408 E 1st St. within the past week.”
Police have deployed a mobile surveillance camera stand near Linden and Broadway to help monitor the area.
Shop owners said they plan to meet with police officers on Thursday to ask them to step up their physical presence in the neighborhood to deter crime.
“We're just saying, 'Please stop the bleeding!' Our small business community is being hit from every level and it's literally dying,” Latham said. “We want a thriving business community and a vibrant neighborhood where people can walk around and do business in safety.”
We reached out to Long Beach City Council Member Mary Zendejas' office for comment but did not receive a response regarding the vandalism in her district.
