Prosecutors have decided not to bring charges against a prominent South Los Angeles anti-gang operative, a defense attorney and three law enforcement sources told The Times on Friday, just days after he was arrested by Los Angeles police and the FBI on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder.
But while Clifford “Skipp” Townsend, 62, was immune from prosecution, his son faces murder charges, authorities said.
Townsend, the executive director of the violence prevention group Call 2, was taken into custody Wednesday by Los Angeles Police Department detectives and federal agents. Prosecutors decided not to file criminal charges against him until Friday afternoon, according to his attorney and three law enforcement sources. The sources requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.
On Friday afternoon, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office charged 19-year-old Kody Townsend with using an assault rifle to fatally shoot 2nd Call employee Reginald Foreman in August. The men were members of a rival faction of the Cripps Street gang, according to the District Attorney’s Office, which called the killing “gang-motivated.”
Townsend Jr. had not been arrested as of Friday afternoon but faces one count of murder, the district attorney’s office said in a news release.
Jeremiah Abdelhameed, 25, was charged as an accessory after Foreman’s death. Abelhamid was one of several people arrested Wednesday along with Skip Townsend.
On Wednesday, detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery-Homicide Division and federal agents raided 2nd Call’s offices at La Brea Boulevard and Obama Boulevard and seized several computers. Cell phone video circulating on social media showed Townsend Sr. being led into a black-and-white Los Angeles Police Department squad car.
“Obviously, we are pleased that no charges were filed in this case, but we remain perplexed by the LAPD’s decision to arrest him. Skip Townsend has been a leader in violence prevention for more than 20 years and is known for his work in Los Angeles and across the country,” his attorney, Tiffiny Blacknell, said in a text message. “While he is eager to return to his work in violence prevention, the motivations for his arrest remain unclear and continue to confuse us.”
Skip Townsend is expected to be released later Friday. Bracknell did not know who represented her client’s son.
A spokesman for the District Attorney’s Office declined to answer questions about the decision not to prosecute Skip Townsend. The Los Angeles Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The DA’s office can reject a case for a variety of reasons, including a lack of evidence or a condition that the case be revisited after a more in-depth police investigation. Bracknell said prosecutors did not explain why they declined to charge Townsend.
Skipp Townsend, a former gang member who has headed one of the city’s largest intervention programs for more than two decades, frequently speaks to the media and appears with city leaders. Founded in 2006, 2nd Call mediates gang disputes and provides alternatives to community violence.
News of his arrest quickly prompted shock and disbelief from his colleagues, as well as condemnation from those who believed Townsend was unfairly targeted by law enforcement because of the nature of his job.
Sean Garcia-Leys, executive director of the Peace and Justice Law Center, said the arrest and quick dismissal of the charges against Townsend Sr. could harm the LAPD’s ability to work with community members who legitimately influence gang violence. Garcia-Rice also worries it could scare people away from intervention efforts.
“People who have been systematically affected, arrested and trying to put all of these issues behind them, it can have a chilling effect on them becoming interventionists,” Garcia-Rice said. “There’s a personal motivation in intervention work to make up for the bad things you did and give back to society, but there’s also a desire to never get arrested or go to jail again.”
Four other people were arrested along with Skip Townsend on Wednesday: Lenita Sinna Dee Lewis, 28; Shamond “Lil AD” Bennett, 49; Nicole Arya Smith, 23; and Abdulhamid. Prosecutors did not bring charges against Lewis, Bennett or Smith.
Foreman, 51, was shot while working with Bennett and the Second Call Team to clear a section of Crenshaw Avenue in Hyde Park.
Foreman – known as “Big Ant” or simply “BA” – was weeding a vacant lot near Crenshaw Avenue and 60th Street. Witnesses said a young man wearing a medical mask walked up to Foreman and Bennett and began firing.
Foreman took off running, but the gunman caught up with him. Some witnesses said the gunman stood over Foreman and shot him in the chest at close range. Bennett is said to have escaped uninjured.
Some gang interventionists say Foreman’s killing may have stemmed from a conflict between two neighboring gangs that later became rivals: the 111 Neighborhood Crips, where Foreman claimed he grew up, and the alleged gang of Kody Townsend.
Skip Townsend was hailed as a rare peacemaker who earned the respect of generations of rival gang members, as well as the trust of top Los Angeles Police Department officials and members of the city’s Police Commission. A former member of Rollin’ 20s Bloods, his upbringing included time in prison.
In a Times profile of Skipp Townsend, Bennett, who was a member of Rollin’ in the ’60s, said: “He’s a red-blooded guy. He’s going into the Crip community. There’s no greater sacrifice.”
Some observers of Los Angeles gang culture believe the arrest fits a decades-long pattern of law enforcement harassment of interventionists with criminal records.
This year, the Los Angeles Police Department arrested Miguel Angel Alvarez near MacArthur Park and charged the former 18th Street gang member with being a felon in possession of body armor. Alvarez, 41, has been serving as a city-sponsored “peace ambassador” at Healing City Barrios. His defense attorney said in court records that the “body armor” he owned was a piece of metal that he planned to use for an art project. But prosecutors argued it was part of a bulletproof vest, even though police found no vest when they searched his car.
The case was dismissed in September on a legal technicality.
In an interview with hip-hop chronicler DJ Vlad published a year ago, Skipp Townsend spoke of his melancholy upon learning that his two young sons had joined the Crips. Townsend said that although the boys, who were 17 and 19 at the time of the interview, were already involved with 2nd Call and its violence prevention work, they were still passionate about life on the streets.
The father of 12 said it “hurt me the most.”