South Los Angeles anti-gang activist Clifford “Skipp” Townsend was behind bars Thursday in lieu of $2 million bail, but no details were released about the circumstances leading to his arrest.
Townsend, 62, was arrested around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday outside the office of the gang-intervention organization 2nd Call in the 5100 block of Obama Boulevard. Video posted on social media showed Townsend being led in handcuffs to a Los Angeles Police Department patrol car.
2nd Call maintains an office at Flintridge Center in Pasadena. The group applied for the city’s gang intervention contract earlier this year, but the contract ultimately went to longtime interventionist Ricky Pickens’ GOVIS group.
According to the LAPD, he was booked on suspicion of conspiracy.
Townsend was being held in lieu of $2 million bail, according to jail records.
No other details were released, and there was no immediate indication that any criminal charges have yet been filed against him.
The Los Angeles Times reported that four other people were also arrested in connection with the investigation, adding that the case involved conspiracy to commit murder — but the intended victim was unknown.
According to The Times, others arrested in the case were Lenita Sinna Dee Lewis, 28, and Shamond Bennett, 49. Two other people, Nichole Aaliyah Smith, 23, and Jeremiah Abdelhameed, 25, were arrested for allegedly being accessories after the fact.
His arrest comes three months after another co-founder of 2nd Call, 51-year-old Reginald Foreman, was fatally shot in the area of South Crenshaw Boulevard and West 59th Street in the Hyde Park area. It was unclear if any arrests were ever made in that Aug. 6 killing, and there was no indication that Townsend’s arrest was in any way connected to that case.
The group 2nd Call describes itself as a “community based organization designed to save lives, by reducing violence and assisting in the personal development of high-risk individuals, proven offenders, ex-felons, parolees and others who society disregards.”
Townsend was a documented gang member for nearly 30 years, but helped found 2nd Call in 2005 and has worked with various government organizations to combat gang violence, including the city’s Gang Reduction Youth Development program, the Southern California Cease Fire Committee and a Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office advisory council.
According to a biography posted online by the D.A.’s Office, Townsend has worked to train city intervention workers and law enforcement officers, and helps community organizations teach life skills to youth and to inmates at California prisons.
Another anti-gang activist and 2nd Call worker, 37-year-old Eric Washington, was fatally shot on the Fourth of July while trying to break up an altercation at an apartment complex in the 700 block of West Laurel Street. Rewards totaling $70,000 are being offered for information leading to his killer.
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