CHIPPIE’S Gun

An off-duty CHP officer was working as a substitute teacher at Centennial High School in the city of Compton one day. (Don’t ask me why!) The Chippie walks behind a school building and observes a large group of students, most of whom were Crips, involved in a crap game. He approached the large group by himself and attempted to break up the gambling game. The group attacked him and knocked him to the ground and beat and kicked him into semi-consciousness. To add insult to injury, someone stole the Chippie’s 2” .38 S&W revolver.

Compton P.D. contacted the Firestone Station Street Gang Unit and asked for assistance, since they knew we had photos, etc. for almost all of the Compton Crips gang members, as well as the fact that we had a number of informants in the area. We began to work around the clock on the incident, as we knew that the gun would probably be used in a crime, if we didn’t get it back real quick!

Compton P.D. even transported gang members to our office for interrogation. At one point, George Arthur and I had picked up three gang members who had been present at the crap game. The first one we began to talk to was very hostile and determined not to give anything away. I was trying to get him relaxed enough to have a conversation, so I began to ask him about school, just to get him talking.

I asked him what kind of grades was he receiving at Centennial H.S. and he replied, “A’s and B’s.” I’m thinking to myself, “Sure you are.” I then asked him, “What courses are you taking in school?” The subject literally pushed back in his chair and defiantly shouted, “I didn’t take nothing, they give them to me!” I fell flat on my desk, laughing so hard I was crying, and every time I started to talk to him I would start laughing again. The subject is looking at me like I’m crazy. I told Arthur to finish the interview and he began to laugh every time he started to ask the subject a question, too. We had to take a 20-minute break before we could finish the interview.

Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful in locating the stolen gun before it could be used in a crime. Two of the Crips, who had been involved in the attack on the CHP officer, were later apprehended, after they went up to Seaside, CA and used the Chippie’s gun to kill a clerk in a liquor store there. On the way back to LA, they threw the gun into the ocean.

John Stacy