Authorities missed a chance to send an L.A.-area gang member to jail for months. Weeks later, he was charged with killing a Whittier cop

An East Los Angeles gang mem­ber vi­ol­ated the terms of his pro­ba­tion mul­tiple times in the months be­fore he was ac­cused of killing a Whit­ti­er po­lice of­ficer. Weeks be­fore the shoot­ing, a pro­ba­tion of­ficer re­com­men­ded he be jailed for three months and then sent to a court-ordered in­pa­tient drug treat­ment pro­gram, but au­thor­it­ies in­stead sent him to jail for only a month.