Frank Grillo condemns LA’s crime after his boxing trainer is killed

In response to the shooting death of his personal boxing trainer, Marvel star Frank Grillo criticised LA’s rising crime rate.

Fitness instructor Azuma Bennett, 30, was shot up to eight times on Friday at around 9.45 a.m. in Windsor Hills, LA, outside a licenced marijuana business on West Slauson Avenue.

Grillo, who portrays Crossbones in the Captain America and Avengers movies, claimed that after Bennett was killed, “he doesn’t know what has happened to Los Angeles.”

He encouraged everyone to train, according to Grillo, who spoke to NBC Los Angeles. I wonder what has happened to Los Angeles for a handsome man like this to be shot and killed for no reason.

Police discovered Bennett, a native of Sydney, Australia, slumped in a marijuana business doorway with gunshot wounds, and they pronounced him dead there and then.

According to ABC7, his murder occurred at a time when homicides in Los Angeles are at a 15-year high.

There were 181 killings in the city in the first six months of the year, which is a 34 percent rise from the typical number of homicides for the same period from 2015 to 2019.

Grillo and UFC fighter Jason Miller were two of Bennett’s famous clients at the Fortune Boxing Gym in Los Angeles.

Tamara Fortune, the owner of the gym, has established a GoFundMe page so that Bennett’s family can afford to fly his body back to Australia after his memorial service in Los Angeles. $35,000 has already been collected.

“Azuma was unique in every way.

Outstanding warrior, athlete, teacher, friend, and teammate, according to Fortune.

We lost one of the best ones out there, she continued. This was not fair to him. He was friendly to everyone he met and always kept the gym lively with his upbeat attitude and charismatic demeanour.

“Take it easy, Azuma, and keep hitting that guy.” We adore you, buddy.

Police stated they are actively investigating Mr. Bennett’s death as a homicide but did not provide any suspect information.

Anyone with information regarding the shooting is invited to phone Crime Stoppers or the Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau.

The number of homicides in Los Angeles has increased in recent months.

Progressive District Attorney George Gascon has been accused by detractors of promoting criminal justice reforms that they claim have encouraged lawlessness.

After nationwide policing protests erupted in the wake of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis in 2020, slack bail policies and support for the defund the cops movement were held responsible for the rise in violence.

On Monday, organisers determined that 200,000 signatures were bogus, thus Gascon was not called to account.

To hold an election, recall organisers needed to collect approximately 570,000 valid petition signatures. Out of the 710,000 submitted signatures, the county registrar’s office reported on Monday that just 520,000 were valid.

In Los Angeles, there have been reported 5,705 robberies from the beginning of 2022 until August 6. 4,753 robberies were reported over the same time frame last year.

In contrast, figures on homicide and shooting victims are nearly equal to those from the previous year. In compared to last year, there have been 18,852 violent crime cases since August 6, a 5.7 percent increase overall.

The murder of Brianna Kupfer in broad daylight on January 13 by a mentally ill guy who attacked her at random while she worked in an expensive furniture store was just one of many daytime incidents that rocked the city.

In a motel gunfight in June, a shooter who is now dead killed two Southern California police officers.

When he committed the murders, Justin William Flores, 35, was on probation for a previous gun charge. Flores received the illegal handgun term in 2021 as part of a lenient plea agreement made feasible by DA George Gascon’s liberal prosecution regulations.

After police were called to the Scenic Motel in El Monte, a tiny suburb of Los Angeles County, on the report of a stabbing, Flores shot and killed himself during the altercation with the authorities.

In 2017, Flores, who was already on parole, entered a guilty plea to a felony charge of felon in possession of a firearm, which, according to law enforcement sources, should have resulted in a minimum three-year prison sentence.

Gascon was one of a wave of woke prosecutors who took office in late 2020 and pledged to investigate alternatives to punishment; as a result, he was given the minimal minimum sentence of two years probation and 20 days in jail.

The incident has now caused outrage, and many people have criticised Gascon.